'Utah curls' trend makes $1.5K extensions look low-effort

Oct 18, 2024

The biggest takeaway from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” wasn’t the gripping scandals or reality television drama — apparently, it was their fake hair.

After the successful Hulu premiere last month, their a-little-too expertly balayaged and blown-out manes became known as “Utah curls,” named for the origin of the #MomTok troupe.

“We love our hair extensions out here,” Salt Lake City beauty pageant competitor and business owner LaRae Day, 28, told the Wall Street Journal.

She gets 22-inch hair extensions installed at the Pleasant Grove salon JZ Styles — co-owned by “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Jessi Ngatikaura — where the fellow #MomTok creators also receive hair services.

“There is nothing like having Rapunzel hair,” Day said.

The viral style has become so popular that it has spurred a wave of hair tourism in Utah.

Kait Moritz, a stylist at JZ Styles, said there’s been an influx in demand for hair extensions after seeing the reality stars’ hair in the show. She claimed her inboxes on social media are flooded with requests from fans.

“People all over the country now want to fly in,” Moritz, 25, told the Journal.

She styles her hair into “Utah curls” often, she added, telling the outlet that the “Mormon Wives” extensions cost approximately $1,500 per appointment just for the hair — not including cut and color.

“It’s fun to put on extensions and feel like a different version of yourself,” Moritz added.

But it’s spread beyond the Beehive State. In New York City, stylist Liz Christensen said clients regularly name the “Mormon Wives” stars as hair inspiration, while Lindsey Torres, the owner of the Texas salon Root & Sage, said that her clientele often references the Hulu series during appointments.

The trendiness of the mermaid-like locks has also elicited haircut regret. Siobhain Wiemann, a 41-year-old ultrasound student in Valencia, California, told the Journal she started to doubt her decision to chop her hair.

“I was like, ‘Am I silly for wanting to get extensions after I just cut my hair?’ Because look how put-together they all look,” she said, noting that while she has yet to get extensions, she did buy a JZ Styles curling iron in the meantime.

However, the style has drawn criticism from some for looking only half-done.

Kind of obsessed with the Utah curls 💁🏻‍♀️✨ #utahcurls

Love it or hate it but its my favorite way to style my hair! #utahcurls #hairtok #hairtutorial

“Born and raised in Utah and I had no idea this was a purposeful style,” wrote one critic in a Utah curls tutorial on TikTok. “When I would see it, I thought they just didn’t know how to curl their hair.”

“Why are we leaving ends straight? It’s giving damaged ends,” another jeered.

The curls, according to former Latter Day Saints Church member Alyssa Grenfell, 31, speak to larger values of external beauty in the Mormon community. The San Antonio resident, who has been vocal about her criticisms of the church, claimed that, in the religion, “one of a woman’s greatest value is her beauty,” and that long hair is one of the ways to be perceived as beautiful.

“The goal is to be beautiful, but to be beautiful in the same way,” Grenfell claimed to the Journal.

While the LDS Church has condemned some of the behaviors and portrayals of the religion on the Hulu show, Mormon content creator Ciera Hudson, 29, told the Journal that it has less to do with the religion and more to do with living in Utah, calling Utah women perfectionists.

“Everyone is competing with each other here,” she said. “Some people have naturally beautiful hair, and if you don’t, you get extensions.”