Long, lavender and lethal: Rumi’s braid from ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ is summer’s boldest trend

Enter scene: The bathroom. A mom stands behind her daughter, staring at the mirror. A brush in hand, elastics up her wrist, she works tirelessly to create a braid that emulates the strength and power of a demon slayer.

She's only mortal, but she knows the pressure is on: She's trying to sculpt her little one's hair to look like the KPop Demon Hunters heroine whose long, voluminous lavender braid is the style of the summer. Mom does her best. Rumi's animated after all. That still hasn't stopped young girls from wanting to re-create her look in real life.

Since its June 20 release, the animated film — about a fictional K-pop girl group Huntr/x, made up of Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong) and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) — has become a record-breaking sensation for Netflix. It’s the most-watched animated movie in the streamer’s history and No. 2 on its all-time most popular list with 210.5 million views. The soundtrack has exploded too, dominating four of the top five spots on the Billboard Global 200, led by the anthem “Golden.”

The fiercely stylish and ultra-talented characters, who lead double lives as demon hunters, have sparked an online beauty phenomenon, where fans, cosplayers and hairstylists are re-creating the trio’s bold looks. The breakout favorite is Huntr/x frontwoman Rumi’s purple ’do — high-swept, thick, rope-like braid that’s dramatic enough to whip around in battle.

Google Trends data for July shows that “rumi hairstyle” spiked +1,360% following KPop Demon Hunters’ release, and it was the top trending “hair tutorial.” People also searched the term “dragon braid,” a style (also known as “pull-through braid”) that resembles the mythical creature’s scales, more than ever before in the same time period.

On TikTok, there are seemingly endless Rumi braid tutorials, showing kids and women of all ages (as well as the occasional male) copying her coif, most set to the soundtrack songs.

Animated characters have long influenced hair trends — think Elsa’s blond braid in Frozen, Cruella de Vil's black-and-white bob or Moana’s natural waves. But KPop Demon Hunters marks a shift: It isn’t from Disney, yet it’s reaching a broad mainstream audience, including parents and kids who may not typically follow K-pop or anime.

With its blend of female empowerment, demon-slaying fantasy, music that takes you “up, up, up” and cool characters viewers want to embody, the movie has become a pop culture powerhouse in its own right this summer.

Larger-than-life

“I mean, who doesn’t love a big, bold hairstyle like that?” Ryan Terhune, a content creator who goes by @GingerSnark, tells Yahoo. She re-created the look for a video with 9.9 million views on TikTok and another 9.3 million on YouTube. “Something so cartoony and larger-than-life was incredibly fun to bring off the screen and into reality.”

Terhune demonstrated the hairdo using both Dutch and dragon braid styles. For Dutch, which is closest to Rumi’s look in the back, you start by bumping up the hair in the front, then take three strands and cross the outer ones under the middle ones as you braid down, adding more sections of hair as you get to the end. It results in a braid that sits on top of the head.

The dragon method is fuller and involves multiple ponytails. You start with one small section in the top center, weaving two strands around and behind it, creating a second. Fluffing up the front as you go, Terhune splits the first ponytail, flips the second one through and then brings the halves back together. You add more sections of hair as you plait, similar to the Dutch style, fanning out the pieces of the braid for volume.

For wannabe demon slayers with extra-long tresses, Terhune recommends switching off the shoulder you’re braiding over so that the look falls straight down your back.

Terhune has had a few similar videos — like one inspired by Queen Charlotte from Bridgerton — go viral. However, “I was definitely pleasantly surprised by how much everyone seemed to like this one,” she says.

She says styling her strands to mimic Rumi’s took about 30 minutes to complete: 25 for the braid, and five more to accessorize it with gold jewelry. (The redhead opted not to color her entire head purple.)

Making hair tutorials based on the Huntr/x trio has netted her more than 20 million views across her social media channels.

Terhune also filmed how-to’s for Mira’s and Zoey’s hairstyles. The former is chest to waist locks with two high pigtails (in a raspberry pink onscreen), while the latter is twin braided buns with microbangs. Each style took five to 10 minutes for Terhune to pull together and brought in 111K and 204K views on TikTok to date, respectively. A third video, showing how to achieve all three looks, netted another 1.1 million views on TikTok.

Rumi hair makeovers have also been an especially popular activity for moms and children to do together, which is the case for California-based Dee Castle and her 5-year-old daughter.

“My daughter loves watching KPop Demon Hunters, so when we saw Rumi’s hairstyle, we just knew we had to try to re-create it,” she tells Yahoo.

Their attempt doing the dragon style took 40 minutes and “a lot of patience,” says Castle, whose TikTok has been watched 1.4 million times.

“The tricky part was getting the details right while still making it comfortable [for my daughter],” she says. “Once I got into it, it was just fun, and seeing her light up when she looked in the mirror made it worth every second.”

Castle views the experience as both a creative outlet and a bonding moment — just like watching the film together.

“[My daughter] was completely captivated, especially by the music and, of course, Rumi,” she says. “I loved how the film combined action with the energy of K-pop; it was entertaining for both of us. And honestly, seeing how inspired she was afterward made me appreciate it even more. It sparked her imagination, and that’s how the whole hairstyle re-creation came about.”

Other TikTokers have gotten creative beyond imitation. A woman made a Rumi wig out of yarn and another copied it with a balloon.

A character nearly a decade in the making

Seeing this unfold online has been a hair-whipping joy for KPop Demon Hunters codirectors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans. The film’s concept was born from the South Korean-born Kang’s desire to celebrate and explore her heritage — and that same influence was woven into Rumi’s striking visual design.

“We were inspired by Korean traditional hairstyles, which incorporate a lot of braiding of the hair,” codirector Maggie Kang tells Yahoo.

With Rumi, “We explored ways to modernize a braided hairstyle fit for a K-pop icon,” she continues. “A big braid worn at the top of her head felt stylish and striking — and as a nod to our anime influences, we made her hair lavender and her braid super long, as long as we could make it, so that it could whip around as she fights off demons.”

Kang points out that Rumi’s tresses are tied with a daenggi, a traditional Korean ribbon, another detail layered into her look. The overall style isn’t just about aesthetics; it also reflects her arc as a pop star grappling with identity.

“Rumi is a character with secrets who keeps things hidden and is closed off, so it felt right for her to wear her hair up and tight rather than loose and free,” Kang adds.

The pop slayer character has been nearly a decade in the making. Kang has said that nine years ago, she was created for story artist Radford Sechrist’s Plastic Walrus comic. They came up with her name and her signature hairstyle together, and Kang later molded the concept into the Huntr/x leader.

The name stuck with Kang so much that she used it for her own daughter: Rumi Oak, who voiced Young Rumi in the movie.

For Appelhans, seeing Rumi's influence spread beyond the screen feels surreal, especially as the team aimed to show a more grounded, less glamorous side of the girl group.

“The fact that Rumi's choo-choo train pajama pants have [also] entered the zeitgeist is pretty great [too],” Appelhans tells Yahoo. "It's cool to see our costumes and visuals be received as legit.”

Why Rumi’s hair hits different

While the filmmakers didn’t set out to launch fads, they view it as an unexpected bonus.

“Above all, we wanted Rumi's design to be iconic and larger-than-life,” Appelhans says. “Cosplayers do amazing work to re-create their favorite characters, so we just focused on making Rumi an incredible character with a bold look. We knew if the audience fell in love with her, they'd find a way to bring her look to life.”

He adds, “It's been awesome to see them do exactly that.”

Plans are being made to capitalize on the movie’s sleeper success — with rumors of sequels and stage shows — and it’s headed to theaters with a sing-along release set for Aug. 23 and Aug. 24. But the film’s impact is already spreading beyond Netflix’s playbook.

A lot of comments on these viral videos talk about how the Huntr/x trio is inspiring Halloween costume ideas, especially for groups of friends. These tutorials may be more relevant than ever come October.

Surprisingly, Spirit Halloween says Rumi’s high-swept power braid isn’t something they’re re-creating for sale this season.

“Not for this year,” a spokesperson tells Yahoo.