How a hairstyle — and a barber — became synonymous with bad bunny concerts

Seeing Bad Bunny live isn’t just a concert – it’s a cultural experience for which its fans are ready to pull out all the stops when it comes to their wardrobe, hair and makeup. Many buy whole new outfits just for the occasion, have their makeup done and, in many cases, hire a very specific barber to give them a very specific hairstyle. That barber would be Nicole Morales.

If you search “bad bunny hairstyles” on TikTok, you won’t find videos of the singer’s own hairstyles – you’ll find Morales’ account instead. Videos of fans with similar hairstyles featuring glittery mermaid waves, pastel butterfly hair clips, and bubble braids — the style of hair styling responsible for her heavy social media presence and virality — can be seen throughout her account. The Puerto Rico native remembers when the artist first announced his tour; She had an influx of new clients who had seen her work online and were asking for appointments before he even announced the dates and locations. She knew immediately that she had to prepare, but she didn’t know how far this tour would take her.

“That concert changed my life,” Morales recalls Curls. During the pandemic, she started an at-home hairstyling business in Puerto Rico, slowly building a small client base and social media that way. But it was a hairstyle she did for a client going to Bad Bunny’s hottest tour on earth that catapulted her into virality and helped expand her client base across the United States. “I woke up to my TikTok going viral; it was my first video to go viral,” Morales recalls the days after Bad Bunny’s first stop in Puerto Rico on July 28, 2022. The video generated 771,000 views on TikTok, not even ranking as her most popular video to date of the app (her most popular video, recorded on September 26 during the tour’s Las Vegas stop, features several of her clients in their infamous bubble braids and mermaid waves and currently has 2.4 million views). . The TikTok featured a concert-goer’s hairstyle that included the aforementioned butterfly hair clips, tinsel, mermaid waves, bubble braids, and glitter hairspray.

After that, the hairstyle — now known as Morale’s signature — quickly became synonymous with Bad Bunny’s hottest tour on earth. Morales would soon find herself on her own international excursion while following Bad Bunny’s US tour. “Girls started DMing me on Instagram, asking me to come to their town to do their hair,” Morales recalls. Realizing this could become a real career opportunity for her daughter, Morales’ mother Heyde agreed to help her manage her schedule, and the duo began their journey from there. They made stops in Florida, New York, Nevada, Arizona, California and Texas, where concertgoers could have Morales do their hair and, of course, participate in her social media content.

Morales credits her success to the community of young people in Puerto Rico. “Dressing up and getting your hair done to a concert has become a ritual. In Puerto Rico we go all out, ‘hay que darlo todo’ (you have to give it your all),” explains Morales. In fact, she says, there’s at least one concert a month on the island, with the Mecca of all concert venues being El Choliseo in San Juan, the island’s capital. “El Choli,” as Puerto Ricans call the place where Bad Bunny made his first stop, has become a hotspot for reggaeton artists and Puerto Rico’s sizzling youth culture to come together.