In the years since the world sat up and took notice of the panty-dropping, gorgeous footballer with the unparalleled ball-bending skills, Beckham has established himself as the international sensei of style. While women fawned over him, men wanted to be like him so much that millions copied his

ever-changing hairstyles

. There was the faux-hawk of 2003, the ponytail of 2004, and, of course, the undercut of 2012.

But as valid as Mr Fauzi’s explanation and theories are, he is ultimately only a barber.

In other words, he can only give you the undercut. He can never truly be sure why you asked for it.

28-year-old Reagan is an insurance agent who’s had the hairstyle for a couple of years now.

He readily admits that he first adopted the hairstyle because it was the look that was “in” at the time. The distinct contrast in length between the sides and the top looked “super cool” to him, “edgy” enough to set him apart from his goody-two-shoes-looking peers. At the same time, the cut wasn’t considered too outlandish to be inappropriate for the corporate world.

Expectedly, all of Reagan’s friends remarked that he looked like a huge douche when they first saw him with an undercut. Instead of chipping away at his confidence, their comments bolstered it.

“It meant that the hairstyle was doing its ‘job’. I first got it because it looked cool, but the longer I had it, the more I realised it helped me to be less shy. I’m not exactly a very confident guy but the undercut conveys this sense of self-assuredness—which fuckboys and douchebags have in abundance.”

Similar to how we wear nice clothes (or, as Victoria’s Secret will have you believe, underwear) to boost our self-esteem and project an image of how we want to be treated, hairstyles do the same, except they’re a more visually-arresting signal. To Reagan, it’s about personal branding—not as a fuckboy but merely someone who exudes confidence.

In a moment of total honesty, Reagan tells me he’s actually the furthest thing from a douche. All he is, is a little insecure.

So in a way, sporting an undercut is sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy: by wearing it, people think you’re confident (even if you’re not); gradually, you start believing it too. Unfortunately, people don’t often realise this and tend to confuse confidence with being cocky.