With a dusting glitter here and a rainbow dye job there, hair and makeup help transport K-pop stars, along with their fans, to the ornate worlds their songs create.

Sometimes, visually representing their earworms is as literal as Hwasa pinning back her hair with clips bedecked with the name of her single or The Boyz covering their faces with flowers for "Bloom Bloom."

Other times, beauty is a more nuanced part of K-pop concepts. See: Sana's melted cotton candy hair in Twice's "Feel Special" music video and the smeared lipstick on Jeonghan of Seventeen.


Idols can also vacillate between groups and solo projects with the help of hair and makeup. Platinum blonde hair or dramatic smoky eyes can take someone like Baekhyun, for example, Privé's co-creative director to a member of EXO or SuperM.

As 2019 comes to a close, I rounded up 19 of the best K-pop beauty moments, including but not limited to Jungkook of BTS' viral, trend-spawning long hair and the pink-and-gold eye makeup that's all over YouTube thanks to Blackpink's Jenny.