BTS star J-Hope is ready to serve. The K-pop superstar, 29, buzzed off his hair before reporting for his mandatory military duty in South Korea this week and shared an Instagram selfie showing his fresh cut on Monday, April 17. In the selfie, seen below, J-Hope seemed confident as he grinned for the camera while donning a black crewneck sweater. “I’ll be back in good health,” he wrote in his caption, which was translated from Korean to English by Google Translate. Instagram’s internal translator, however, quotes him as saying, “I’ll have a good trip!!” Regardless, J-Hope seemed to be in good spirits as he begins his 18-month duty.
The selfie came just 10 days after J-Hope, who was born Jung Ho-seok, shared another snapshot of a shorter ‘do. As seen below, J-Hope readied his head for a buzzcut by chopping off some of his length without completely getting rid of it. He wore another black crewneck sweater and smiled for a series of selfies. He simply captioned the pics with a scissors emoji.
J-Hope announced that he had enlisted in the South Korean military back in February after deferring his mandatory service for several years. All able-bodied men in Korea are required to serve a minimum of 18 months in the military by the time they are 28, unless they are approved to legally postpone their service. J-Hope and several BTS members were granted a postponement. “We would like to inform our fans that j-hope has initiated the military enlistment process by applying for the termination of his enlistment postponement,” BTS’ label, BIGHIT MUSIC, said in the announcement statement, per Reuters. “We ask for your continued love and support for j-hope until he completes his military service and safely returns,” they continued.
J-Hope is the second member of BTS to enlist in the military. The wildly popular boy band‘s eldest member, Jin, began his enlistment in Dec. 2022, which started with a five-week training session in which he learned how to shoot rifles, throw grenades, and more, per NBC News. Like J-Hope, Jin, 30, shared a selfie of his buzzed head before heading to training. He also rocked a black crewneck and joked, “I look cuter than thought,” in the caption. The pic was shared on the Korean fan community app, Weverse.
He updated fans with permission in January by sharing three photos of himself in uniform. “I’m having fun. I’m posting a photo with permission from the military,” he said, per CNN. “Army, always be happy and stay well.”
BTS is on a hiatus until 2025 as all of its members complete their military duties. The band announced the news on Twitter via BIGHIT MUSIC in Oct. 2022. “Since the creation of BTS over ten years ago, the band has risen to international success, broken records and catapulted K-Pop into the global stratosphere. BIGHIT MUSIC has focused to the milestone moment when it would be possible to respect the needs of the country and for these healthy young men to serve with their countrymen, and that’s now,” the statement read.