Norway, land of skinny jeans

I'm about to pack up my gear again and take the night train out of Stockholm to go to Abisko National Park, above the Arctic Circle for a couple of days of hiking, and I'm really looking forward to it. But, since I love sitting on the deck of the Red Boat Hostel in the sunshine, I decided to share another random thing I've noticed in Norway.

Oh, hi. Just checking in from the Stockholm office. What's up?

There are usually “tells” for every country that let you know who’s a tourist and who’s a local. For example, I’ve been to countries where only the tourists (like me) wore t-shirts, or where all the local men wore Members Only-style windbreakers all the time, even though it was 90 degrees out. Moving from Norway to Sweden has made me retroactively notice one of the tells for Norway, because while the Swedes do this too, they don’t do it to the same extent as the Norwegians. You can tell a local Norwegian because they are wearing super skinny jeans (non-blue, both sexes), super short shorts (women), converse shoes (both sexes), and deep-v t-shirts (both sexes). I’m sure this is partly due to H&M stores being placed every couple of blocks and 50% cheaper than any other stores, but it seems to be the casual uniform for the average Norwegian. Which, when viewed in combination with the rabid bike culture, could lead you to picture the whole country as some kind of hipster wildlife refuge, but it doesn’t feel that way when you’re there. I think in large part this is becasue of the hair; the men obviously spend too much time making sure theirs look perfectly coiffed in swooping waves to be confused with hipsters, and rarely have scruffy beards or waxed mustaches. Also, everyone is so clean and neat as to practically squeak when they walk. All of which makes me wonder, what do the Norwegian hipsters look like?

This, probably