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According to Rav Wikipedia, the upsherin is a custom that was brought from Muslims to Palestinian Jews to Tzfat Sephardim to Chasidim.
Recently, I've noticed mainstream (non-charedi) Orthodox Jews also holding upsherins. How and when did this come to be standard practice? How widespread is it?
I'll try to explain this (without any sources, sorry!) as best as I can as a practical matter in modern circles in the United States (and elsewhere).
First, many non-charedi Orthodox Jews in America maintain older customs.
Second, some "neo-Hasidic" (or "Modern-Hasidic") Orthodox Jews (I'm not using any accepted nomenclature, just calling it as I see it, but I'm referring to the growing trend of people taking influence from a blend of Hasidic customs and teachings) have also embraced the practice.
Still other have embraced the practice for the symbolism of 'Orlah (not taking fruit from a tree for three years), since both people and the Torah are compared to trees.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Poliakoff from Baltimore wrote a sefer about the practices in Lithuania and more importantly, in the yeshivas. In the sefer he says that prior to WWII no Ashkenazi Jew had ever heard of it. In fact, he cites the source as being a pagan one (and proves it from a mishna describing idol worshippers only cutting their hair on one of their holidays). It is unfortunate that many MO Jews have begun doing this, thinking that they are acting yeshivish when in fact the real and legitimate yeshivas of old would have shunned this custom.
