{"id":23141,"date":"2013-08-13T00:05:15","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T07:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=23141"},"modified":"2013-08-13T00:22:50","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T07:22:50","slug":"the-history-behind-the-names-of-various-hairstyles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/the-history-behind-the-names-of-various-hairstyles\/","title":{"rendered":"The History Behind the Names of Various Hairstyles"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is one of the first things we notice about someone upon being introduced:\u00a0 Hair.\u00a0 <\/strong>Even Donald Trump\u2019s combover, or whatever you call that thing on his head, has its own Facebook page, but only 51 Likes. Here\u2019s a look back over the years at the various ways we\u2019ve styled our locks and the origin of the names of those hairstyles.<\/p>\n

\"pompadour\"<\/a>Pompadour<\/b><\/p>\n

This hairstyle dates back to 1721, and has managed to make a comeback in modern days.\u00a0 Pompadours became all the rage thanks to Madame de Pompadour, a mistress of King Louis XV. She wore the hairstyle, inspiring a fad that became popular for a time- then not- then revived in the 1890s-1910s- then disappearing for a couple decades- and once again revived for high-society women in the 1940s. By the 1950s, men were wearing a version of the look that is all about elevation of the hair near the front of the head.\u00a0 After Elvis- who by the way had blond hair naturally<\/a>– wore the pompadour, its popularity exploded.\u00a0 Pink, the singer, has made it her trademark, followed by other celebs who have sported it at one time or another:\u00a0 Justin Bieber, Little Richard, David Beckham and Robin Thicke being among them.<\/p>\n

Pigtail<\/b><\/p>\n

Before referring to an adolescent-looking hairstyle, the term pigtail was used back in the 1600s to describe a twist of chewing tobacco.\u00a0 To prepare the tobacco, several leaves were twisted together into a tight bunch that was then cured.\u00a0 Many people referred to this bunch as a pigtail because it resembled the curly tail of a pig.\u00a0 By the late 1600s, the pigtail reference for hair was born as a way to describe the one (outside of America) or two sections of hair gathered and fastened on the head.\u00a0 Pigtails aren\u2019t just for young girls or Britney Spears\u2019 debut video.\u00a0 Modern styles can be seen on celebrities such as Heidi Klum and Madonna.\u00a0 In Massachusetts, a 15-year-old girl was bullied by a classmate for wearing pigtails to school but fought back by creating a Facebook page\u00a0titled \u2018Pigtails 4 Peace<\/em>\u2019.\u00a0 The victim pledged to wear pigtails for the entire week and asked classmates to join her in her support for anyone who has ever been teased.\u00a0 It worked.\u00a0 Hundreds of girls showed up the following day sporting the popular hairstyle.\u00a0 Score.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Mohawk<\/b><\/p>\n

This shaved-head style with a strip of hair left in the center has made its rounds over the years.\u00a0 Originating back with warriors of various Native American tribes, the term \u2018mohawk\u2019 takes its name from the people of the Mohawk nation, an indigenous people of North America who originally inhabited the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York.\u00a0 As painful as it sounds, they did not shave their heads early on, instead pulled hair from their heads, small tufts at a time.\u00a0 The mohawk eventually became the style sported by a squad of the US Army\u2019s 101st Airborne Division during World War II.\u00a0 The look became an adopted image for punk rockers in the 1970s and we still see it today.\u00a0 Singer Alicia Keys and Blink 182\u2019s Travis Barker have both worn this look.\u00a0 My 8-year-old wants a mohawk, and tries telling the lady cutting his hair that I approved it.\u00a0 Not so fast, clever one.\u00a0 He settled for the next style we will discuss:\u00a0 the Faux Hawk.<\/p>\n

\"faux-hawk\"<\/a>Faux Hawk<\/b><\/p>\n

This hairstyle is characterized by longer hair on top, styled towards the center, without the shaved sides of the Mohawk.\u00a0 For business, it can be combed down to look more conservative.\u00a0 Some say the faux hawk, meaning \u2018false mohawk,\u2019 was first spotted in Chicago, then New York. Soccer guru David Beckham was seen around the world wearing a faux hawk during the 2002 World Cup.\u00a0 The faux hawk is a genderless style, as men and women now wear this look.<\/p>\n

Mullet<\/b><\/p>\n

Believe it or not, Billy Ray Cyrus doesn\u2019t get credit for being the first to sport the Mullet, the most, ahem, interesting haircut in history.\u00a0 The first known mulletheads lived all the way back in the 6th century, first noted by the Byzantine scholar Procopius.\u00a0 Back then it wasn’t called a mullet, but rather a “Hunnic”.\u00a0 The Mullet style was later worn by such stars as David Bowe and Paul McCartney in the 1970s.\u00a0 The 1980s saw a huge surge in popularity of this hairstyle, with many a head banger sporting “the business in the front, party in the back” look.\u00a0\u00a0 By the 1990s, hairbands became alternative grunge and the mullet was largely deserted…\u00a0 by most, that is.\u00a0 Those who still clung to the look were dubbed \u2018mulletheads\u2019 in the early 1990s, with the term thought to have been coined from the 1857 meaning of “mullethead”- dull\/stupid person.<\/p>\n

The popularity of the moniker “mullet head” is thanks to the Beastie Boys, who included it in the 1994 song “Mullet Head”. Today, the style is also sometimes known as “The Tennessee TopHat”, “The Kentucky Waterfall” and “The Camaro CrashHelmet”.<\/p>\n

\"the-rachel\"<\/a>The Rachel<\/b><\/p>\n

Jennifer Aniston very reluctantly became the poster girl for this layered haircut that is teased on top after showing up on the set of \u2018Friends<\/em>\u2019 with the style. \u00a0Women everywhere began requesting \u2018The Rachel\u2019 at salons and before America knew it, females were beginning to look much like Rachel, minus the awesome yoga body.\u00a0 Aniston herself says The Rachel<\/em> eventually took on a life of its own, and has favored longer locks ever since the Rachel hysteria.<\/p>\n

Combover<\/b><\/p>\n

This style is probably the least-flattering of them all, even perhaps beating out the mullet in this department.\u00a0\u00a0 Think Homer Simpson, if you will.\u00a0 Of course, no one is fooling anyone. \u00a0Those measly 6 strands of hair on one side combed over the top aren\u2019t camouflaging baldness, yet SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE is wearing it anyway.<\/p>\n

Combovers have appealed to hairless folks for centuries, with one of the earlier references to someone wearing such a hair style being none other than the Emperor Constantine.\u00a0 Today, newsman Sam Donaldson and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani have both worn the combover; writer Joe Donatelli shared his personal combover story in a this blog post<\/a> titled \u2018Inside the Mind of a Man with a Combover.<\/i>\u2019\u00a0 Gotta love a guy with great side hair.<\/p>\n

Funny enough, Donald J. Smith and his father Frank J. Smith in 2004 even managed to patent a version of the combover, where the baldness is maximally covered up by combing the remaining hair in three different directions.\u00a0 For this amazing “invention”, they were not only awarded a patent (4,022,227), but also an Ig Nobel Prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Afro<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the early versions of this hair style wasn’t African nor African-American based, but rather popularly worn in the 1860s by certain sideshow women who were supposedly from Circassian ancestry, known as “Circassan beauties” (also called “Moss-Haired Girls” for the way they wore their hair).<\/p>\n

African-American women began popularly wearing the Afro, or “Natural”, around the 1950s.\u00a0 Before this time, these women often had a straightener or relaxer applied to their hair using a lye-based product.\u00a0 This involved several trips to the beautician over a two-week period. The afro, more full look, being cheap and easier to maintain at home, quickly gained in popularity, particularly when it became something of a symbol of the “Black is Beautiful” and “Black Pride” movements.<\/p>\n

\"pixie\"<\/a>Pixie<\/b><\/p>\n

Actress Jean Seberg is often credited for putting this short boyish cut on the map, chopping it off in 1957 for her first film role in the movie Joan of Arc<\/em>.\u00a0 Others give the credit to Audrey Hepburn for her hairstyle in the 1953 film Roman Holiday<\/em>, though her version of it isn’t quite typically what most think of as a Pixie today. The name pixie is said to be taken from fairies, commonly portrayed with a similar short cut that is short in the back and the sides and a titch longer on top.\u00a0 Not very versatile, the Pixie is easy to maintain- wash, feather, and go.\u00a0 Anne Hatheway, Demi Moore, and Alyssa Milano, have all worn the Pixie.<\/p>\n

\"duck-tail\"<\/a>Ducktail<\/strong><\/p>\n

Popular in the 1950s, this look requires one to comb the hair back to the middle of the head, then make a center part up the back using the end of a comb.\u00a0 The ducktail was also known as \u2018duck butt\u2019 due to its appearance in the back. John Travolta wore this style in the movie \u2018Grease.\u2019\u00a0 Though Hollywood adopted the ducktail to represent the wild and youthful staple appearance of the 1950s, only an extremely small portion of men actually wore this look in that era and beyond.\u00a0 It is also a style that, for the most part, has not made a full-circle comeback in popularity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bob<\/b><\/p>\n

\"bob\"<\/a>Quite possibly the best-known short haircut, the Bob made its modern debut in the 1920s.\u00a0 At a time when long hair signified femininity, ballroom dancer Irene Castle \u2018bobbed\u2019 off her hair for convenience, and a style known as the \u2018Castle\u2019 bob was born.\u00a0 Many women wanted to follow suit, but hairdressers in the beauty salons often refused to comply with the controversial request of chopping hair off at the ears.\u00a0 Women found barber shop owners slightly more amenable to the idea, and so typically went their for the bob.<\/p>\n

The bob hairstyle during these flapper years took off, and has also been flaunted in recent years by women such as actresses Katie Holmes and Gwyneth Paltrow as well as singer Kelly Clarkson.\u00a0 As for the name, this derives from the late 17th century definition of “bob” meaning “short hair”.<\/p>\nExpand for References<\/span>

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