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For the terminology used in finance, see haircut (finance). See also eponymous hairstyles.

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For humans, haircut, hairstyle, or hairdo normally describe cutting or styling head hair. Unlike other animals, human beings of many cultures cut their hair, rather than letting it grow naturally. Hair styles are often used to signal cultural, social, and ethnic identity and can be used to illustrate social status or individuality. Men and women naturally have the same hair, with the primary component of hair fiber being keratin. Keratins are proteins, long chains (polymers) of amino acids. Generally, hairstyles conform to cultural influences of gender. Fashion trends may have a great influence depending on the person.

There is a thriving world market in cut human hair of sufficient length for wig manufacture and for the production of training materials for student hairdressers and barbers. In less developed countries, selling one's hair can be a significant source of income — depending on length, thickness, condition, and color, wig makers have been known to pay as much as US$40 for a head of hair. In the United States, cut hair of at least 10 inches (25 cm) length may be donated to a charity, such as Locks of Love.

History

• In the 17th century, Manchu invaders issued the Queue Order, requiring Chinese, who traditionally did not cut their hair, to shave their heads like Manchus. The Chinese resisted. Tens of thousands of people were killed due to their hairstyle.
• In the 1920s, the evangelist Billy Sunday popularized the phrase "long-haired men and short-haired women", a term he meant to encompass his disapproval of radicals, liberated women, homosexuals, and Greenwich Village artists.
• The Holy Bible says (New Testament , letters of Paul, 1 Corinthian 11. 14-16 "does not nature teach you that it is a shame for a man , but an honour for a woman to wear long hair").
• Until the Beatles came along, classical music was called longhaired music, because a longer style was popular among male orchestral artists and conductors.
• Pianist Professor Longhair was bald, and had earlier been billed as Roy "Bald Head" Byrd; one of his hits was "She ain't got no hair".
• In 2006, Virginia Senator George Allen became involved in a political controversy that turned, in part, on the difference between a mullet and a Mohawk.

Notable hairstyles

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• Afro: a hairstyle popular with people of African and Melanesian descent, it is often considered symbolic of Black racial pride; however the hairstyle can also be worn by non-Blacks who have tightly curled hair
• A-Line: a hairstyle similar to the Bob in which the hair is cut as short as the lip to as long as the shoulders on the sides and the back is shaved or clipped very short in the back
• Bangs
• Bantu/Zulu knots: hairstyle of African origin consisting of many small buns. Can also be used in an updo in place of curling and arranging hair
• Beatle haircut or 'Moptop': a hairstyle influenced after the fashion of the same ones the members of The Beatles had. It was relatively new to Americans at the time, but not an uncommon British haircut. During the height of "Beatlemania," "Beatle wigs" were sold.
• The Beehive: a large "big hair" style popular in the 1960s involving massive amounts of styling product and backcombing, also known as french lacing.
• Big hair: various styles denoting a lot of volume.
• Bouffant: another "big hair" style.
• Bun
• Blowout/Taper: hair with anywhere from 5 millimetres to 50 millimetres (a quarter inch to 2 inches) of the fringe "taped" up with hair gel. Often worn by Italian guidos, but is also popular among other teenage boys and young men. A blowout also refers to a blowdry style using a round brush.
• Buzz cut: short all over.
• Bob: a short cut for women, first popular in the 1920s, considered a sign of a liberated woman.
• Bowl cut or "Moe" after the Three Stooges character.
• Caesar cut: a short men's cut with longer fringe, also called a Clooney cut; widely popular among men from the early 1990s to the present.
• Chelsea girl: shaving the crown and occiput of the head, and leaving the front, back and often the sides as fringes.
• Chonmage: a samurai's topknot; the hair on the top of the head was usually shaved, and the rest of the hair gathered together and tied in a topknot; a modified version is still worn by some sumo wrestlers.
• Comb over: combing hair over a bald spot.
• Cornrows: raised, continuous braids, woven closely to the scalp; originating in indigenous Africa, they remain a popular African American hairstyle.
• Crew cut: similar to a buzz cut, originally worn by college rowers in the 1900s to distinguish themselves from football players, who had long hair (to supplement the inadequate helmets of the time).
• Crop: a very short woman's cut.
• Croydon facelift: the hair is pulled back tight and tied into a high bun or ponytail at the back. In the United Kingdom, it is often associated as the stereotypical hairstyle of female chavs.
• Devilock: short in back and on sides, long in front. Popularized by Misfits bassist Jerry Only.
• Dido flip
• Dreadlocks: where hair is divided into many long, matted plaits; well known as a Rastafarian hairstyle. However, fake and real dreadlocks are also popular among other groups, such as the rave, goth and cyber subcultures, usually in many bright, unusual colors.
• Duck's Ass: combed long on sides, parted in back, also called ducktail or southback; the parting in the back caused the hair to stick up, hence the name. Also when shorter hair is combed to meet in the center of the nape, especially when someone has a natural tail in their hairline.
• Emo hair: Typically longer, razor cut style with long fringe in their eyes.
• Fade: short buzz cut on the side faded into a longer buzzcut on the top. Can also be a finger-length or longer scissor/razor/clipper over comb cut on top.
• Fauxhawk: a fake Mohawk: short on the sides and back, medium length on top pushed up in a Mohawk direction, a portmanteau of the French 'faux' (false) and 'Mohawk'.
• Feathered: the defining features of this style were the Side Parting and the length which varied from just showing the ears to almost shoulder length, this style rose dramatically in popularity during the 1970s but died down in the mid 1980s; it is slowly gaining back popularity; Tim Brooke-Taylor used to have this hairstyle. However, it is also a woman's hairstyle, arguably the most famous wearer being Farrah Fawcett during the 1970s.
• Finger wave: popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Executed with large amounts of gel or product and forming waves and ridges with a comb.
• Flattop: similar to a crew cut, but with the hair on top standing up and cut flat.
• Flip: a medium cut where the ends are flipped up.
• Fofa: short to medium length on the sides and back, with a receding hairline from the forehead back due to a natural baldness; usually found on distinguished gentlemen and derived from the style of the monks.
• French braid: Unlike a regular three-strand braid, a French braid starts with small sections of hair at the crown of a person's head, and intermittently, more hair is added to each section as the braid progresses down the head.
• French twist: A classic "updo" in which long hair is gathered into a ponytail, then twisted together, and finally tucked and pinned together along the length of the roll.
• High and tight: cut/buzzed very short (or even shaved) on sides and back up to the crown where the hair is left longer, can be a variation of crew cut or flattop.
• Hime cut: a women's hairstyle consisting of straight cut side fringe and frontal fringe
• Hi-top fade: popular style worn by Puerto Rican and African American males in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Popular endorsers included Kid 'n Play and Grace Jones.
• Horseshoe Flattop: sides are shaved and back is shaved to the top of the head, making the remaining hair looks from above like the top is cut like a horseshoe.
• Induction cut: the very shortest of hairstyles, without actually shaving the head with a razor.
• Jheri curl: a perm that loosens the curls of a person with coarse hair; known more for the oily residue of the chemicals used ("Jheri Curl Juice") than the actual style. Technically known as a soft curl permanent.
• Japanese hair straightening: a process that takes usually wavy or curly hair and breaks the cystine bonds by way of chemicals, then a hot iron reorganizes the structure of the hair leaving it soft, super-straight and healthy looking. More commonly, many people straighten their hair themselves in a simpler, more temporary way, through the use of a hair straightener.
• Khokhol: also spelled 'chochol' and 'chachol', a Slavic name for a longer tuft of hair left on top or on the front side of the otherwise cleanly shaven or shortly cut man's hair.
• Layered hair: Mostly worn by women, where the top layers of hair are cut shorter than the layers beneath. Also, the hair is usually straightened to give best effects.
• Liberty spikes: the hair is arranged into long, thick, upright spikes.
• Low and tight: cut/buzzed very short (or even shaved) on sides and back up to a line above the ears but below the crown, hair is left longer above this line.
• Messed up hair or 'Bedhead': A usually shaggy, midlength hairstyle which is supposed to slightly resemble what the wearer's hair looks like when they first wake up, hence its name. Usually worn on men, however, some women may have this hairstyle.
• Mohawk or 'Mohican': long hair divided into sections which are then braided and worn down, both sides are shaved or buzzed, long and usually spiked in the middle.
• Mullet: this haircut is popular with young men and became popular in the mid-1980s, the haircut is short in the front and long at the back of the head.
• Odango: a women's hairstyle consisting of two long pigtails emanating from two perfect "spheres" of hair on the top of the head; Made famous by Sailor Moon.
• Ofuku: worn by apprentice geisha in their final two years of apprenticeship; similar to the wareshinobu style; also called a momoware ("split peach") because the bun is split and a red fabric woven in the center.
• Pageboy: a Womans hairstyle in which the hair is turned under and generally from below the ear to above the shoulder save for a fringe in the front.
• Long Pageboy: Same as the Pageboy hairstyle but the hair is longer.
• Perm: or "permanent wave," is a chemical-induced curling of naturally straight hair; originally created electrically with an apparatus resembling an electric chair; among African-Americans, a perm is the straight or large-curled look created by chemical relaxers.
• Pigtails: long hair is parted in the middle and tied on the sides, often curled into ringlets.
• Pixie: a very short hair cut for women that almost resemble school boy looks.
• Pompadour: big wave in the front, named for Madame de Pompadour aristocratic fashion leader of pre-Revolutionary France, mistress of Louis XV of France; Elvis Presley had one.
• Ponytail: a hairstyle where most of the wearer's hair is pulled away from the face and gathered at the back.
• Poof: Typically a female hairstlye where the long bangs are pulled straight backwards over the head creating a "poof" in the front. The remaining sides are combed straight down.
• Quiff: Any hairstyle where part of the hair is put up high on the top of the head.
• Recon: a radical version of the High and Tight, with the sides and back cleanly shaved very high up the head, intentionally leaving a very extreme contrast between the longer top hair and the shaved sides.
• Rattail: A male hairstyle where the hair is cut short all over except for a long strip of hair growing in the back, typically at about 5 millimetres to 25 millimetres (½ inch to an inch) wide and can be as long as all the way down the back. Mostly found on preteen boys, but some men wear them too. Rattail haircuts are occasionally found on women, also.
• Ringlet
• Ronaldo cut: shaved head except for the front third which is buzzed.
• Short back and sides: A short haircut, as the name suggests.
• Sidefringe: A haircut with fringe long enough to cover the eyes, but brushed to one side so only one eye is visible.
• Shape-Up: This is where the barber cuts around the hairline making it visible. Also called lining.
• Sidebang: A hairstyle that consists of long hair brushed forward over one eye, similar to a fringe/bangs but worn on one side only.
• Side Spike: The hair is usually cut in a relatively short and conservative manner. However, it is parted on the side, with a row of small spikes running the length of the part.
• Slicked Back: All of the hair is combed back.
• Sophisticated Chignon: Divide pony tail in half then smooth first half with natural bristle brush and twist it around itself to create a low loop. Pin into place. Repeat with the second half.
• Squirrel cut: Shave all of the hair except for the bangs.
• Tape-Up: Same as shape-up but part of the sides are lightened, in a skin tape-up the part of the sides are cut off.
• Taper fade
• Tousled Flip: Twist each section up and around itself into a pin curl and clip into place. Let sit 15 minutes. Unpin sections and use fingers to pull down curls and arrange around your face.
• Tonsure: This haircut is most identifiable with European monks; having a rim of hair about the head with the top shaved off.
• Undercut: A variety of hairstyles in which the sides and/or back of the head are trimmed or shaved closely while the hair on top of the head is left longer.
• Updo: This haircut is where the hair is put up on the top or back of the head and is commonly used for formal events such as weddings and proms
• Shag: a new hairstyle similar to the Beatles cut but with the side and back fringe flipped up, occasionally by the use of a hat, usually worn with medium-long haircuts.

Hair product

Cosmetic products used in creating and maintaining hairstyles include:

• Brylcreem
• Hair coloring
• Hair gel
• Hair wax
• Hair mousse
• Hair spray
• Hair glue

Hair lengths

Example of commonly used hair length terms, for example in long hair discussion groups, are:

• Buzz cut
• Crew cut
• Cropped
• Boy's cut (or short back and sides)
• Mid length covering some of the ears
• Chin length
• Shoulder length
• Upper back length
• Mid back length (or Bra strap length)
• Waist length
• Tailbone length (or butt-length)
• Thigh length (or Mid-thigh length)
• Knee-length
• Calf length
• Floor length
• Beyond floor length
• Out of this World length

Further reading

• Liu, Christine, "Le Gala Hair Group: Introducing the digital perm", Boston's Weekly Dig, Wednesday, January 31, 2007, Issue 9.5.

External links

• History of Hairdressing
• Hair images from the world's top hairdressers and hair stylists
• Hairstyles of modern female celebrities

• Articles needing cleanup from February 2007
• Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from February 2007
• Misplaced Pages pages needing cleanup from February 2007
• Articles lacking sources from December 2006
• Hairdressing
• Hairstyles