An eponymous hairstyle is a particular hairstyle that has become fashionable during a certain period of time through its association with a prominent individual.
An eponymous hairstyle is a particular hairstyle that has become fashionable during a certain period of time through its association with a prominent individual.
In the early 20th century, the " Louise Brooks bob" (Paramount studios' description c. 1927 of the defining "bob cut" of the "flapper" era) was iconic to the extent of being reproduced by Cyd Charisse in the film Singin' in the Rain (1952), by Melanie Griffith in Something Wild (1986), and by Rose McGowan in The Doom Generation (1995). Although photographs show that Brooks had in fact worn what became known as a bob from childhood, the actress Colleen Moore c. 1923 was probably the first to be widely associated with it. However, there was never such a thing as a "Colleen" and it was Brooks, with her unmistakable sense of "It", that turned the "Louise" into an eponymous classic. [1] Eighty years later, the term was still part of fashion's lexicon: "With her trademark Louise Brooks bob ... Jean Muir built a career as one of Britain's greatest designers." [2]
The "Audrey Hepburn look”, associated since the 1950s with the Anglo-Belgian film actress, owed itself principally to the intrinsic chic of Hepburn herself (a factor identified by Edith Head [3] ) and the designs of French couturier Hubert de Givenchy. However, although never strictly eponymous, Hepburn's hairstyles - especially those in the films Sabrina (1954) (short with a fringe, or "bangs", across the forehead) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) (pulled back and gently piled up around the crown) have been widely copied. The social historian Dominic Sandbrook wrote of "black-jersied gamines with Audrey Hepburn hairdos" presiding over British coffee bars in the mid-1950s. [4]
Marilyn Monroe's signature platinum blonde look, worn throughout the height of her career, was called The Marilyn. [5] In the 1960s, the pixie cut worn by the British model Lesley Lawson was called The Twiggy after her nickname. [6]
Other short "gamine" cuts to have attracted imitators included Jane Fonda's as the call-girl Bree Daniels in the film Klute (1971), and that adopted in 2005 by the actress Keira Knightley, [7] a longer, slightly shaggier version of Hepburn's cut. Fonda's style, which was also captured in photographs following her arrest for allegedly assaulting a police officer at Cleveland airport in 1970, was sometimes - even 30 years later - referred to as the "Klute shag".
A famous example of this phenomenon was Farrah Fawcett's hairstyle, [8] as seen in the American television series Charlie's Angels in the 1970s. Another around that time was the short " Purdey " cut adopted by British actress Joanna Lumley for her role of that name in the television series The New Avengers , and the short Dorothy Hamill Wedge hairstyle.
Other period examples such as " Bo Derek " (braided hair with beads, as she wore in the film 10 (1979)); and the " Rachel " (after the straightened shag popularized in the mid-1990s by Rachel Green, the character played by Jennifer Aniston in the TV sitcom Friends ); [8] .
Imitation of such styles can sometimes be attributed to what became known in the 1980s as the "wannabe" effect, a term used particularly with reference to young women who wished to emulate (i.e. "wanna be" like) the American singer Madonna. A 2010 study of British women found that half took a copy of a celebrity's photograph to their salons to obtain a similar hairstyle. [9]
The quest for a particular eponymous style was caricatured in Plum Sykes' novel Bergdorf Blondes (2004), in which it was rumored that glamorous New York heiress Julie Bergdorf had her blonde hair touched up every 13 days ("$450 a highlight") by a stylist at her family's store, Bergdorf Goodman. Thus, other "Thirteen Day Blondes" who attained Julie's precise colour—likened to that of the "very white" hair of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy —became known as "Bergdorf Blondes".
Recent examples of eponymous hairstyles include the Pob (Posh + Bob) named after Victoria "Posh" Beckham (called in 2007 the most wanted hair since the "Rachel"); and the " Dido flip ", a "choppy shag" associated with the singer Dido in the early years of the 21st century.
In 2006, The Times noted the transformation over several years in the hairstyle of Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Prime Minister of Ukraine. Illustrated instructions for replicating Tymoshenko's distinctive blonde braided crown were headed "How to do the Yuliya". [10]
In 2009, the most requested hairstyle for women was the "Textured and Tousled, or Curled and Swirled" long, blonde " Gossip Girl Look" done by actress Blake Lively. [8]
In Europe, the Roman legions popularized short hair for free citizens, especially the close-cropped Caesar cut associated to this day with statues of Tiberius Julius Caesar.
The 9th-century Islamic trend-setter Ziryab is said to have popularized a shorter male hairstyle in Cordoba, with bangs down to the eyebrows and straight across the forehead, and leaving the neck and ears uncovered. [11]
Before and during the English Civil War, the Van Dyke beard was worn by many cavaliers in imitation of Charles I of England. The Dutch artist Anthony van Dyck sported the same beard, as did the subjects of some of his paintings. The name for the beard style came much later.
In the transition from wigs to natural hair, the cut "à la Titus" was important. This was a layered cut usually with some tresses hanging down, named after the Roman Titus Junius Brutus, a character in Voltaire's play Brutus , when the actor François-Joseph Talma shocked audiences by performing (in fact initially another character) with short hair and wearing a toga. The style was adopted by both men and adventurous women like Lady Caroline Lamb, the Journal de Paris reporting in 1802 that "more than half of elegant women were wearing their hair or wig à la Titus". [12]
An early example of an eponymous hairstyle was associated with the 5th Duke of Bedford. In 1795, when the British government levied a tax on hair powder, as a form of protest Bedford abandoned the powdered and tied hairstyle commonly worn by men of that era in favor of a cropped, unpowdered style, making a bet with friends to do likewise. [13] The new style became known as the Bedford Level, a pun on a geographical feature of The Fens also known as the "Bedford Level" and also making reference to Bedford's radical ("leveller") political views. [14] It was also known as the Bedford Crop. [15] Although natural, the Bedford crop was usually styled with wax to form a side parting.
During the mid 19th century, facial hair became fashionable among soldiers and civilians. [16] Examples included the large muttonchop sideburns popularised by Ambrose Burnside, and variants of the full beard named after Verdi and Garibaldi. [17] The Beard imperial or Napoleon, which combined a handlebar moustache with a soul patch, was named after Emperor Napoleon III of France, and the chinstrap beard was informally known as the Abraham Lincoln. [18]
The Fu Manchu moustache , first worn by Mandarins in Imperial China, gained its name from the fictional supervillain Fu Manchu, a personification of the turn of the century yellow peril stereotype.
Since 1945, the toothbrush moustache has been nicknamed the Chaplin and The Hitler . [19]
During the 1950s, pompadour hairstyles were popularized by rock and roll singer Elvis Presley, mostly among the youth and the greaser subculture.
The cover band The Crewcuts were the first to connect hair with pop music, but they were named after the hairstyle, rather than the reverse. Although eponymous styles are mostly associated with women, the "mop-top" Beatle cut of the 1960s (after the rock group of that name) was one famous and widely copied example of such a style for men.
In the early 1970s the singer David Bowie popularized the so-called "Ziggy cut", an orange-red form of "mullet" associated with the rather androgynous image that he promoted through his albums The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) and Aladdin Sane (1973). To the extent that Bowie during this period appeared to assume the persona of "Ziggy Stardust", the Ziggy cut can be regarded, at least partially, as an eponymous style.
The shaved head, which had become a rarity by the mid 70s, was widely known as the Kojak or Yul Brynner style.
In the late 1990s, with the success of "ER", George Clooney popularized the Caesar-style haircut worn by his character, Dr. Doug Ross. The style worked equally well for both young and older men alike, and Clooney's distinguished salt and pepper color became very popular.
In more recent times the hair of footballers Kevin Keegan, who acquired a curly "bubble perm" while playing for Southampton in the early 1980s, and David Beckham gave rise to much copying, but a "Beckham" was whatever style ("buzz-cut", cornrows, Fauxhawk, even an Alice band) he happened to wear at a given time. [20]
A more specific eponymous example was the so-called "Sawyer" of James "Sawyer" Ford, the character played by Josh Holloway in the ABC-TV series Lost (2004–2010), or the shaggy " Justin Bieber haircut " debuted by the pop singer in 2009. Some salons charged up to $150 for the forward-combed look. When Bieber changed his hairstyle in 2011, it received considerable press. He gave the cut hair to talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, who auctioned Bieber's hair on eBay, earning more than $40,000 for an animal charity. [21]
bedford crop.
A hairstyle, hairdo, haircut or coiffure refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human head but sometimes on the face or body. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although practical, cultural, and popular considerations also influence some hairstyles.
The mullet is a hairstyle in which the hair is cut shorter at the front, top and sides, but is longer at the back.
A bob cut, also known as a bob, is a short to medium length haircut, in which the hair is typically cut straight around the head at approximately jaw level, and no longer than shoulder-length, often with a fringe at the front. The standard bob cut exposes the back of the neck and keeps all of the hair well above the shoulders.
The pageboy or page boy is a hairstyle named after what was believed to be the haircut of a late medieval page boy. It has straight hair hanging to below the ear, where it usually turns under. There is often a fringe (bangs) in the front. This style was popular in the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s.
Curtained hair or curtains is a hairstyle featuring a long fringe divided in either a middle parting or a side parting, with short sides and back. Curtained hair generally applies to males, although an alternative name, the undercut, is used for both male and female haircuts following this style. Variations on this haircut have been popular in Europe, North America, and Japan throughout the 20th century and in the 21st century, peaking between 1986 and 2001.
An asymmetric cut is a haircut in which the hair is cut in such a way that the hair does not have left-right symmetry and one side is cut or appears to be longer than the other. It is a versatile hairstyle with many subvariations. Usually it is a combination of two separate styles, one for each side. An extreme variation is the "side shave", in which one side of the head is totally or partially shaved close.
The Rachel haircut, commonly known as simply "The Rachel", is an eponymous hairstyle popularized by American actress Jennifer Aniston. Named after Rachel Green, the character she played on the American sitcom Friends (1994–2004), Aniston debuted the haircut during the show's first season, and continued to wear it throughout its second season while the series was nearing peak popularity. Designed by Aniston's hairstylist Chris McMillan to repair her damaged hair and grow out her bangs, "The Rachel" is a voluminous shoulder-length haircut, with several distinct layers that frame and turn outwards from its wearer's face. It has been described as a variation on both the shag and bob haircuts.
The wings haircut, also known the Mod haircut, Mop top, flippies, flow, Justin Bieber haircut, or skater hair is a popular hairstyle used in the skateboarding, surfer, mod, and preppy community. Typically long, the style can range from long and drooping below the eyes, to a shorter length. The haircut is typically wavy and, if straight, the length comes to halfway down the ears. Instead of lying on the wearer's ears, the hair flips up and comes straight out like an airplane wing, hence the name. The hairstyle was popular among men in the 1960s, 1970s, mid-late 2000s, early 2010s and 2020s.
A fringe or bangs is strands or locks of hair that fall over the scalp's front hairline to cover the forehead, usually just above the eyebrows, though can range to various lengths. While most people cut their fringe straight, they may also shape it in an arc or leave them ragged.
The pompadour is a hairstyle named after Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), a mistress of King Louis XV of France. Although there are numerous variations of the style for men, women, and children, the basic concept is having a large volume of hair swept upwards from the face and worn high over the forehead, and sometimes upswept around the sides and back as well.
A pixie cut is a short hairstyle, generally short on the back and sides of the head and slightly longer on the top, with very short bangs. It is a variant of a crop. The name is derived from the mythological pixie.
A shag cut is a hairstyle that has been layered to various lengths. It was created by the barber Paul McGregor. The layers are often feathered at the top and sides. The layers make the hair full around the crown, and the hair thins to fringes around the edges. This unisex style became popular after being worn by various celebrities, including Joan Jett, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, David Cassidy, Jane Fonda, Stevie Nicks and Florence Henderson in the early 1970s. During the 1990s, Jennifer Aniston popularized "The Rachel" hairstyle, and Meg Ryan wore a shag in the early 2000s. The haircut had a resurgence in popularity during the early 2020s.
Short hair refers to any haircut with little length. It may vary from above the ears to below the chin. If a man's hair reaches the chin, it may not be considered short. For a woman, however, short varies from close-cropped to just above the shoulders. This varies from culture to culture, in more traditional societies in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Islamic world, short hair on women means anything shorter than chest length with chest length to elbow length being considered medium-length. However, among more progressive societies with far less structured gender norms, the classic bob is considered medium-length with "short hair" referring to pixie cuts and similar hairstyles. Different styles of short hair include the bob cut, the crop and the pixie cut.
Hairstyle fashion in Rome was ever changing, and particularly in the Roman Imperial Period there were a number of different ways to style hair. As with clothes, there were several hairstyles that were limited to certain people in ancient society. Styles are so distinctive they allow scholars today to create a chronology of Roman portraiture and art; we are able to date pictures of the empresses on coins or identify busts depending on their hairstyles.
The 2010s were defined by hipster fashion, athleisure, a revival of austerity-era period pieces and alternative fashions, swag-inspired outfits, 1980s-style neon streetwear, and unisex 1990s-style elements influenced by grunge and skater fashions. The later years of the decade witnessed the growing importance in the western world of social media influencers paid to promote fast fashion brands on Pinterest and Instagram.
The undercut is a hairstyle that was fashionable from the 1910s to the 1940s, predominantly among men, and saw a steadily growing revival in the 1980s before becoming fully fashionable again in the 2010s. Typically, the hair on the top of the head is long and is often parted on either the side or center, while the back and sides are buzzed very short. It is closely related to the curtained hair of the mid-to-late 1990s, although those with undercuts during the 2010s tended to slick back the bangs away from the face.
Hairstyles in the 1980s included the mullet, tall mohawk hairstyles, jheri curls, flattops, and hi-top fades, which became popular styles. Amongst women, large hair-dos, puffed-up styles, permanent waves, and softer cuts typified the decade. Big hair that was "often permed to achieve the desired volume" is especially associated with women of the mid 1980s as well as male rockstars of that era, especially of the glam metal genre. Television shows such as Dynasty helped popularize the high volume bouffant and glamorous image associated with it.
In the Western world, the 1950s were a decade known for experimentation with new styles and culture. Following World War II and the austerity years of the post-war period, the 1950s were a time of comparative prosperity, which influenced fashion and the concept of glamour. Hairstylists invented new hairstyles for wealthy patrons. Influential hairstylists of the period include Sydney Guilaroff, Alexandre of Paris and Raymond Bessone, who took French hair fashion to Hollywood, New York and London, popularising the pickle cut, the pixie cut and bouffant hairstyles.
Secular laws regulating hairstyles exist in various countries and institutions.