Stage and screen
Styles made famous by film, music and dance. 19 hairstyles on EveryHairstyle so far.
Film, television, music and dance have made many hairstyles famous overnight. Silent-film stars made the bob respectable, Audrey Hepburn the pixie, Farrah Fawcett feathered hair, and Jennifer Aniston the Rachel. Music gave the world the pompadour, the mop-top, the hi-top fade and the Jheri curl. Stage and dance traditions have their own styles, from the ballet bun to the jewelled plait of Bharatanatyam.
Screen hair
Film studios employed hairdressers who set the styles audiences copied: the bobs of the 1920s, the finger waves and victory rolls of the 1930s and 1940s, the beehives and bouffants of the 1960s. In Japan the singer Seiko Matsuda made a feathered cut so popular in the 1980s that it carries her name. In India, the actor Sadhana's fringe of 1960 became the Sadhana cut. Television made the Rachel the most requested cut of the mid-1990s.
Music and dance
Singers have been trend-setters since Elvis Presley's pompadour; Dido's 2000s flip became the Dido flip, and Michael Jackson popularised the Jheri curl in the early 1980s. Classical dancers need hair that stays put under spotlights and in fast movement: ballet dancers wear a tight bun, Bharatanatyam dancers a long plait fixed with ornaments, and kabuki actors wear elaborate wigs.
Famous stage and screen hairstyles
Still to be written: Feathered hair, Dido flip, Seiko-chan cut.
Further reading
🇺🇸 United StatesDurag
Close-fitting head cloth for hair protection and style maintenance.Wrapped · Curly hair · 1960
🇯🇵 JapanKanzashi
Traditional Japanese hair ornaments made from metal, wood, silk, or folded fabric.Adorned
🇮🇳 IndiaPunjabi paranda
A multicoloured silk braid extension from Punjab.Adorned · Any hair
🇸🇩 Sudan and 4 moreDreadlocks
A hairstyle of rope-like hair strands formed by matting or twisting.Natural · Coily and kinky hair · 1970
🇺🇸 United StatesMohawk
A hairstyle with shaved sides and a central strip of longer hair.Shaved · Any hair · 1970
🇫🇷 France and 2 morePompadour
High-volume hair swept up and back from the forehead.Updo · Any hair · 1950
WorldPixie cut
A short hairstyle with a longer top and very short bangs.Cut · 1953
🇺🇸 United StatesBeehive
A conical updo piled high on the crown.Updo · Any hair · 1960
🇬🇧 United KingdomPageboy
Straight hair hanging below the ear with an inward turn.Cut · Straight hair · 1950
🇺🇸 United StatesDevilock
A punk style featuring short sides and a long front section combed forward.Cut · Any hair · 1970
WorldPigtails
Two symmetrical ponytails or braids worn on opposite sides of the head.Ponytail · Any hair
🇻🇳 VietnamCurtained hair
A parted fringe with short sides and back.Cut · Any hair · 1980
🇫🇷 France and 1 moreBouffant
A puffy, rounded hairstyle with height at the crown.Styled · Any hair · 1950
🇺🇸 United StatesFinger wave
S-shaped waves set by hand with comb and gelStyled · Straight hair · 1920
WorldLiberty spikes
Long, thick upright hair spikes resembling the Statue of Liberty crown.Styled · Any hair · 1970
🇺🇸 United StatesConk
Chemically straightened hair popular with African-American men mid-20th century.Styled · Coily and kinky hair · 1920
🇨🇳 ChinaLiangbatou
A tall Manchu headdress featuring two side-parted hair sections and elaborate ornamentation.Wrapped
🇺🇸 United StatesHi-top fade
Tall flat top with shaved sides from hip hop cultureCut · Coily and kinky hair · 1984
🇺🇸 United StatesHalo hairstyle
Horizontal bands of light colour wrapping around the head.Styled · Any hair · 2013
🇺🇸 United States and 3 moreHair extensions
Cosmetic additions of human or synthetic hair attached to natural hair for length and volume.Styled · Any hair · 1950
WorldFrosted tips
Short spiky hair with bleached ends.Cut · Any hair · 1998
WorldHair crimping
A heat or braid technique creating zig-zag waves in long hair.Styled · Straight hair · 1985
🇺🇸 United StatesThe Rachel
Voluminous layered cut popularised by FriendsCut · Straight hair · 1995
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Mohawk: Duke.emerson, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pigtails: Ykstyyppi123, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dreadlocks: Richard Mortel, CC BY 2.0, source
- Punjabi paranda: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, source
- The Rachel: ABC Television, Public domain, source
- Durag: The original uploader was Calliopejen at English Wikipedia ., CC BY 2.0, source
- Kanzashi: Anonymous ( Japan ) Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Jheri curl: Olugold, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Pixie cut: dvna creative agency: https://www.dvna.fr/, CC BY 3.0, source
- Pompadour: Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, source
- Pageboy: Jacometto Veneziano, Public domain, source
- Beehive: MGM, Public domain, source
- Devilock: mitchbuchannon, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Curtained hair: Jacques-Émile Blanche, Public domain, source
- Bouffant: Bain News Service, Public domain, source
- Finger wave: Unknown author Unknown author (Either deceased family member or work f, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Conk: NBC Television, Public domain, source
- Liangbatou: Daderot, Public domain, source
- Hi-top fade: Kct02, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Liberty spikes: THOR, CC BY 2.0, source
- Hair extensions: Eunicehair, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hair crimping: 1000heads, CC BY 2.0, source
- Halo hairstyle: Papipacify, CC BY-SA 4.0, source