Subcultures and music
Punks, mods, skinheads, rockers, hip hop and K-pop. 23 hairstyles on EveryHairstyle so far.
Subcultures and music scenes have produced some of the boldest hairstyles of the past century. Teddy boys wore greased quiffs and ducktails, mods neat short cuts, skinheads close crops, punks mohicans and liberty spikes, goths teased black hair, and hip hop the hi-top fade. In Czechoslovakia, long hair on young men was seen as rebellion. K-pop now spreads hair trends across Asia and the world.
Rock and roll to punk
In the 1950s, young men in Britain and America copied the greased pompadour and ducktail of rock and roll stars such as Elvis Presley. In the 1960s mods wore sharp short cuts and the Beatles' mop-tops were mocked as long. In the 1970s punks cut, dyed and spiked their hair; the mohican became the symbol of punk, and the Misfits' devilock, a long forelock over short sides, became a symbol of horror punk.
Hip hop and beyond
In the late 1980s hip hop artists made the hi-top fade famous, and barbers cut lines and designs into the sides. Grunge favoured long, unwashed hair; boy bands spread frosted tips in the late 1990s. In communist Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and 1970s, long-haired young men, the máničky, were stopped and sometimes forcibly shorn by police. Today K-pop stars, with their dyed colours and soft perms, set trends from Seoul to São Paulo.
Famous subcultures and music hairstyles
Still to be written: Mánička.
Further reading
🇺🇸 United StatesAfro
A rounded style of combed-out natural hair.Natural · Coily and kinky hair · 1960
🇺🇸 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
🇬🇧 United KingdomQuiff
A voluminous front sweep with short sides and back.Styled · Any hair · 1950
🇯🇵 JapanHime cut
A Japanese style with straight cheek-length sidelocks and long back hair.Cut · Straight hair · 1970
🇨🇳 China and 3 moreRattail
A long strip of hair at the napeCut · Any hair · 1980
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreDucktail
A 1950s men's cut with a central rear parting.Cut · Straight hair · 1950
🇺🇸 United StatesConk
Chemically straightened hair popular with African-American men mid-20th century.Styled · Coily and kinky hair · 1920
🇺🇸 United StatesHi-top fade
Tall flat top with shaved sides from hip hop cultureCut · Coily and kinky hair · 1984
WorldLiberty spikes
Long, thick upright hair spikes resembling the Statue of Liberty crown.Styled · Any hair · 1970
WorldBig hair
A hairstyle style defined by large volume and significant space around the head.Styled · Curly hair · 1960
🇺🇸 United States and 1 moreSurfer hair
Tousled, sun-bleached locks from the sea.Styled · Wavy hair · 1950
WorldWings
A layered cut where side hair flips out like wings.Cut · Wavy hair · 1830
🇯🇵 JapanPunch perm
Tightly curled Japanese male hairstyle from the 1960s.Curls · Straight hair · 1960
🇯🇵 JapanSeiko-chan cut
A feathered Japanese idol hairstyle from the 1980s.Cut · Straight hair · 1980
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Hime cut: kxz Chen, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Quiff: Anefo, CC0, source
- Seiko-chan cut: HouseGecko, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Afro: Jason Melcher, CC BY 2.0, source
- Pompadour: Pearson Scott Foresman, Public domain, source
- Ducktail: Rockbillyboogie, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Hi-top fade: Kct02, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Liberty spikes: THOR, CC BY 2.0, source
- Wings: Sepideh (Sepi), CC BY 2.0, source
- Big hair: Photo by Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, source
- Surfer hair: Rachel Amarette, CC BY 2.0, source
- Punch perm: Mike, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Devilock: mitchbuchannon, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Conk: NBC Television, Public domain, source