Tuesday 29 November 2011

Know your classic hairstyles, volume 1

From today on, there will be a new series of posts on my blog, showing you some famous classic hairstyles and their backgrounds. Today I'll start with the pompadour.



The pompadour was incredibly popular among rockabilly boys during the 1950s. Elvis Presley was, of course, the most famous person with this hairstyle and copycats all over the world soonly started imitating his look - some more extremely than others - and always carried a comb with them to keep their hair in the right shape.
One might wonder why this hairstyle, that seemed to be founded in the United States of America has a French name. An English name would be much more practical, wouldn't it?



No, in fact the hairstyle got its name from Madame de Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV of France. She used to wear many wigs that looked like the picture above; it was volimunous at the front and framed with ringlets.
Although not backcombed with pomenade like the 1950s hairstyle, the resemblance is rather big if you ask me.


The pompadour, however, was not only a hairstyle for men: there was also a version for females available. This is a version in which the hair is turned back off the forehead in a roll. This hairstyle is still popular among a lot of girls with a slight interest for anything retro or rockabilly. In case you are one of them, or would just want to give it a try for fun; here is a nice tutorial on how to do it:


I have personally never worn this look for two particular reasons:
Reason 1: I practically always have a fringe that is not long enough to roll up.
Reason 2: I have a big forehead and have an updo on the front of your head makes a big forehead appear only bigger than it already is.

And throughout history, there have been several periods in which the pompadour made several comebacks:

Julia Louis-Dreyfus sported a wide reverse pompadour in the late 1980s / early 1990s series Seinfield.

Mike Score, vocalist of the new wave band A Flock of Seagulls, was famous for his extravagant own version of the classic pompadour, in which he only backcombed hair on the sides of his head, and left it straight at the front.

Dita von Teese is wellknown for her vintage inspired looks and creates a pompadour every now and then.

 And of course, the pompadour is still popular in the modern rockabilly/psychobilly/whateverbilly scene as well!

3 comments:

  1. I'd love to look like that all the time.

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  2. heel mooi vind ik het ik zou het alleen zelf niet durven dragen ! :)

    p.s ik volg je , volg je terug :)?

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  3. @Darcy: ik zal je terugvolgen. (:

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