Street haircut in Harbin, China

For humans, haircut, hairstyle, or hairdo normally describes cutting or styling hair on the top of the head, although it may also refer to the cutting and styling of facial hair.

The Hair is a special arrangement of hard keratin. Keratins are proteins; long chains of amino acids. 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. It is a common misconception that men and women have the same hair.

"Biologically, there is a difference in the length of hair between the sexes. If the hair is left uncut, the female usually has the longer of the two. We have no real explanation for this."(from: Hair Structure And Chemistry Simplified, Milady Publishing Corp. 1986)

Adornment of the hair is done for many reasons such as the expression of personality, religious practice, or rank in society. Most hairstyles conform to socio-cultural influences and are gender biased. Fashion trend(s) may have the greatest influence on hair styling today. Different types of hair such as curly, straight, coarse, or fine will dictate the kind of hairstyle one may have. Hair density, texture, and length are all factors that will determine the ability of hair to perform in a certain style. A person will also want to consider face shape, lifestyle, and personal ability when chosing a hairstyle.

Notable hairstyles

Name	Image	Gender	Description
Afro		Male / Female	Big hair hairstyle.
Bangs / Fringe		Male / Female
Beehive		Female	Big hair hairstyle.
Bob cut		Mostly female	A classic short hairstyle where the ends are cut just around chin length and aligned close to the facial area.
Bowl cut	N/A	Male / Female	A famous bowl cut wearer in the USA was Moe Howard.
Bouffant	N/A	Female
Bun		Female
Buzz cut		Mostly male
Caesar cut	N/A	Male
Chonmage		Male	A traditional Japanese haircut.
Comb over	N/A	Male
Cornrows		Male / Female
Crew cut	N/A	Mostly male
Crop	N/A	Male / Female
Croydon facelift	N/A	Mostly female
Curtained hair	N/A	Mostly male	The character Peter Petrelli is well-known for this hairstyle in NBC's Heroes.
Devilock	N/A	Mostly male
Dido flip	N/A	Female	Hairstyle named after the singer Dido.
Dreadlocks		Male / Female
Duck's Ass or Ducktail	N/A	Male
Emo hair		Male / Female	May be associated with emo music or fashion.
Fauxhawk		Male / Female
Feathered hair	N/A	Male / Female
Finger wave		Female
Flattop		Male
Shag		Male / Female	A popular hairstyle for boys in the 2000's. Flips in front and on sides of ones head.

• Fofa
• French braid
• French twist
• High and tight
• Hime cut
• Hi-top fade
• Horseshoe Flattop
• Induction cut
• Jheri curl
• Japanese hair straightening
• Khokhol
• Layered hair
• Liberty spikes
• Long hair
• Long Pageboy, Same as Pageboy but with longer hair.
• 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.
• Mohawk
• Mop-Top
• Mullet
• Odango
• 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
• Perm
• Pigtails
• Pixie, a very short haircut for women that almost resemble school boy looks.
• Pompadour
• Ponytail
• Quiff
• Rachel, The Rachel a layered haircut made popular by Friends star, Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel Green.
• Razor cut
• 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
• Ringlet
• Ronaldo cut, shaved head except for the front third which is buzzed.
• Short back and sides
• Shape-Up
• Sidebang
• Spiked All hair sticking up, like a spike
• 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.
• 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
• Tonsure
• Undercut
• Updo
• Wings

Hair products

Cosmetic products used in creating and maintaining hairstyles include:

• Brylcreem
• Hair coloring
• Hair gel
• Hair wax
• Hair mousse
• Hair spray
• Hair glue^[1]
• Hair oil
• Root lifter
• Hair tonic
• Hair powder
• Hair lotion

Hair lengths

Short:

• Bald, hair that is completely shaved down to the scalp
• Buzz, hair that is extremely short and hardly there
• Cropped, hair that is a little longer than a buzz
• Boy's cut, hair that is longer than a crop, but not yet hits the ears
• Ear length, hair that is at the same level as one's ears

Medium:

• Chin level, hair the comes to the chin
• Flip level, hair that comes to the neck or shoulder area

Long:

• Bra/midback level, hair that's at about the same point as the widest part of one's ribcage and chest area
• Waist length, hair that falls at the smallest part of one's waist, a little bit above the hip bones
• Tailbone length, hair that is at about the area of one's tailbone
• Classic length, hair that is reaches where one's legs meet his or her buttocks
• Thigh length, hair that is at the mid-thigh
• Knee-length, hair that is at the knee
• Calf length, hair that is at the calf
• Floor length, hair that reaches the floor^[2]
• For those who are interested in the rare beauty of floor length and longer, hair

References

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Hair fashion

• Eponymous hairstyles

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
• Hairstyles of Popular Celebrities*History of Hairdressing
• Hair Style image from the worlds top stylists

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