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Punk Hairstyles – Rebel Culture Becomes A Fashion Statement
Punk hairstyles – those weird, bizarre, colorful moving works of art that you see in high streets, villages and black-painted teenage bedrooms! I’ve never been a punk, but I have always been fascinated by the whole punk look and ideology – probably because I was a teenager at the very time that punk exploded, kicking, screaming, swearing and spitting, into popular culture.
The Birth of Punk Hairstyles
Punk came to life as a fashion and music movement during the mid-1970s, largely due to the efforts of high profile English fashion designer, Vivienne Westwood and the crown princes of punk music - The Sex Pistols. The Pistols were managed at the time by Malcolm McLaren, who was Westwood’s partner (personally and professionally) and the crazy mixture of these 3 forces gave rise to what would become a global phenomenon.
The Sex Pistols’ unique look was mainly created by Westwood, utilizing zips, rips, chains, bondage, porn and slogans. The fashion tapped into anti-establishment feelings of the time and punk hairstyles were a reflection of the clothes and attitudes - unwashed, anarchic and spiky. Mid-to-late-1970s punk hairstyles were actually quite subdued; hair remained fairly short – probably as a reaction to the trend at the time for both male and female hair to be worn long.
Hair was simply chopped of using whatever implements were to hand, and left untreated and unwashed. As a result, the hair tended to form itself into clumps and spikes and this quickly became the formal “look” for punk hair. Color – especially bright orange as worn by Pistols’ frontman Johnny Rotten – became another punk hairstyle ‘stamp,’ which could be seen on high-streets all around large cities of the UK. Women also tended to decorate their hair to match their outfits.
80's Punk Hairstyles
As punk moved into the 80s, it also step out of the streets into mainstream fashion and also from being a largely British phenomenon, into a Euorpean and then worldwide movement. With the greater influence of fashion, punk hair styles also became more popular, formal and more ‘designer,’ with the use of much more hair colorings and deliberately asymmetric cuts. Spiky hairstyles began to be formalized with the use of hair gel and bleaching (the Billy Idol look) became really popular, as did the most famous punk hairstyle of all – the Mohawk.
The Mohawk – or Mohican - hairstyle is the definitive punk hairstyle. The style is so-called because it is thought to have been worn by the Mahican and Mohawk tribes, although in reality it appears that the Huron tribe were the first to sport the hairstyle. The Mohawk hairstyle is characterized by a shaved scalp with an upright strip of hair running across the crown of the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck.. 1980s punk culture became identified with magnificent, colorful Mohawks, but – tragically for a rebel culture – the style became so mainstream that upmarket fashion magazines and high-fashion catwalks around the world began to feature supermodels wearing beautifully-styled, peacock-like Mohawks.
The Future of Punk Hairstyles
Since that time, little has changed really. Punk music has evolved into many styles, most notably the Emo punk genre so popular with American teenagers. Punk music has largely returned to the underground, but the punk ‘look’ is very much mainstream, as popular as ever with disaffected and experimental teens as well as older punks who refuse give up on the punk lifestyle and philosophy. But what about punk hairstyles? Well you can now walk into any high street salon and ask for a modern, punk hairstyle. Truly punk hairstyles are now all about the fashion statement…
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