The 'Mohawk' or 'Mohican' is a
hairstyle which consists of shaving either side of the head, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair. Mohawks were a short-lived fad in the mid 1960s. Mohawks became common in youth
punk subcultures in the late 1970s. Throughout the 1980s, they were modified by subcultures
within and
derived from punk and adopted by various other groups, becoming more diverse in style in the process. Today, mohawks are still associated with the punk subculture, but have become a part of mainstream fashion and are also shared by many other subcultures.
History
The
Clonycavan Man, a 2300-year-old male
bog body found near
Dublin,
Ireland was found to be wearing a Mohawk, held together with plant oil and pine resin imported from southwestern France or Spain.
[1]
The modern Mohawk was influenced by the Roman military helmet, the
Galea, which was a descendent of the Greek
Corinthian style helmet of many soldiers.
The Mohawk is often thought to have been worn by the
Mahican and
Mohawk tribes, but the name is in fact a
misnomer; it is believed that the
Wyandot were in fact the first
Native American tribe to wear the hairstyle, but early
French explorers mistook them for the Mohawk tribe. In French the hairstyle is called
Iroquois.
During
World War II, members of the
Allied Airborne soldiers (specifically the
101st Airborne Division - the "Screaming Eagles") shaved their hair into Mohawks.
[2]
Modern Mohawks
The classic fanned mohawk.
In modern times, both sides of the head are shaved or buzzed and the remaining hair is long and often spiked in the middle. The hairstyle is generally known as a ''Mohawk'' in the
United States and a ''Mohican'' or ''Mowie'' in the
United Kingdom. In
punk fashion, the Mohawk is often
dyed brilliant colors and the center strip of hair worn so that it points straight up (often referred to as a "charged" mohawk), often to impressive height. The Mohawk also appears in the
goth subculture, a descendant of punk, with the remaining hair spiked or long. Guinness World Records lists Aaron Studham as the person with the tallest Mohawk.
Besides punk fashion, the Mohawk became known with the popularity of
Mr. T, the actor who first became famous playing the boxer
Clubber Lang in the movie ''
Rocky III'' and later as
Sgt. B.A. Baracus in the television series ''
The A-Team''. In the
1980s this type of African Mohawk was called
Mandinkan or Mandinkan Mohawk after the Mandinkan Warrior haircut. Another well-known popular culture depiction of the Mohawk came from
Martin Scorsese's film ''
Taxi Driver''.
Inspired by
Robert DeNiro in
Taxi Driver,
Richie Stotts of the New York punk band
The Plasmatics got a blue Mohawk in January 1979, followed by bassist Jean Beauvoir in September 1979 and singer
Wendy O. Williams on November 30, 1980, who got a black Mohawk with cropped blond hair at the sides.
The Plasmatics appeared on the American comedy TV show
Fridays on January 16, 1981, which introduced the Mohawk to USA pop culture, while the band's albums and tours popularized the hairstyle in the UK and Europe.
[3]
In the famous "Punk On Bus" sequence in ''
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'', associate producer
Kirk R. Thatcher was shown dressed as a punk with a bright orange Mohawk.
Varieties
A variety of different styles of Mohawk exist, often associated with different
subcultures or with different motivations behind them.
Crohawk
A hawk that is especially curly and an inch or two thick,with long large curls.
Sidewalk
A skull hawk that goes from above on eye, to behind the opposite ear.
Shawn Desman is credited as the creator.
Liberty spikes
Liberty spikes are so named because of their resemblance to the spikes on the crown of the
Statue of Liberty, though they first popped up in the
London scene. In this style, the unshaven parts of the hair are formed into thick or thin spikes that may radiate outwards in all directions or all point up in the same direction. They are favored for their durability in extremely long hair. Liberty spikes are not exclusively a Mohawk style, but can be created all over the head without the inclusion of shaved sections.
Dreadhawk
A dreadhawk is a Mohawk where the hair is
dreadlocked instead of being spiked upwards. The hair style itself is very diverse; it can be worn up like liberty spikes depending on the length of dreads; it can be braided, pulled back, tied but it will still remain dreadhawked. Dreadhawks appear most on
crust punks. It was also famously worn by bassist
Les Claypool of the band
Primus.
An example of a fanned mohawk
Fanned
Fanned Mohawks are so named because they resemble a fan: all the unshaven hair is fixed upright in an even fan shape from the front hairline to the nape. They are the most common kind of mohawk, probably because they are the easiest to form. An early user of the style was
Wattie Buchan of
The Exploited. Another term for such a style, originating from Britain, is "charged". For example, punk rock veterans
GBH officially referred to themselves as "Charged GBH" to avoid confusion with another band who used the GBH moniker. The term is still in use today in many punk circles.
Chelsea-Hawk
The same as a mohawk but the fringe is left in the front to frame face. Comes from the
Chelsea hairstyle, which is a completely shaved head with only the fringe left at the front.
Quiff
A hairstyle that is a hybrid between a mohawk and a
pompadour. Commonly worn within the
psychobilly sub-culture, it represents that musical genre's crossing of 1970's British punk rock with 1950's American
rockabilly. Being sharply angled, it is much longer in the front, and may stop at the back of the head or extend down towards the neck. The top is usually flattened-out giving it a grown out flat-top appearance. Examples may be seen on Sparky of
Demented Are Go, Koefte and Valle of
Mad Sin, and snakepunk of the Hellbenders.
Devilhawk
The Devilhawk was originally performed when a Devilock is made from a Mohawk by fans of The Misfits. However these days many of those in the Punk and Psychobilly culture use it as an easier way to show off their hawk or simply lift it out of their eyes. It is created simply by pulling a "true" mohawk forward, over the face, and hairspraying it there in a single point.
270˚ Hawk
A 270˚ Hawk is a fan mohawk that extends from the back of the neck to straight out from the forehead. It gets its name because it forms a 270˚ angle. This often requires a thicker strip of hair to extend the hair in front. Such a mohawk has been worn by members of the band
A Global Threat in their earlier days as well as Gabe Sex, drummer of the band
Cheap Sex.
An example of a bi-hawk
Another example of a bi-hawk
A Reverse Mohawk.
An example of a Tri-hawk
Bi-hawk (Twin Fins) & Tri-hawk
While a traditional Mohawk has one center strip of long hair, bi-hawks and tri-hawks have two and three respectively, with shaved portions between.
Keith Flint from
The Prodigy wore a bi-hawk in their videos "
Firestarter" and "
Breathe". Bi- and tri-hawks can be worn in any of the variant styles.
Reverse Mohawk
Reverse Mohawks are Mohawk haircuts in reverse (the opposite of a Mohawk), essentially a shaved straight line (usually wide enough for a disposable razor or electric hair clippers) from the forehead to the nape of the neck leaving hair on either side of the line. This haircut is also known as an ''Antihawk'', ''HawkMo'', ''Skunk'', ''Highway'', ''Nohawk'' and ''Polish Mohawk''. Famous Reverse Mohawk wearers include
Road Warrior Hawk, one half of
The Road Warriors,
Peter Gabriel while with
Genesis,
Jim Martin (formerly of
Faith No More). and
Keith Flint, vocalist for
The Prodigy. It was also sported by the fictional character Fraker in the movie ''
Death Wish III''.
Alien Ant Farm singer
Dryden Mitchell sported a less dramatic Reverse Mohawk, where he had a thin, long triangle shaved into the middle of his head, reaching to his crown. This haircut was used in the
Gor book series to indicate slaves.
There is another variation of the reverse mohark, known as the 'Hot-Cross Bun', It still retains the shaved stripe from front to back but in addition there also a shaved stripe from ear to ear, exo-facto, the 'hot cross bun'
Sidehawk and Fin
The sidehawk is a rather rare hairstyle where the back of the head is shaved, and a strip of long hair goes horizontally from ear to ear across the head, rather than from forehead to nape. Bangs are often left on. The hair is generally fanned or spiked giving a very distinctive halo or peacock effect. Sidehawks are often associated with
The Devotchkas.
Fin is a sidehawk that does not go to back of the head. It is like a Stright line of hair on the side of your head right adove the ear like a fin a person who had it was
Jake from
The Casualties.
An example of a typical Blowhawk
Blowhawk
A modified version of the traditional mohawk where the spikes appear to be blown backward, hence the name. The blowhawk is often utilized to add variety to the long-time mohawk wearer's appearance and is versatile in nature as it is merely a modification of other varieties of mohawk. This style is generally achieved by forming straight spikes and then blow drying them to the point of slight dampness, which gives them a plastic-like quality. The spikes are then bent backwards, toward the rear of the wearer's head.
Blowhawks are often the end-result of a quick-and-easy attempt at charging one's hawk. Shorter 'hawks put up with hair gel only will often end up looking this way.
Crosshawk
The crosshawk is a combination of a traditional fanned mohawk and a fanned sidehawk that come together to form a cross on the wearer's head. Variations of this with bihawks are sometimes know as H hawks because the sidehawk crosses through the bihawk and form an H shape. Another variation of the crosshawk is a bihawk that connects to together in the back and a sidehawk that crosses through forming an A which has come to be known as the A hawk.
Deathhawks
Deathhawks are wider-than-average Mohawks that are often worn in a looser style, frequently backcombed but not often formed into stiff fans or spikes. They may feature long, loose
tendrils. Deathhawks are associated with
deathrockers and
goths. Sometimes referred to as a ''goth hawk''.
Mollet
A Mollet is a Mohawk that is worn in the front, then branches out into a
mullet in the back. The only notable people to have ever had it are
Maynard James Keenan of
Tool and
Les Claypool of Primus, though neither is credited as its creator.
Mini-Mo
A Mini-Mo is a mohawk that does not extend from the back of the neck to the forehead. It usually rests in middle of the head. Its name is a
portmanteau of '' and ''mohawk''.
Glowhawk
A Glowhawk is a brightly dyed mohawk. varies in many colors.
Frohawk
A Frohawk is essentially a Mohawk made with extremely curly or kinky hair (either natural or achieved by a
permanent wave).
Mr. T is probably the most commonly known wearer of this style. The name is a
portmanteau of the words "Afro" and "Mohawk".
Fauxhawk
The
Fauxhawk is the most commonly seen hawk today. The Fauxhawk is characterized by a regular haircut that is faded up to the top where there is a longer square patch of hair. This hair style is worn by taking the longer hair and gelling it into the middle of the head to make a mohawk, usually less than an inch tall.
Chinny-Hawk
A
Chinny-hawk is like a fanned mohawk apart from the fact that one side is spiked up and one is shaved, it is usually many different colors.
Brody-Hawk
A
Brody-hawk is a mohawk that has bangs that cover the forehead. Also, there is usually a fringe that hangs to the side in front of the ears named for Brody Dalle the lead singer of the punk band
The Distillers. This hairstyle is most common on girls.
Maintenance
The Mohawk, by its nature, and depending on the type of hair the wearer has, is typically a high-maintenance style, although after practice can become quite routine for the wearer and done in a much shorter amount of time. Depending on the specific look desired by the wearer, regular, careful shaving may be required to maintain a clean line between the shaved and long parts of the hair; this can be especially complicated in bi- and tri-hawks.
If the hair is to be worn up, twenty minutes or more of laborious styling, including brushing,
backcombing (teasing), twisting and so on, may be required. Some styles are particularly difficult to put up, requiring the use of very strong-hold
hair gels and
sprays, and in some cases other holding agents like shoe polish, tooth paste, white
glue,
egg whites,
cornstarch or
gelatin. The amount of time required for styling may increase considerably with longer hair or styles that require even spikes and lines.
Larger mohawks require more maintenance than others.
Depending on the method used to spike a Mohawk it can take much less than 20 minutes. The use of glue and a blow dryer cuts down considerably on the time needed.
However once the mohawk is up it can be easily maintained for an extended period. By sleeping on the side of the head and mohawk extending in air, daily maintenance takes only a few minutes of reinforcement touching up. Depending on what is used to put the mohawk up and the conditions it endures, a mohawk can stay erect for several weeks.
Some wearers enhance the look of their Mohawks using hair dyes. This, too can require a great deal of initial effort and maintenance, especially in styles where the color(s) form an integral part of the style. In some cases, for example, Mohawk-wearers who normally wear their hair up in a fan style dye the hair in even lines or stripes of color, either horizontal or vertical.
In 2005, the Mohawk seemed to receive a brief and small revival among the mainstream, as claimed in Eric Wilson's Sep 1, 2005 article in
The New York Times, "The Mohawk Becomes, Well, Cute." In it, Wilson argued that part of the revival was caused by
Angelina Jolie's adopted son, Maddox Jolie.
See also
★
Punk fashion
★
Devilock
References
1. Ireland Bog Bodies
2. ''Answers From The Colonel'' - Issue #1
Image.
3. Dauphin, Edouard and Butch Star (1982). ''Plasmatics: Your Heart in Your Mouth! (The First Four Years).'' New York: Raging Rhino Entertainment. 14,
64.
External links
★
History of the Mohawk
★
Historical Mohawks of Distinction
★
Care and feeding of mohawks
★
The Mohawk FAQ
★
Mohawk Styling
★
An FAQ on making hair stand up
★
Travis Barker's Mohawk
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