The ducktail is a men's

haircut A hairstyle, hairdo, haircut or coiffure refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human scalp. Sometimes, this could also mean an editing of facial or body hair. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming ...

style popular during the 1950s. It is also called the duck's tail, duck's ass, duck's arse, or simply D.A. and is also described as slicked back hair. The hair is

pomade Pomade (; French ''pommade'') or pomatum is a greasy, waxy, or water-based substance that is used to style hair. Pomade generally gives the user's hair a shiny and slick appearance. It lasts longer than most hair-care products, and often re ...

d (greased), combed back around the sides, and parted centrally down the back of the head.

History

Joe Cirello, a barber from Philadelphia, said he had invented the duck's ass in 1940, and he called the swung hair sides and their termination 'The Swing', after the musical style of the day. He'd practiced on a lonely blind boy for about eighteen months. The duck's tail became an emblematic coiffure of disaffected young males across the English-speaking world during the 1950s. In Britain, it formed part of the visual identity of

teddy boys The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the mid 1950s to mid 1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which ...

and rockers, along with the

quiff The quiff is a hairstyle that combines the 1950s pompadour hairstyle, the 1950s flattop, and sometimes a mohawk. It was born as a post-war reaction to the short and strict haircuts for men. The hairstyle was a staple in the British 'Teddy Boy' m ...

and the elephant's trunk.

Combing technique

The style required that the hair be combed back around the sides of the head. The teeth edge of a

comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...

was then used to define a central parting running from the crown to the nape at the back of the head, resembling, to many, the rear end of a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

. The hair on the top front of the head was either deliberately disarrayed so that untidy strands hung down over the forehead, or combed up and then curled down into an 'elephant's trunk' which would hang down as far as the top of the nose. The sides were styled to resemble the folded wings of the duck. A variant of the style, the Detroit, consisted of the long back and sides combined with a

flattop A flattop is a type of haircut where the hair on the top of the head is cut and styled upright to form a flat profile when viewed from the front or side. Styling In the most classic and mainstream style of flattop for men and boys, the hair ...

. In California, the top hair was allowed to grow longer and combed into a wavelike pompadour shape known as a "breaker". The ducktail hair style contributed to the term '' greasers'': to accomplish this look, much

(hair grease) was required to hold the hair in place. This was still the era of hair creams, so it only required an increase in the amount to make hair remain in the desired style. Brands of grease used include Black & White, Sweet Georgia Brown, Royal Crown, and

Murrays Murrays Coaches is an Australian express and coach charter company. History Murrays was founded by Bill Murray in the early 1950s as a school bus operator in Canberra. The operation was taken over by Ron Murray in 1970 by which time it was op ...

. On the West Coast of the US, pomades such as Dixie Peach or

Brylcreem __NOTOC__ Brylcreem () is a British brand of hair styling products for men. The first Brylcreem product was a hair cream created in 1928 by County Chemicals at the Chemico Works in Bradford Street, Birmingham, England, and is the flagship produ ...

, and tonics such as Wildroot Cream-Oil were popular. To ensure that the hair was just so, the wearer often touched up the D.A. many times during the day by running his greased comb through it. This led to a stylized means of handling the comb by drawing it out of the back pocket of a pair of jeans using the extended index and middle finger, and, holding it thus, running the comb through the two side "wings" of the style to adjust their shape.

Significance

The D.A. quickly became a stereotypical feature of rebels,

mobster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

s, and nonconformists, and gained popularity especially after the rise of rock 'n roll legend

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

, who sported the same look. Although the ducktail was adopted by Hollywood to represent the wild youth of the Fifties, only a minority of males actually sported a D.A., even amongst the British Rockers and

Teddy Boy The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the mid 1950s to mid 1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which S ...

s of the same era. The style became popular in India after film star

Shammi Kapoor Shammi Kapoor (born Shamsher Raj Kapoor; (pronounced �ʌmːi kʌpuːɾ 21 October 1931 – 14 August 2011) was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of two Filmfare Awards, winning in the categories of Best Actor for ...

sported it. It is also associated with men of

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

an and/or

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n descent, though in slightly different styles.

References

External links

Illustration of a ducktail
* {{Human hair 1950s fashion Scalp hairstyles