The ducktail is a men's

haircut A hairstyle, hairdo, haircut, or coiffure refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human head but sometimes on the face or body. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although ...

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 is a greasy, waxy, or water-based substance that is used to style hair. It generally gives the user's hair a shiny, slick appearance. It lasts longer than most hair-care products, and often requires repeated washes for complete remov ...

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 originating in the early 1950s to mid-1960s and then revived in the 1970s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by ...

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 ...

and the elephant's trunk.

Combing technique

The style required that the

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

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 (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

. 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 classic hairstyle characterized by short hair on the sides and back of the head, with the top hair cut short and styled to stand upright in a flat, level plane. Styling In the most classic style of flattop for men and boys, the ...

. 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 o ...

. 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 prod ...

, and tonics such as

Wildroot Cream-Oil Wildroot Cream-Oil was a men's hair tonic sold in the United States from the 1940s to the 1960s by the Wildroot Hair Tonic Company based in Buffalo, New York. Background The company first started selling Wildroot Hair Tonic in 1911. In the 1920s, ...

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 (informally gangsta) 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 ...

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) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

, who sported the same look. Although the ducktail was adopted by

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

to represent the wild youth of the 1950s, 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 United Kingdom, British youth subculture originating in the early 1950s to mid-1960s and then revived in the 1970s who were interested in rock and roll and Rhythm and blues, R&B music, wearing clothes part ...

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

Shammi Kapoor Shammi Kapoor (born Shamsher Raj Kapoor; (pronounced Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu, �ʌmːi kʌpuːɾ 21 October 1931 – 14 August 2011) was an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi cinema. Kapoor is considered one of the greatest and most s ...

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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

an and/or

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

n descent, though in slightly different styles.

References

External links

Illustration of a ducktail
* {{Human hair 1940 introductions 1950s fashion Ducks in popular culture Greasers (subculture) Scalp hairstyles

History

Combing technique

Significance

See also

References

External links