Make the Cut With This Quiz on Hairstyles

Each of these hair typing systems uses a different method to determine hair texture from straight to curly. Andre Walker uses a numbered system from 1a to 4c (though more textures have since been added to the original system). LOIS uses letters to determine hair type, whereas Fia combines elements of both these systems. Each one uses the hair’s appearance, definition, and volume to classify hair type.

Chonmage hair features a type of topknot typically worn by samurai. The style helped a samurai’s helmet stay on through battle, though these days it’s often associated with sumo wrestlers. Aside from the topknot, samurai would also shave the tops of their heads and oil their hair to keep everything in place. During the Edo period in Japan, the chonmage style also became a symbol of higher social status.

As societal standards changed in the 1960s, Vidal Sassoon created styles that allowed women to look the way they wanted without spending hours on their hair. He launched the era of the bob (among other styles), using a geometric style to bring women low-maintenance, no-blow-dry-required cuts.

The pompadour was named after King Louis XV’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, though she apparently never wore the style herself. Pompadours became popular with the Gibson Girl trend in the 1890s. By then, women went to great lengths to reach new heights with their hair, even stuffing their hair with padding.

During the Black Power and civil rights movements, many Black people wanted their hair to reflect their history. Cornrows originated in Africa, and the different styles often indicated a person’s tribe, as well as their status within that tribe. Other traditional African styles, including Locs and Bantu knots, have risen in popularity more recently.

When challenged to create a truly unique and different hairstyle, Margaret Vinci Heldt came up with the beehive. Modeled after the fez, a kind of felt hat, the beehive style involved a ton of hairspray and backcombing to create volume. In the days of weekly salon visits, this style was considered easy to maintain. Beehives often looked similar to bouffants, and some people combined the two for even more height.

Popular in the 1940s, victory rolls were named after the fighter plane “victory maneuver.” As many women joined the workforce during WWII, they needed a way to keep their hair out of the way but still look nice when they went out later. Victory rolls served as a practical style without sacrificing beauty, and have been seen on celebrities including Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.

During the hippie movement, men grew out their hair as a response to the shaved cuts given to men when they got drafted into the Vietnam War. As the war progressed, long hair became a symbol of opposition to many other traditional values associated with masculinity and patriotism, as the hippie movement challenged what society deemed acceptable for men and boys.

Peyos, also called peyot, among other variant spellings, are more than a hairstyle. Typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men, peyos follow a part of the Torah that forbids cutting hair on the sides of a man’s head, according to rules given to the sons of Aaron. However, depending on their culture and beliefs, some men do trim their sidelocks.

Billy Ray Cyrus is often credited for the popularity of the mullet, but it’s also a historical haircut. A historian described Roman warriors in the sixth century BCE as wearing “the hair on their heads they cut off in front back to the temples, leaving the part behind to hang down to a very great length in a senseless fashion.” The term “mullet” wasn’t coined until the style was popularized in the 1980s.