Hi-top fade

A hi-top fade is a style of haircut where hair on the sides is cut off or kept very short while hair on the top of the head is very long.

The hi-top was a trend symbolizing the Golden Era of hip hop and urban contemporary music during the 1980s and the early 1990s. It was common among young black people between 1986 and 1993 and to a lesser extent in the mid-1990s (1994–1996).

The hi-top fade was and still is commonly called just a flattop, due to the great likeness of the two styles. In fact, the hi-top fade could qualify as a variation on the flattop.

In 1980 Grace Jones and then boyfriend Jean-Paul Goude collaborated on the cover and artwork for Warm Leatherette (album). It featured her signature flattop/hi-top hair.

In the hip hop community throughout the mid-1980s, young African Americans leaned towards Jheri curls or simple haircuts without tapers or fades of any sort. In 1986, rappers like Schoolly D and Doug E. Fresh had the first, somewhat developed, styles of the hi-top fade in hip hop. However, their hairstyles lacked the geometric precision that characterized the more modern hi-top fade styles.

In the hip-hop community, one of the first public appearances of the more modern hi-top fade hairstyles was in the "Tramp" video by Salt-N-Pepa, released early in 1987. In this video, the dancers could be seen with this hairstyle. They can be also seen dancing in a new jack swing style form based on their wardrobe and choreography, which was not seen in other hip hop and R&B videos at the time.

In the mid- to late 1980s the haircut was often credited to Larry Blackmon the lead singer of the band Cameo. Blackmon had a hairstyle in the mid 1980s that was the forerunner to the hi-top Fade, with the tall square flat top but with slightly longer sides and back. There are numerous examples of rappers referring to the hairstyle as a "cameo cut" between 1987 and 1990, the most notable being in the Ultramagnetic MCs song "Give The Drummer Some" from 1988 where Ced Gee, who had a hi-top fade at the time, says "... 'cause I'm a real pro, with a cameo, and not an afro".

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