Pompadour (hairstyle)

Pompadour is a hairstyle which is named for Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), mistress of King Louis XV. Although there are numerous variations of the style for both men, women, and children, the basic concept is hair swept upwards from the face and worn high over the forehead, and sometimes upswept around the sides and back as well.

After its initial popularity among fashionable women in the 18th century, the style was revived as part of the Gibson Girl look in the 1890s and continued to be in vogue until World War I. The style was in vogue for women once again in the 1940s. The men's version, as worn by early country and rock and roll stars such as Elvis Presley, was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and has enjoyed a renaissance in the mid 2010s. Variations of the pompadour style continue to be worn by men and women in the 21st century.

Among women, the hairstyle has become marginally popular again in the first few years of the 21st century. It can be created by backcombing or ratting at the roots of the hair on the sides of the pompadour towards the top of the head. Then the hair is combed up and over the ratted hair, off the forehead, the front up in a curl straight back, and the sides pulled back towards the center.

Lady Astor wearing a pompadour style in a famous portrait by John Singer Sargent, 1909.

Bette Davis wearing an updated pompadour in the film Now, Voyager, 1942.

Actress and World War II pin-up girl Betty Grable wearing another variant of the pompadour style, 1943.

In recent years the pompadour hair style has been adopted by those enamoured with vintage culture of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which includes antique cars, hot rods, muscle cars, American folk music, greasers, rockabilly bands, and Elvis Presley, Afghanistan's Ahmad Zahir as well as actors such as James Dean and Desi Arnaz.

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