Make the Cut With This Quiz on Hairstyles

From the 17th century through the early 20th century, many Chinese men wore a hairstyle known as the “queue.” This style saw the front and sides shaved down, with the rest of the hair gathered into a long braid draped down the back. Queues originated with the Jurchen (or Manchu) peoples of Manchuria in the northeastern part of the country.

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.

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.

In 16th-century England, women often used wires to form their hair into a heart shape. Metal hairpins were invented in England in 1545, making these styles even easier to pull off. The ideal hair color at the time was a pale red — the color worn by Queen Elizabeth I herself.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Like many inventions, the comb-over was born out of necessity. When Frank Smith and his son Donald were trying to find solutions for Frank’s baldness, they realized that if Frank grew his hair long on one side, he could push it over the top, giving the effect of a fuller hair. The patent, complete with instructional diagrams, was filed soon after.

The Beatles not only revolutionized music in the U.S., but fashion as well. The band’s shaggy locks helped popularize the mop-top hairdo in the 1960s. Legend has it that the Fab Four were inspired by two German photographers who wore mop-tops and befriended the group. As the years progressed, the Beatles continued to grow out their hair and donned even longer locks.

Jackie O's imprint on fashion is wide-ranging. From pillbox hats to oversized sunglasses, her iconic looks inspired women across the globe. When it came to hair, the First Lady donned a style known as the bouffant, featuring perfectly coiffed hair with big volume. The hairstyle was created by hairdresser to the stars Kenneth Battelle, who also worked with Marilyn Monroe.