Pompadour is style of Haircut

Pompadour is a style of haircut which takes its name from Madame de Pompadour. The pompadour was a fashion trend in the 1950s among male rockabilly artists and actors. There are Latin variants of the hair style more associated with European and Argentine tango fashion trends and occasionally with late twentieth century musical genres such rockabilly and country. In recent years the pompadour hair style has been adopted by those enamoured with vintage

culture of the late 50s and early 1960s that includes antique cars, hot rods, American folk music, rockabilly bands, and Elvis Presley.

This style has become popular among Italian-Americans and the "goombah" or "Guido" subculture. Many Mexican-American in the "Cholo" subculture also sport pompadours. In modern Japanese popular culture, the pompadour is a stereotypical hairstyle often worn by gang members, thugs, members of the yakuza and its junior counterpart bōsōzoku, and other similar groups such as the yankii (high-school hoodlums). In Japan the style is known as the "Regent" hairstyle, and is often caricatured in various forms of entertainment media such as anime, manga, television, and music videos. Conan O'Brien, American media personality and current host of The Tonight Show, is a notable wearer of the pompadour hairstyle.

A pompadour is often created by combing the sides of the hair back, while fanning the top of the hair forward and curling over itself. There are numerous ways to sculpt a pompadour. Some only curl the front few inches of their hair up, while others comb their hair back and use their hands to "push" it into its desired place. Occasionally hair is kept relatively short and cut into the desired look, and pompadours are created through standing the hair straight up, retaining a "spiked" quality. Variations on exact style vary from a straight front to a more rounded and organic look.

For women, the hairstyle has become marginally popular again in the first few years of the twenty-first century. It can be created by 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.

In Japan, there is the Punch perm which appears to combine elements of the afro hairstyle and the traditional pompadour. This hairstyle is stereotypically worn by shady members of society such as the yakuza, bōsōzoku and chinpira (street thugs).

The pompadour gained particular prominence in late 20th century Brookline, Massachusetts, when Romanian emigres used it to great acclaim to gain street credibility with the dominant Russian expatriate subculture.

In the Psychobilly subculture, the pompadour is slightly modified to form the Psychobilly Wedge. The Psychobilly Wedge (sometimes known as the 'Vamp Ramp') is a hairstyle worn by Psychobilly fans and musicians (Kim Nekroman frontman of Nekromantix for example). The Psychobilly Wedge is a sort of mix between a mohawk hairstyle and the pompadour, where the hair along the side of the head is shaved and the middle isn't spiked but slicked back and stood up like a pompadour.

Often many hair-care products are employed in the creation of a pompadour. Commonly seen are wax and gel pomades, held in high regard for their durability. Sometimes they are created solely with the use of hair spray, hair gel, or even glue.