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A 1920s Ukranian poster; the man on the left sports a bowl cut

A bowl cut, also known as a beach cut, pot haircut, chili bowl, or a mushroom cut, is a haircut where the hair is cut short on the sides and back and looking as though someone put a bowl on the head and cut off all the visible hair. A famous bowl cut wearer in the U.S. was Moe Howard, who wore it as part of his "Three Stooges" persona. In the UK it is also known as a pudding basin haircut.

Historically this haircut was popular among common people of various nationalities as an easy and relatively neat cut by a non-professional. Indeed, it was done by putting a cooking pot of a fit size to the level of ears, and all hair below the rim was cut or even shaven off. In some cultures it was a normal type of haircut. In other cultures the bowl cut was viewed as an attribute of poverty, signifying that the wearer could not afford to visit a barber. The bowl cut is quite common among the Amish.

From the late twentieth century on the haircut resurfaced as a rock music counterculture style credited to the Beatles' moptop hairstyles and the Ramones' early stylized bowl cuts. The bowl cut gained popularity in America among teenaged and pre-teen boys in the 1980s and the hairstyle was a veritable fad in some American locales. The popularity of the bowl cut faded in the mid-1990s.^[1]

[edit] References

1. ^ 1990's Time Period in Fashion History