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It might not look it – compared to a low-key French crop – but the pompadour is easily one of the most versatile men’s hairstyles out there. After all, what other style worked not only for an eighteenth-century French courtesan, but ‘The King’ and David Beckham too?
Styled by sweeping the hair upwards and away from the face – and often worn slick with swept-back sides – the pompadour isn’t one for wallflowers. In fact, it was first popularised by men who saw their hair as a means of standing out: Elvis, James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause and 1950s greasers hell-bent on marking themselves apart from the norms of 1950s middle-class suburban America.
Since then, it’s evolved, changing shape to allow for all manner of tweaks from a short back and sides to fades to less perfectly sculpted, textured looks. Take a look at some of the best pompadours below.
