Duck's ass

The duck's ass is a haircut style that was popular during the 1950s. It is also called the duck's tail, the ducktail, the duck's arse (UK), or simply D.A., and is also described as slicked back hair.

History

Joe Cirello, a barber from Philadelphia, claimed to have invented the Duck's Ass in 1940. A similar hairstyle, sometimes called the Argentine ducktail, consisting of greased hair piled high on top and swept back at the sides to form a ridge or seam at the back, was simultaneously fashionable among the Mexican-American Pachucos of Los Angeles. The Duck's tail became an emblematic coiffure of disaffected young males across the English-speaking world during the 1950s. In Britain, it formed part of the visual identity of Teddy Boys and Rockers, along with the Quiff and the Elephant's Trunk.

Combing technique

The style required that the hair be combed back around the sides of the head. The teeth edge of a comb was then used to define a central parting running from the crown to the nape at the back of the head, resembling, to many, the rear end of a duck. The hair on the top front of the head was either deliberately disarrayed so that untidy strands hung down over the forehead, or combed up and then curled down into an 'Elephants trunk' which would hang down as far as the top of the nose. The sides were styled to resemble the folded wings of the duck.