View source for Bowl cut

{{Short description|Hairstyle}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{expand language|otherarticle=Coupe au bol|langcode=fr|date=June 2023}}
{{expand language|otherarticle=Горшок (стрижка)|langcode=ru|date=June 2023}}

[[File:Undercut.jpg|thumb|A man in 1998 sports a bowl cut, with the cut seen straight around the head and hair uniformly long.]]

A '''bowl cut''' is a simple [[haircut]] where the front hair is cut with a straight fringe (see [[Bangs (hair)|bangs]]) and the rest of the hair is left longer, the same length all the way around, or else the sides and back are cut to the same short length.<ref name="FashionEncyclopedia">
{{cite web
| title = Bowl Haircut |website=FashionEncyclopedia.com
| url = http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/fashion_costume_culture/Early-Cultures-Europe-in-the-Middle-Ages/Bowl-Haircut.html
| access-date = May 6, 2013}}</ref> It is named so because in medieval times, when it was popular in Europe, a bowl would be placed on the head and then used as a cutting guide to trim the hair.<ref name="FashionEncyclopedia" />{{Better source needed|reason=Website reveals no author identities and speaks in vague generalities, but confidently states how "the cut got its name". It does cite an actual book, at least; alas without page numbers.|date=April 2023}}

==History==
[[File:Aleksander Gierymski - Peasant from Bronowice - MNK II-a-600 - National Museum Kraków.jpg|thumb|200px| A 19th century Polish peasant with a bowl cut]]
[[Image:Ukposter.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A 1920s [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Ukrainian]] poster; the man on the left sports a bowl cut.]]
Historically, the bowl cut was popular among common European and Asian men, being an easy, neat cut done 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 shaved off.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhBZEAAAQBAJ&dq=history+of+the+bowl+cut&pg=PA311 |page=311 |isbn=9780986425493 |title=History of World Dress and Fashion, Second Edition | date=January 13, 2022 |last= Hill |first=Daniel Delis |publisher=GeminiDragon Publishing}}</ref> 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.<ref name="FashionEncyclopedia" />

In the United States, the bowl cut was never particularly popular. At least as far back as the 1980s, the cut has been ridiculed by many. It is often mocked via internet memes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/charlize-theron-bowl-cut-ivanka-trump|title=Charlize Theron among celebs bringing back the bowl cut |first=Alexandra |last=Deabler |date=September 4, 2019 |website=Fox News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecut.com/2019/09/charlize-therons-bowl-cut-is-thriving.html|title=Charlize Theron's Bowl Cut Speaks|first=Sangeeta|last=Singh-Kurtz|date=September 25, 2019|website=[[The Cut (website)|The Cut]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.instyle.com/hair/bowl-cut-hair-trend|title=The Bowl Cut Your Mom Gave You Is Back|website=InStyle|access-date=July 27, 2021|archive-date=July 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727083121/https://www.instyle.com/hair/bowl-cut-hair-trend|url-status=dead}}</ref>

By 2015, the hairstyle was uncommon enough that its use by mass murderer [[Dylann Roof]] was considered mildly noteworthy. The [[Anti-Defamation League]] has documented its [[metonymy|metonymic]] use by young [[white supremacy|white supremacists]], among whom it represents Roof and [[Charleston church shooting|his crimes]] in particular, and white supremacist ideology in general.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bowlcut/Dylann Roof |url=https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/bowlcutdylann-roof |access-date=August 18, 2022 |website=Anti-Defamation League |language=en}}</ref> For example, a neo-Nazi group named itself the "Bowl Patrol" after Roof's bowl cut hairstyle; that group remained active as of a July 2020 exposé in the ''[[Huffington Post]]'', five years after Roof's Charleston church shooting.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Murdock|first1=Sebastian|last2=Mathias|first2=Christopher|date=July 24, 2020|title=Exclusive: Leader Of Dylann Roof-Worshipping Neo-Nazi Group Exposed|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dylann-roof-neo-nazi-group-exposed_n_5f19c94cc5b6128e6822947d|access-date=July 24, 2020|website=[[Huffington Post]]}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of hairstyles]]
* [[Czupryna]]
* [[Moe Howard]]
* [[Bob cut]]
* [[Edgar cut]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Wiktionary-inline}}

{{Human hair}}

[[Category:Hairstyles]]