Comb-over

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CDU politician Rainer Barzel in 1969 with his hair combed over
Bust of Homer as an old man (5th century BC)
Late Archaic vase image of the Trojan king Priam
Bust of Julius Caesar, hair combed forward (1st century AD)
Patent for hairstyle by Donald and Frank Smith (1977)
Drawing by André Gide (1901)
The industrialist Günther Quandt with his hair combed over (1905)

A Comb-over (also Combover , Comb over , combover ; pronunciation: [ kəʊmˌəʊ.vər , koʊmˌoʊ.vɚ ]; literally Überkämmfrisur , too: anchovies hairstyle , anchovy , folding apex, apex cheating ) is a hairstyle of people with hair loss , at one bald head is covered by styling long hair with a comb or hand from side to side. The term has been used in English since the 1980s and is often used with a mocking undertone. In men's magazines , the term is also used for hairstyles with a pronounced parting by men without hair loss.

history

Antiquity

The Greek poet Homer is already portrayed on a bust from the 5th century BC. Chr. Depicted as an old man with a hairstyle that artfully conceals a bald head. His hair is held together by a hoop or a band. Two broad strands of hair run from the vertebra, which are knotted together over the middle of the forehead. The depiction corresponds to the late Archaic style (560–500 BC), in which the last Trojan king, Priam , is depicted with knotted strands of hair on a bald head on a vase. A prominent example of a combed bald head in ancient Rome is Gaius Iulius Caesar , who can be seen on numerous busts with it. The historian Suetonius mentions Caesar's hairstyle in his imperial servants (2nd century AD):

The distortion caused by his bald head annoyed him very much, as it was a grateful object for the jokes of his opponents, as he often had to learn. So he had got used to combing his sparse hair from the top to the front.

The emperors Caligula and Domitian are depicted with similar hairstyles . Suetonius reports that Domitian took the mention of his baldness as an insult, and quotes a passage from his youthful publication De cura capillorum (On hair care) , in which he anticipated his own hair loss.

Modern times

In 1975 the Americans Donald J. Smith and his father Frank J. Smith filed a patent for a combing technique that was to cover a bald head by laying three long strands under the title Method of concealing partial baldness . The patent was granted in 1977. Donald, a former police officer who retired in Orlando , originally had a plan to apply for another patent for a hair styling agent after the hairstyle was patented, but this did not happen. According to his information, the triple comb-over had become necessary with his father because a procedure with only one strand could only insufficiently cover his bald head.

Use of the word "comb-over"

The word "comb-over" in the sense of a hairstyle was added to Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary in 1980. The New York satirical magazine Spy attacked the hairstyle in the irregular series of articles The Illustrated History of Hair (The Illustrated History of hair) from 1988 several times. In an article, the development of the hairstyle of the then New York mayor candidate Rudolph Giuliani is followed on the basis of several images: "the unruly comb-over" ("the irrepressible Comb-Over", 1983), "the glued-down comb-over" ("The masked comb-over", 1985) and "the oddly dimensional comb-over" ("the strangely dimensioned comb-over", 1987). In the April 1989 issue, a series of photos was printed with prominent American hairstyle wearers, including Giuliani Sonny Bono , Hugh Hefner and John McCain . In the August 1989 issue, Manhattan hairdresser Tom Oliva was interviewed, who was hairdressing both Giuliani and incumbent Ed Koch . Oliva described Giuliani's hairstyle as "traditional, early comb-over" ("traditional comb-over in the early stages"). In 2002 the Washington Post commented on the change in Giuliani's hairstyle with the sentence “The world's most famous comb-over has vanished.” (“The world's most famous comb-over has disappeared”). The Australian artist Paul Schonberg published an artist book in 2015 with photographs of Japanese men with the hairstyle. British actor Patrick Stewart , who has been bald since he was twenty, mentioned in an appearance on the BBC program The Graham Norton Show that he had worn a comb-over for a while.

The hairstyle gained great fame through US President Donald Trump , who was elected in 2016 . During the campaign, the musician Jello Biafra wrote a piece called Satan's Combover (The Comb-Over of Satan) . Numerous media wrote about Trump's combing technique and showed pictures of his hairstyle being messed up by the wind. In his investigative book Fire and Fury , published in 2017, the American journalist Michael Wolff quotes Trump's daughter Ivanka with a detailed description of his hairdressing process:

She often explained the process to her friends: a completely bald top of the head - since a scalp reduction surgery a clearly defined island - surrounded by a furry fringe of hair on the front and sides. From there, all the ends of the hair are combed up and brought together in the middle, then everything is combed back and fixed with hairspray.

Fictional and satirical representations

In his album Têtes et pensées ( Heads and Thoughts , 1901), the French draftsman and writer Henry Bataille portrayed the poet André Gide in a drawing with his hair combed over. Long-time caricaturist for the New York Review of Books , David Levine , has caricatured numerous intellectuals with combed strands or single hair, including Gustave Flaubert , Truman Capote , Jean-Paul Sartre, Vladimir Nabokov and John Searle . American poet David Kirby published a narrative poem called The Search for Baby Combover in the early 2000s .

In the sketch Der Lottogewinner (1976) by Loriot, main actor Heinz Meier combed his hair over his bald head. The character of Homer Simpson from the American cartoon series The Simpsons is drawn with three hairs on his head, two of which are combed over the head from left to right and another runs along the back of the head. The double-serrated hair, in combination with the ear below, was interpreted as the initials of Matt Groening (MG), the creator of the series. The main character of the British comedy series Baldy Man wears a hairstyle that consists only of a narrow strip of hair combed from the right to the left ear. The film American Hustle (2013) contains a longer scene in which Christian Bale, in the role of con artist Irving Rosenfeld, combines putting on a comb-over with sticking on a toupee . He doesn't use a comb. In the American biographical television series Genius , Antonio Banderas played the artist Pablo Picasso with a comb-over in 2018 .

Other names

"Anchovy hairstyle"

Until the 20th century, the terms “anchovy” or “anchovy hairstyle” were common in German. The comparison of the strands of hair with anchovies is explained in a dictionary from 1874 with the fact that the combed hair looks like "a butter roll sparsely covered with anchovies" on the scalp. The Rhenish writer Joseph von Lauff used the terms "anchovy hair" and "anchovy strands" in several novels around the turn of the century and made them popular. The mother of Magda Ritschel (later wife of Joseph Goebbels ) described in an anecdote how her daughter insisted on a boat trip before she was engaged to the industrialist Günther Quandt in 1920 that he had to change his hairstyle:

Coincidence would have it that a gust of wind caught and disheveled these anchovies and the bald head was exposed. Magda, who sat across from her future husband in the rowing boat and watched Dr. Quandt busily fiddled with the oars to keep the boat moving, used this opportune moment to express her opinion on the anchovies: 'I won't marry you until you have your anchovies cut off!' Dr. Quandt rowed back to the boathouse in silence. The next morning, on engagement day, he came to breakfast without his beloved anchovies. He had cut it off himself with nail scissors before shaving in the morning.

The writer Günter Kunert used the term in his novel In the Name of Hats in 1967 in a list of hairstyles at a demonstration:

More and more here and there and more. Sky-blue flags are already unfurling. Over solemn hats and caps, over bald patches anchovies parting tonsures edging ducks perms plaits ponies all-clear hairdos and curls of curls stand out banners […]!

The outdated term is still used ironically today. The German hairdresser Udo Walz spoke in an interview of a “sardine hairstyle” and expressed himself negatively about it several times.

The word "Schummelscheitel" is rarely used in German. In connection with the long-time sports show presenter Ernst Huberty the word "folding peak" is used. Most often the hairstyle is named with the English term "Comb-Over" or "Combover", which is used masculine in German.

Terms in other languages

In Japanese, the Comb-Over with the Anglicism "bākodo" is called due to the similarity of the strands with a barcode . In 2011, the writer Adrián Bravi named his novel Il riporto (published in 2016 in English as The Combover ) after the Italian name for the hairstyle. In French, the hairstyle is sometimes referred to as "coiffure à la Giscard", alluding to the former President Valéry Giscard D'Estaing . In Spanish, the word "cortinilla" ("curtain") is used. In Russian, the word "comb over" is translated as "зачес" ( satschjos , "combing over").

Combing directions and examples

While the English “comb-over” and the German “anchovy hairstyle” mostly refer to combing over the sides, there are also directions of combing between the forehead and the back of the head. There are also hairstyles that combine different combing directions.

Left to right

From right to left

From the front to the back

Back to front

Multiple directions

literature

  • Chris Martin: A Geezer's Guide to Mullet Maintenance and Combover Care , Cheltenham: The History Press, 2013.
  • Paul Schonberger: Up and Over , artist book , 28.5 × 20 cm, 102 pages, 2015.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ COMB-OVER | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved July 7, 2020 .
  2. ^ Kathleen Hildebrand: Grobe Striche. Retrieved July 5, 2020 .
  3. ↑ DWDS - Digital Dictionary of the German Language. Retrieved July 4, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Stefan Pollmann & Co. - These are the stars' best hairdos and beard styles. Accessed July 3, 2020 (German).
  5. ↑ Classic and modern? - Comb-over men's hairstyles with side parting. Accessed July 3, 2020 (German).
  6. ↑ Paul Zanker : The mask of Socrates. The image of the intellectual in ancient art, Munich: CH Beck 1995, p. 23.
  7. ↑ "[C] alvitii vero deformitatem iniquissime ferret saepe obtrectatorum iocis obnoxiam expertus. ideoque et deficientem capillum revocare a vertice adsueverat ". Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius, and Hans Martinet: The imperial servants: Latin-German = De vita Caesarum. 3rd ed. Tusculum Collection. Düsseldorf: Artemis & Winkler, 2006, p. 78 f.
  8. ↑ Ibid., P. 932 f.
  9. ↑ Method of concealing partial baldness . December 23, 1975 ( google.com [accessed July 3, 2020]).
  10. ↑ Alex Heard: A World Without Baldness in Our Lifetime. The New, Improved Comb-over - Illustrated History of Hair, Part VIII, Spy November 1991, p. 38 f.
  11. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Eleventh Edition, Springfield: Merriam Webster Inc., p. 247.
  12. ↑ Philip Weiss, "The Toughest Weenie in America," in: Spy, November 1988, pp. 105-116; P. 107. Digitized .
  13. ↑ David Earl, “The Illustrated History of Hair. Part IV: The Comb-over “, Spy, April 1989, p. 54 f. Digitized .
  14. ^ Eddie Stern: "The Illustrated History of Hair, Part VI: A Visit With Tom Oliva, Barber to the Mayoral Conternders", Spy, August 1989, p. 41. Digitized .
  15. ↑ Robin GivhancloseRobin GivhanFashion criticEmailEmailBioBioFollowFollowFashion critic: Perspective | The time Rudy Giuliani boldly got rid of his comb-over, like a real man. Retrieved July 4, 2020 .
  16. ↑ a b VICE - The Glorious Combovers of Asia. Retrieved July 3, 2020 .
  17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ow1f6HDSfk
  18. ↑ Michael Köhler, Frankfurt: Jello Biafra in the Batschkapp: A man with a sense of mission . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed July 4, 2020]).
  19. ↑ Steffen Fründt: Donald Trump: That went wrong with his hairstyle . In: THE WORLD . June 9, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed July 3, 2020]).
  20. ↑ Secret revealed: That's why Trump's hairstyle is always bombproof! Retrieved July 3, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgart Germany: Donald Trump: The truth about his hair: Trump's madness blown with the wind. Retrieved July 5, 2020 .
  22. ↑ a b VICE - How to style your hair like Donald Trump. Retrieved July 3, 2020 .
  23. ^ Julian Barnes: Flaubert, C'est Moi . May 25, 2006, ISSN  0028-7504 ( nybooks.com [accessed July 5, 2020]).
  24. ^ FW Dupee: Truman Capote's Score . February 3, 1966, ISSN  0028-7504 ( nybooks.com [accessed July 5, 2020]).
  25. ^ Jean-Paul Sartre: An Interview with Sartre . March 26, 1970, ISSN  0028-7504 ( nybooks.com [accessed July 5, 2020]).
  26. ^ DJ Enright: Nabokov's Way . November 3, 1966, ISSN  0028-7504 ( nybooks.com [accessed July 6, 2020]).
  27. ↑ Tim Parks: Why Write in English? In: The New York Review of Books. April 18, 2016, accessed on July 6, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Thomas Nagel: The Mind Wins! March 4, 1993, ISSN  0028-7504 ( nybooks.com [accessed July 5, 2020]).
  29. ↑ 'The Search for Baby Combover'. Retrieved July 6, 2020 .
  30. ↑ David Kirby, The Ha-ha: Poems, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, pp. 41-45.
  31. ↑ The Simpsons: This easter egg hidden in Homer's hair that you may have missed. In: Get Popular News. April 28, 2020, Retrieved July 6, 2020 (American English).
  32. ^ The Hair Stories Behind American Hustle. Retrieved July 5, 2020 (American English).
  33. ↑ Genius Picasso: Antonio Banderas to star in 10-part TV series based on acclaimed artist's tumultuous life - Entertainment News, Firstpost. February 9, 2018, accessed July 5, 2020 .
  34. ^ JM Wagner (Ed.) Archive for the History of German Language and Poetry, Volume 1, digitized version, Vienna: Kubasta & Voigt, 1874, p. 271.
  35. ↑ The Austrian ethnographer Felix von Luschan uses the term to describe hairstyles in Benin : “Sometimes such bulges are loose and somewhat wavy, sometimes quite straight and so tightly packed that one is involuntarily reminded of the word 'strand of anchovies' coined by Lauff , even if one is aware that the poet was thinking of a completely plain hair, whereas in Benin we are dealing with originally frizzy hair. ”Felix von Luschan: The Antiquities of Benin . Publications from the Museum für Völkerkunde, VIII, Berlin 1919. p. 131.
  36. ↑ Anja Klabunde: Magda Goebbels. Approaching a life, Munich: Bertelsmann, 1999, p. 50.
  37. ↑ Kunert, Günter: In the name of the hats. Munich: Hanser, 1967, p. 250.
  38. ↑ FOCUS Online: Christoph Maria Herbst with "anchovy hairstyle". Retrieved July 3, 2020 .
  39. ↑ Duden | Strand | Spelling, meaning, definition, origin. Retrieved July 4, 2020 .
  40. ↑ "With such a sardine hairstyle, you first draw attention there", etepetete 02/2013, p. 21.
  41. ↑ Hair loss: fresh moss on bare pebbles. Retrieved July 6, 2020 .
  42. ↑ Cheat parting is out - baldness is in. February 2, 2003, accessed on July 3, 2020 .
  43. ↑ Interview - "Trump is not punk". Retrieved July 4, 2020 .
  44. ↑ Gate of the Century: Ernst Huberty turns 90. Accessed July 8, 2020 .
  45. ^ Bjarke Frellesvig: A History of the Japanese Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 412.
  46. ↑ The combover. Retrieved July 5, 2020 .
  47. ↑ Français, gaulois, franchouillard ... | Forum Opéra. Retrieved July 4, 2020 (French).
  48. ↑ Los peinados de los nuevos políticos de ultraderecha son mucho más complejos que sus discursos. March 15, 2017, accessed July 4, 2020 (Spanish).
  49. ↑ Зарайя Горветт: Почему быть лысым - не так уж плохо . In: BBC News Русская служба . September 30, 2016 ( bbc.com [accessed July 4, 2020]).