hairstyle fashion

A young man wearing a Mohawk.

The Mohawk (known as a "Mohican" in British/Commonwealth English) is a hairstyle. In the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaved leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair in the centre. Mohawks became common in punk subculture in the early 1980s and were then adopted by Rivetheads with various other groups, becoming more diverse in style. Today, Mohawks are still associated with the punk subculture, but have also become part of mainstream fashion.

The Mohawk hairstyle is named for, and often associated with, the people of the Mohawk nation, an indigenous people of North America who originally inhabited the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York.^[1]

Cossack musician with khokhol

This hairstyle was also known among other peoples. For instance, the Clonycavan Man, a 2000-year-old male bog body discovered near Dublin, Ireland in 2003, was found to be wearing a Mohawk styled with plant oil and pine resin.^[2] When going to war, 16th century Russian Cossacks would shave their heads, leaving a long central strip. This haircut was known as a khokhol and was often braided or tied in a topknot