Be a Mohawk know-it-all

I have a thing with Mohawks. It was kind of a problem there for a while, nearly. To my great happiness, my brother has even gone through several mohawks himself. The funny thing with Mohawks is, they break every rule they make. Not all Mohawks are shaved on the sides, or even trimmed short. Not all Mohawks are completely sane sometimes. Not everyone’s Mohawk looks like the types I’m about to show you, but they are all variations on what you see here. But first, a teeny history lesson.

The name ‘Mohawk’ originated from the Native American tribe, part of the Iroquois confederation, The Mohawks.  The Mohawks are one of the indigenous tribes that inhabited what is now the Mohawk valley of upstate New York. The hairstyle was first noted by a French explorer in the 1600s, and was quite prominent in various Native American tribes. Strangely, some cases suggest the hairstyle was never traced to the Mohawks themselves. Other sources claim however, the hairstyle was strictly used to look fierce during battle. And fierce it must’ve looked, considering the tribe itself never once gave themselves the name Mohawk, but rather it was a name their enemies gave them. In their own language, the Mohawk people call themselves Kanienkehaka, which means "people of the flint." Their Algonkian enemies gave them the name Mohawk, meaning, “Man-eaters”.

Leave it to the Punks to popularize a hair cut meaning “Man-eaters”.

Now without further ado, Presenting, the three branches of Mohawks.

Liberty Spike Mohawk

Mohawks with triangular-like spikes, classically down the center of the scalp. However, the spiked liberty Mohawk can take many forms, from asymmetrical, less organized spikes, short or long. There’s a great video for styling a classic liberty Mohawk, here.

Fan Mohawk

If liberty Mohawks are like spikes down a dinosaur’s back, then I guess you could say Fan Mohawks are like shark fins. Fan Mohawks are a single uninterrupted strip of hair, gelled up in a continuous un-separated stretch.

Deathhawk

If Punk + Goth = Deathrock, then Deathrock + Mohawk = Deathhawk, eh? People with Deathhawks usually have a lot more hair than other Mohawk parents, due to the varieties in style the Deathhawk offers. Lots of teasing, lots of backcombing, lot’s o’ awesome. Photo credit Chayla Von Impaler on DA & Razor Candi

DreadHawk

Dreadhawks are what happen when you shave your dreads into a mohawk. They are most often worn long and down, and very popular among cybers.

Not Mohawks, but other important Mohawk-stemmed vocabulary you may want to know:

FauxHawk

Fauxhawk either refers a) to the haircut worn primarily by men where their hair is gelled at the top, and the sides are short(er than  the top) b) the hairstyle worn primarily by women when the sides are pinned and/or gelled back, and the longer pieces and bangs are pinned into a pompadour-looking concoction atop one’s head. c) A hairstyle in which the top layer is styled into a mohawk, without having any hair cut. Some longer-haired faux-hawk parents have really great mohawks, and still manage to keep the longer bottom layer of their hair.

Undercut

The undercut has only one rule. A least one portion of the hair on your head is extremely short. It can be exposed or covered, it can be on both sides, it can be on one side. It can have designs shaved into it, it can be dyed.  But an undercut it is. An undercut is what I myself have!

photo credit by psychara

Undershave

The undershave is an undercut, but it’s shaved (usually) bald. In many cases of undershaves the hair is left long enough to cover the shaved portion if desired. Basically, it's any hair cut with a shaved portion that cannot be styled into a mohawk. 

Photo credits Missynthetic & Jollarocknrolla on DA.

Side Burns / Girly Burns

In Mohawk talk, these are the little pieces in front of your ear that you can decide to leave long when you’re getting the other portions cut. Some people leave them longer, others cut them triangular, others angle them to point toward their chin, some gel them down. Girly burns, are obviously, the girl talk of sideburns.
Photo credits to shi kurogawa on DA & Razor Candi.

History Sources:

http://www.native-net.org/tribes/mohawk-indians.html

http://www.bigorrin.org/mohawk_kids.htm

http://www.fashionencyclopedia.com/fashion_costume_culture/Early-Cultures-Native-American/Mohawk.html

And now...You're a know-it-all.