From punk rock rebels to fashionable twinks, the rat tail’s history is intertwined with themes of sophistication, identity and political defiance
“Never trust a dude with a rat tail,” cautions HBO’s recently cancelled show, The Idol. If the series got anything right, it’s the widespread disdain for the hairstyle sported by The Weeknd’s character, Tedros. In a tangled lineage of hair heritage, consider the rat tail because the forbidden love child of the ponytail and mullet. Aptly named after the rear end of its rodent counterpart, the hairstyle is characterised by an isolated long strand of hair on the nape of the neck, often braided, beaded or bleached.
If the mullet was thought to...
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