The Mohawk has long been a haircut that demonstrates strength, competitiveness, and stylistic confusion. It is a tradition as rich as Chad Pennington’s throwing arm is weak.

To the confused eye though, the Mohawk hasn’t gone out of style since the 80s glam bands… But that is the eye of an unformed soul because the new trend is the Frohawk - often spelled and called a Fohawk. First made famous by Mr. T - this haircut is popping up all over the NFL and two Wide Receivers lead the charge. First, the always trend-setting Chad Johnson - who showcases his hawk with some gold teeth. Second is Broncos WR Javon Walker - who clearly cut his hair out of jealousy because Chad is being drafted higher in fantasy leagues.

Frohawk

A Frohawk is essentially a Mohawk made with extremely curly or kinky hair (either natural or achieved by a permanent wave). Mr. T is probably the most commonly known wearer of this style. The name is a portmanteau of the words “Afro” and “Mohawk”.

Fauxhawk

The Faux hawk is the most commonly seen hawk today. The Fauxhawk is characterized by a regular haircut that is faded up to the top where there is a longer square patch of hair. This hair style is worn by taking the longer hair and gelling it into the middle of the head to make a mohawk, usually less than an inch tall.

Chad Johnson made the Frohawk un-frogettable

Javon Walker hopes his hawk can increase his fantasy draft position

Mr. T says these boys are all posers

Wikipedia gives advice on how to maintain your frohawk:

The Mohawk, by its nature, and depending on the type of hair the wearer has, is typically a high-maintenance style, although after practice can become quite routine for the wearer and done in a much shorter amount of time. Depending on the specific look desired by the wearer, regular, careful shaving may be required to maintain a clean line between the shaved and long parts of the hair; this can be especially complicated in bi- and tri-hawks.

If the hair is to be worn up, twenty minutes or more of laborious styling, including brushing, backcombing (teasing), twisting and so on, may be required. Some styles are particularly difficult to put up, requiring the use of very strong-hold hair gels and sprays, and in some cases other holding agents like shoe polish, tooth paste, white glue, egg whites, cornstarch or gelatin. The amount of time required for styling may increase considerably with longer hair or styles that require even spikes and lines.

Depending on the method used to spike a Mohawk it can take much less than 20 minutes. The use of glue and a blow dryer cuts down considerably on the time needed.

However once the mohawk is up it can be easily maintained for an extended period. By sleeping on the side of the head and mohawk extending in air, daily maintenance takes only a few minutes of reinforcement touching up. Depending on what is used to put the mohawk up and the conditions it endures, a mohawk can stay erect for several weeks.

Some wearers enhance the look of their Mohawks using hair dyes. This, too can require a great deal of initial effort and maintenance, especially in styles where the color(s) form an integral part of the style. In some cases, for example, Mohawk-wearers who normally wear their hair up in a fan style dye the hair in even lines or stripes of color, either horizontal or vertical.

In 2005, the Mohawk seemed to receive a brief and small revival among the mainstream, as claimed in Eric Wilson’s Sep 1, 2005 article in The New York Times, “The Mohawk Becomes, Well, Cute.” In it, Wilson argued that part of the revival was caused by Angelina Jolie’s adopted son, Maddox Jolie.

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Tags: Bengals, Broncos, Chad Johnson, Chad Pennington, Fantasy Football, Hair, Javon Walker

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 4:44 pm and is filed under celebrities, pro sports, photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.