pompadour

/ˌpɑmpəˈdɔər/

Other forms: pompadoured; pompadours

A pompadour is a dramatic hairdo that's swept back from the forehead and worn in a high, rolled style. Elvis Presley was almost as famous for his pompadour as for his music.

This iconic hairstyle was originally made popular by a mistress of King Louis XV of France, Madame de Pompadour. Chic 18th-century women wore pompadours, and the style was fashionable again in the late 1800s and then in the 1940s. Movie stars of this last era, from Betty Grable to Bette Davis, frequently sported pompadours. For maximum height, hair would be "ratted," or backcombed, and covered with a swoop of hair on top.

Definitions of pompadour

1. noun

   a hair style in which the front hair is swept up from the forehead
   type of:

   coif, coiffure, hair style, hairdo, hairstyle

   the arrangement of the hair (especially a woman's hair)
2. verb

   style hair in which it is swept up from the forehead
   type of:

   style

   make consistent with a certain fashion or style