Mormons and Faux-Hawks

Living and loving in rural Vermont, I thought it was an urban hair thing that I was clueless about...the male hairstyle with copious gel turning locks into a flippy, curvy, bed-head-meets-mohawk style.  I noticed the hair style donned by the squads of young and handsome missionaries from the west coast who would visit and teach us.  I noticed the faux-hawk when I was in Chicago O'Hare awaiting a flight and chalked it up to what all male hair styles must look like outside of Vermont.  Until...I remembered that I was sitting in a gate for a plane bound for Utah.  

 "Boy, these people have great hair and shoes.", I thought. 

The light bulb finally went off while watching NBC's - The Sing Off.  We were big fans of BYU's Vocal Point - a cute, wholesome college group of a Capella singers, who rocked closely clipped, meticulously gelled faux-hawks.

While cheering on Vocal Point, ten year old son, Colton, declared his intention to have a faux-hawk and gel for himself.  This struck his father and I funny, as Colton is a homeschooling jock, who until that moment in space, appeared to care minimally about his outward appearance, let alone his hair.  He persisted for weeks.  And he also happened to need a haircut.  So he got one (We all did.  Not faux-hawks, but hair cuts) on our trip to South Carolina, as we frequent my mother's  hair stylist, Patti.  Patti is actually the one who told me it was called a "faux-hawk" after watching me flounder around trying to describe the thing Colton wanted on his head.  One faux-hawk and a bottle of L.A. Looks gel later, Colton  found a new hobby working his hair like clay, reminiscent of that 'Ghost' romance scene with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore sharing the pottery wheel.

It does strike me funny how hard one works to get his hair to look like he just rolled out of bed. 

{Sigh} I have another "tween".

To my oblivion, faux-hawks have been around for a while.  I guess they started in the punk age of the 80's and became mainstream with David Beckham in the 90's. I'm really not hair-style-aware.  

Euro trends are slow to come to the U.S. and even slower to make it to Vermont, apparently.  But our exposure to Mormon culture caused me to link them to Utah, BYU and by default, the faith.  Other things I think about when BYU comes up in conversation is Very Long Blonde Hair.  Very White Teeth.  Honor Code.  Holding Hands.  Marriage. 

Yes.  Yes, I think I will show my sons and daughters BYU as an option to consider for college.  Thanks to the faux-hawk.

 Ciao.