A Complete Cultural History of the 1990s Butt Cut

I heard this referenced on a morning talk show and had to look it up.  We definitely did not call it this when I was growing up in the 70's.

Top definition

butt cut
Hair style parted down the middle, popular in the 70's to 80's. Usually feathered.
That dude is rockin a serious Butt Cut!
 
#butt cutt#haircut#feathered do#feathered#robert plant

It was the de facto haircut of every middle school bad boy — and now, thanks to ‘Pen15,’ it’s making a pop culture comeback

Even if you don’t know the show this is from, you could probably guess a few things about them — they’re the most popular kids in middle school, the bad-boy heartthrobs all the girls are after, with names like Scott or Brandt or Dustin or Alex.

The show is Pen15, the unflinchingly funny 2019 Hulu series about two girls entering seventh grade in the year 2000. It’s digging up deep-seated blunder-year nostalgia in 30-something so-and-so’s like me — many of whom actually rocked this haircut, or a far-less-attractive Supercuts version of it. It’s the “butt cut” — so nicknamed for the shape it turns the top of the wearer’s head.

Lara Cilento, Pen15‘s hair department head, says the styling choice is no accident.

“We knew [the butt cut] was a must for the ‘popular’ kids, and ‘older’ kids like [lead character Maya’s brother] Shuji,” Cilento says. “While doing our research, we pored over Tiger Beat, J-14 and the like, and also just pulled from our own memories and photos from kids we grew up with for inspiration.”

The butt cut “was so popular during this time period,” she continues, “we had to be careful not to overdo it and really decide who was a best fit for the butt cut.” In other words, the butt cut phenomenon was stranger than fiction. A realistic representation of a Y2K-era seventh grade class might look overdone, or too on-the-nose, on TV.

But how did the butt cut, of all styles, come to be the de-facto haircut of late-’90s bad boys?
​
Get the scoop here >>>