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A bowl cut, also known as a beach cut, pot haircut, chili bowl, or a mushroom cut, is a haircut where the hair is cut short on the sides and back and allowed to grow long on the top. It is said back in the 1750's that a man by the name of Sir Alexander Clegget was the first person in history to receive a 'bowl cut'. This then led to the invention of the 'slam dunk' in which the 'bowl cut' would make a player more aerodynamic as he flew through the air. Basketball players have now gone for a 'skin head' look rather than a 'bowl cut' because in modern day america 'bowl cuts are considered as a 'homosexual' haircut and only players like Andre Kirilenko and Australian under 15 player Alex Clegget.The definition of 'bowl cut' is: looking as though someone put a bowl on the head and cut off all the visible hair. A famous bowl cut wearer in the U.S. was Moe Howard, who wore it as part of his "Three Stooges" persona. In the UK it is also known as a pudding basin haircut.
Historically this haircut was popular among common people of various nationalities as an easy and relatively neat cut by a non-professional. Indeed, it was done by putting a cooking pot of a fit size to the level of ears, and all hair below the rim was cut or even shaven off. In some cultures it was a normal type of haircut. In other cultures the bowl cut was viewed as an attribute of poverty, signifying that the wearer could not afford to visit a barber. The bowl cut is quite common among the Amish.
From the late twentieth century on the haircut resurfaced as a rock music counterculture style credited to the Beatles' moptop hairstyles and the Ramones' early stylized bowl cuts. The bowl cut gained popularity in America among teenaged and pre-teen boys in the 1980s and the hairstyle was a veritable fad in some American locales. The popularity of the bowl cut faded in the mid-1990s.[1]
The bowl cut's presence has been utilized since then as a device used to distinguish certain individuals, such as the fictional character Anton Chiguhr in the Coen brothers' film adaption of No Country for Old Men and Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The bowl cut is also known to be worn on Mike Vida who shares a strong resemblance to Spock from the sci-fi series, Star Trek.