Let’s talk about Dolores’s prairie-chic sideburns from ‘Westworld’
They’re called earlocks
Women rarely think about styling hair around the ears. Sometimes we tuck the strands, other times we frame our ears with cornrows or baby hairs, or we hide them with massive emo bangs.
But there was a time when women took care to style that real estate between the ear and the cheek, where men grow sideburns.
In HBO’s Westworld, prairie protagonist Dolores wears her blonde tresses pinned loosely into soft, cascading curls. The hair on the crown of her head is parted back from her face. But in front of her ears she allows herself a bit of vanity, with tidy ringlets known as “earlocks.”
In the early 1800s American West, prairie women mostly wore no-fuss fashion. Along with wearing the characteristic calico dress for practicality, they pulled hair into a neat bun because, dammit, they had hard work to do. Sometimes they used hair oil to keep strands in place. Occasionally, like Dolores, younger women allowed curls to frame the face for a more feminine effect.
Other cultures also wear earlocks, most notably Orthodox Jewish men and boys. The Yiddish “payot” or “peye” comes from the biblical Hebrew pe-ah, which means side or corner. The book of Leviticus commands, “You shall not round the corners of your heads,” in other words “don’t trim your hair around the ears.” The payot is often curled tightly.
In the 1960s earlocks became popular again, but this time they were pointy and paired with severe bobs. In the ‘90s women styled long, loose curls in front of their ears. In the 2000s both men and women created earlocks out of edgy sidecuts. Rihanna has experimented with earlocks (though she’d probably call them “earloqs”) as well as Katy Perry.
So next time you’re fixin’ to party, don’t neglect your ear hair. If a robot can do it…
