Reinventing The Mohawk
More Goo, Less Snipping Create Hairstyle Unlike Travis Bickle's In 'Taxi Driver'
The Hartford Courant - June 21, 2008
By Jesse Leavenworth, Courant Staff Writer
The Mohawk used to be a badge of rebellion and hard-core danger, the realm of airborne soldiers, sneering punks and crazed killers. The past several years, however, the style has been more widely sanctioned, and for some Connecticut boys, the crested cut is a school's-out rite.
"It's really cool for the summer, and I like the way it looks, " said Max Gorack, 10, of Avon.
Max got his Mohawk on June 11 at Cuts for Peanuts in Avon.
"He likes to try different things," said his mother, Jennifer Gorack.
Four-year-old Owen Jeram of South Windsor asked for the cut when he saw a Mohawked man recently, said his mother, Danielle Jeram. Owen's dad, who usually cuts his son's hair, gave the boy a home-buzzed center hedge.
"I don't think he's going to let us shave it off now," Danielle Jeram said. "He really like it."
But the Mohawk is still a radical departure, if aberration, for many people. Owners and stylists at several kids' salons said they get few requests, although more around this time of year, when school is closing and parents are bowing to pressure.
Certainly, more boys are begging for Mohawks than those actually getting them.
"He's been asking me for three years, and I finally gave in," Jennifer Gorack said of Max.
Most kids don't get the full "Road Warrior" of Travis Bickle look (Robert De Niro's character from the movie, "Taxi Driver"), with the sides of the head shaved to the skin. Like Max and Owen, Mohawked boys these days usually retain some side fuzz, with the top-brush of varying length.
Others, including Cal Votta of Avon, get the still more conservative "fauxhawk," in which the crest is not so sharply delineated and more the result of combing and gel than clipping. Cal's mother, Flo Votta, said the 7 year-old wanted a genuine Mohawk, but she wouldn't go that far.
"That's a little too radical," Flo Votta said.
There are, after all, elders to think about.
Danielle Jeram said one of Owen's grandparents, clearly displeased, commented, "That's and interesting haircut."
For older generations, the Mohawk will always signify a wild child. Tom and Ann Larsen - who had stopped by Cuts for Peanuts recently visit their daughter, salon owner Sally Larsen - remembered that a few rebellious boys in the 1950s high school days (she in Maryland, he in Farmington) had dared to go beyond the D.A. and the flat-top and got Mohawks. Ann Larsen said her school principal in Berlin, Md., suspended the boys.
While the style is more widely embraced today, there are limits. Danielle Jeram said Owen's 2-year-old sister, Teagan, saw him getting his special cut and wanted one, too.
"But she isn't getting it," Danielle said. "She has beautiful blond hair."
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