Tuft love

Thought the fin was a fad? Turns out the fauxhawk is sticking around.

Paul Troisi, a colorist at SalonCapri, shows off his 'do. (Erik Jacobs for The Boston Globe)

According to popular theory, parting your hair on the left reveals a tendency toward logical, left-brain thinking. Parting it on the right suggests a more artistic, intuitive bent.

But the modern man prides himself on drawing from both sides. That might explain the enduring appeal of the fauxhawk.

In a decade otherwise undefined by men's tonsorial tendencies - no ubiquitous buzz cuts, unruly lions manes, or Cobain hair - the one constant seems to be the follicular push toward the center.

The slight, sculpted crest that represents a civilized simulation of the ancient-warrior, punk-rock Mohawk speaks volumes about the wearer, who demonstrably straddles the fence between conformity and nonconformity: I'm a team player with an unrepentant dash of mischief. I may be rumpled, but I clean up nice.

Generally speaking, the fauxhawk represents the "safe," less severe version of the traditional Mohawk, without shaving the sides of the head or growing the top long enough to fashion Liberty spikes or the equally confrontational Roman helmet/broom-bristles affectation.

Once avant-garde, later appropriated by gay hipsters, the dorsal-fin look has been mainstreamed in recent years by such ubiquitous checkout-counter presences as David Beckham, soccer's own rock star, and Maddox Jolie-Pitt, the son of that Hollywood couple that gets a bit of attention. (Little Maddox's pointy-headed 'do was adorably dubbed a "hawkapoo.")

Now, the fauxhawk "has become the everyday guy's way of keeping a cool edge," says Cary Mann, owner of Liquid Hair Studios in Boston's South End. "It's predominantly a straight, 20-to-30-something style with a metrosexual influence. It's a very comfortable zone that allows them to have style with their hair, without being totally ostentatious."

As befits a style that suggests equal parts hip and nerdy, tough and tender, the fauxhawk can be worn across a wide spectrum of audacity. Dashing young actors from Jude Law and Colin Farrell to Elijah Wood have been known to emerge from the stylist's chair with a pronounced ridge of hair bisecting their crania. Working punks, of course - Green Day's Tre Cool, ex-blink-182 drummer Travis Barker - have been rocking various grades of fauxhawks for years. Even everyday-guy Adam Sandler sported a fauxhawk at the recent premiere of his hairdresser comedy, "You Don't Mess With the Zohan."

Recent "Top Chef" runner-up Richard Blais wears his fauxhawk Jimmy Neutron-style, with an emphatic swirl, like soft-serve ice cream, in front. The "sticky-up-y bangs" look, as Mann calls it.

"American Idol" winner David Cook, on the other hand, featured an on-again, off-again, sometimes barely discernible fauxhawk. Cook's look was a faint reminder of previous-season finalist Sanjaya Malakar, who pulled his long hair up into an outrageous plume worthy of an old new wave band in a wind tunnel. Meanwhile, the hardcore Mohawk, says Mann, seems to be making a comeback among fashion-forward gay men, who want to distance themselves from the fauxhawk now that it has become commonplace. (Bruno, the Austrian fashion-police character of the comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen, stereotypically wears one.)

"I just got back from Palm Springs, and I saw so many classic London Mohawks [on gay men]," Mann reports.

The full-blown Mohawk, says Albert DeSisto, a stylist at Blade Barber Shop in the South End, is staging a slower comeback in Boston. "Maybe I do one every three months," he says.

Yet even pro athletes are playing with the style. Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones, one of several NBA players to adopt the "frohawk," wore one that inspired a fan website dedicated to its preservation. Celtics rookie Glen "Big Baby" Davis had his own landing strip shaved into his head during the season, though he quickly succumbed to the hazing of his teammates.

No doubt the teasing had something to do with Mr. T, the '80s relic whose geometric Mohawk remains one of the truly iconic haircuts of all time. Another period character, Robert De Niro's psychotic Travis Bickle from "Taxi Driver," likewise represents the harsh extreme of the look.

The vigilante's austere racing stripe was the likely inspiration for mixed martial arts legend Chuck Liddell, who got his first Mohawk before a Slayer concert. Among other things, Liddell's intimidating look is "a good way to get out of jury duty," as he has joked.

By contrast, the fauxhawk implies that its wearer is perfectly capable of being an upstanding member of society. With a little help from his hair wax.