A woman with long pigtails and braids. In the context of hairstyles, the usage of the term pigtail (or twin tail or twintail) shows considerable variation. The term may refer to a single

braid A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strande ...

, but is more frequently used in the plural ("pigtails") to refer to twin braids on opposite sides of the head. For some people, the term "pigtails" applies whether or not the hair is braided, but there is not widespread agreement on this (in places where this usage is common, unbraided pairs are called doggie ears or bunches and a single bunch, regardless of position on the head, is called a ponytail).

Word origin and usage

Bedouin woman with pigtails, 1880s. The term pigtail appears in English in the

American colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...

in the 17th century to describe a twist of chewing tobacco. One of the steps in processing the

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

was to twist a handful of leaves together to form a compact bunch that would then be cured (dried, either with or without smoking). The term "pigtail" was applied to the bunch based on its resemblance to a twisted pig's tail. From the later 17th century through the 19th century, the term came to be applied to any braided ("plaited", in British parlance) hairstyle. The British army also adopted a single pigtail or " queue" as its standard dress for long hair. British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...

s continue to wear a wig with pigtails as a way to hide the hairline in an attempt to provide basic anonymity.

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

mentions "pigtail" referring to hair and then to "pigtail tobacco" in the first and fourth chapters of '' Treasure Island'', respectively. Most modern dictionaries still define "pigtail" as a single tight braid. However, many speakers use the term to describe two symmetrical bunches of hair on either side of the head, braided or not.

Styles

There are numerous styles of pigtails in which a person may wear their hair. They may be braided, straightened, beaded, ribboned, in buns, fishtailed, and even

French braid A French braid, also called a French plait, is a type of braided hairstyle. The three-strand gathered plait includes three sections of hair that are braided together from the crown of the head to the nape of the neck. Description In the simplest ...

ed. Pigtails can be placed on different parts of a person's head: high, low, or to the side. In some regions of China, traditional culture related the wearing of pigtails to a girl's marital status. A young, unmarried, Chinese girl would often wear two buns, or bundles of hair on either side of the head to display her availability to prospective husbands. This style of pigtails is sometimes referred to as "ox horns." However, when this girl would marry, the two pigtails, or buns, would be replaced with just one, thus indicating her marriage. The

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

and later

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

men's coiffe called the " queue" is sometimes described incorrectly as a pigtail.

Bunches

Some people call this style "pigtails", while others would call it "bunches" as they are unplaited. Bunches (also called pigtails, bunchies, twintails or angel wings) are a hairstyle in which the hair is parted down the middle and gathered into two symmetrical bundles, like ponytails, secured near the scalp. Sometimes this hairstyle is referred to as "pigtails", but in other cases the term "pigtails" applies only if the hair is braided.

In Japan

Unbraided pigtails are extremely popular in Japan, especially in anime and manga fandom and Japanese otaku culture. Traditionally a hairstyle worn by young girls, it has come to represent innocence, and is also known as the "twintail" or . Anime and manga characters sporting twintails have been prevalent since the 1960s, and the hairstyle has since entered mainstream culture, in part due to

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's pers ...

embracing the look. This includes the creation of a "Japan Twintail Association" to promote and celebrate the hairstyle, as well as running photo spreads of models sporting the dual tails. "Twin Tail Day" is officially recognized by the Japan Anniversary Association and falls on February 2, when girls post images of themselves with the hairstyle onto Twitter. * In

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, hair bunches are called '. A popular variation is the odango hairstyle, in which each ponytail is partially coiled around its base to form a small bun from which the remaining length hangs free. * Schoolgirls in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

customarily wear their hair in a pair of long braids, with the end of each braid looped up and fastened to its base with red ribbon.

References

External links