They didn’t call them “greasers” for nothing. The rebellious rock and roll kids of the 1950’s needed a whole lot of hair grease – sometimes Brylcreem, sometimes just Vasoline - to get their mops set for shaping. And the shape they got their slicked-back locks sculpted into was the duck tail. That was only its polite name, though.

The D.A., known in coy circles as the duck tail, actually stood for “duck’s ass.” Like the converging feathers on a duck’s rear end, the D.A. featured a distinctive center part down the back of the head. To get the look, the hair was first prepped with grease. Then the stylist used a comb to create the part and give it a wavy, “feathered” look.

Parents pointed their fingers at rock and roll for leading their teen boys down the path of greaserhood. Yes, they were inspired by rockers like Elvis, who sported a black duck tail pompadour, but you couldn’t blame the King for the style – it was invented (so the story goes) back in 1940 by Joe Cirello, a barber in South Philadelphia. Little did he imagine how popular it would become with kids who wanted to look rebellious and tough.

A wide-toothed metal comb joined the jeans, white t-shirt, and pack of cigs as part of a greaser’s essential supply kit. Boys could be spotted spending as much time as their sisters in the bathroom, grooming their do’s in the morning, re-grooming them in the school boys’ room after a lunchtime tussle messed up their pompadours.

Naturally, variations cropped up in the greaser look. Although the D.A. itself remained constant, the top of the hair could be styled in different ways, from the crest, bop, and dupe to the back sweep and Tony Curtis’s curly-topped version of the smooth wave pompadour. The grease was everpresent, though, just as the D.A. itself has never totally dropped out of fashion. It remains in the rockabilly and goth-rockabilly subcultures to this day, reminding us of the time when greasers ruled the streets.