When your 80s hair needed just a tinge of non-conformity, something to set you apart from your yuppie brethren without taking the Flock of Seagulls route, there was always the ‘rattail’, or just ‘tail’, if you prefer. With just this simply strip of hair extending from the nape of the neck, it worked with just about any hairstyle, from a closely-cropped crew cut, to a full bushy head of surfer hair.

To accentuate the look, a surfer might dye the tail blond, where as a rebel like ‘Johnny Slash’ from the TV show Square Pegs preferred something a little more neon. Lengths and widths varied. Members of the Thompson Twins, for example, let them grow long and wore them in a braid while others went for something a little less extreme.

The mainstream eventually lost their affinity for the rattail, but the goth and punk kids held out a little longer – proud to rebel against the fashions of the day. And years later, the style would re-emerge as a ‘thread dread’ where the tail could be woven into a collection of colorful strands of yarn.