Elvis Presley may
have been the advance guard, but young Iraqis own it - protesters in Baghdad
sport slicked styles and rockabilly haircuts, a testament to their unyielding
rebel spirit. "The revolution has changed everything," said Qassem,
nearly three months into a popular movement that seeks to unseat Iraq's highly
dysfunctional political establishment. "Now, it is all so different - we
are free," the young protester added under a tent where he doles out tea
and biscuits to peers in Tahrir Square. "We also know how to let
loose," Qassem continued, his face switching suddenly from serious to
smiling. "And so I invented a new style," he chuckled, glancing
upwards towards his rectangular pompadour.

Outside his tent,
thousands of students and young unemployed people thronged the iconic square,
railing once more against "crooked" politicians. Their enthusiasm has
remained undimmed since the start of the revolt on October 1, despite clashes with
security forces that have killed close to 460. One thing strikes the eye
perhaps above all else - the unbridled hairstyles young men sport. High quiffs,
tight fades and loads of attitude - it is quite the male beauty pageant.

'Why be scared?'

Exclusively male
and in large part inspired by the fashionable cuts of football stars, the
phenomenon is coursing through the Arab world. And it is particularly exuberant
in Tahrir Square. "Here, we call it the rooster comb," explained a
local journalist. For 23-year-old actor and renowned activist Omar Dabbour,
"the style began two years ago". Then "it exploded with the
revolution in Tahrir. The people feel increasingly free," he noted.

Dabbour himself
sports an impressive, albeit more natural, style - an afro worthy of the
Jackson Five, which amounts to a radical departure, in what is otherwise an
ocean of hair gel. "In Tahrir Square, young people are daring - it has
become normal," added Dabbour. "But in the rest of the city, it's a
bit different - more conservative. There is the army, the militiamen who can
bother you at checkpoints," he continued. "I don't care. Before, I
had a short haircut. Now I have let it grow. Why be scared?"

Sporting yellow
tinted glasses and maintaining a studious air, Karrar Riad, 20, pushed a hand
through his long and deliberately disordered locks. With a black leather
bracelet, he has the air of a young Johnny Depp. "Today, everything is
possible. We do what we want here," he said. Here perhaps, but not in
Riad's home district of Kadhimiya, which houses a key Shiite mausoleum. 

Going home
requires him to restore some conventional order to his unruly mop. Other
fashionistos don a cap to blend back in when they depart the protest hotbed.
Their caution is not without reason. In 2012, at least 15 youths were stoned,
beaten or shot to death in a spate of targeted attacks against people sporting
the "emo" look - tight-fitting black clothes and alternative
hairstyles. 

Voluminous
proliferation

The range of
styles is wide, but it is Iraq's take on the Elvis cut that rises head and
shoulders above the rest: a towering pompadour with undercut back and sides.
"Adopted by celebrities, students and hipsters," the pompadour -
named after a mistress of French King Louis XV - will transform you into a
"sexy and trendy man", according to one website. But this style
itself unfurls into a multitude of sub-styles in Iraq, from classic rockabilly
to even the mohawk.

And amid the
proliferation of looks, cuts are becoming ever more voluminous. "The idea
is to do what you want to do," said Dabbour. And probably also to attract
the throngs of young women who frequent Tahrir Square, in a commingling that is
unusual in Iraq. The hairstyles on display have "roots in the 1990s, in
the hairdressing salons and male beauty parlors of Sadr City," explained
Zahraa Ghandour, an Iraqi documentary filmmaker.

Sadr City - a
huge working-class district of northeastern Baghdad - was marginalized under
the regime of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein. "The residents wanted to
mark themselves out. It was a means to express themselves, to protest,"
said Ghandour. Baroque haircuts, meanwhile, "really started around two
years ago, again in Sadr city."

Zouheir
Al-Atouani, a local videographer who has gained nationwide fame, spread this
style by posting wedding videos in which men sport ever more sculpted looks.
According to Ghandour, "in Tahrir, ever more frequented by young people
from Sadr city, it's a way to rebel, to free oneself". It is also most
likely a way of defying the country's all-powerful militias, and social revenge
for young people who feel despised, yet now find themselves at the forefront of
fashion. "They are especially creative," smiles Ghandour. And the
styles are "spread far and wide by social networks", where dandies
love to showcase their ever crazier cuts. - AFP