Courtesy of MattelKate Sullivan, Allure magazine
What other hairstyle is associated with cheerleaders, George Washington, and the oppression of seventeenth-century Chinese men? How the ponytail has swung over the years.
1600 B.C.: Estimated time frescoes showed Greek women wearing ponytails. Artwork proves that the style was also popular among ancient Egyptian dancers and Roman girls.
6th: Century Mayan men wore wide ponytails or several mini ones in ornamental bands while women wore braids. Only slaves had short hair.
18th: Century British military members wore wigs with queues; one style was meant to ward off the cut of a saber.
10: Number of days Han Chinese men were given to comply with the Manchu "Queue Order" to shave their hair save for a long ponytail in 1645. Adoption of the queue was a symbol of submission; failing to have one meant a death sentence.
2: Types of wigs British barriseters wear. The formal "spaniel" has thick curls hanging loose; the "tiewig" has short curls and a small ponytail.
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1812: Year that the Brothers Grimm published "Rapunzel," about a girl imprisoned in a tower who lets a prince climb her ponytail for visits. Their meetings are revealed when Rapunzel becomes pregnant.
1951: Year the word "ponytail" entered the American vernacular, according to Merriam-Webster.
6: Number of weeks it took Frederick Kohner to compile his surfer daughter's stories into the novel Gidget:K+The Little Girl With Big Ideas. On the book's 1957 cover, Gidget wears a ponytail.
2: Years later that actress Sandra Dee also had a ponytail in the film Gidget; when Sally Field played the character on TV in 1965, she wore pigtails.
$4,000 to $9,000: Current value of the first barbie doll, introduced in 1959. She wears a ponytail with curly bangs, so collectors call these vintage dolls Ponytail Barbie.
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1958: Year that the Hook Brown Company applied for a patent for an "elastic loop fastener" covered in string so that the rubber band inside wouldn't catch on hair.
38: Years later that Rommy Revson patented a fabric ponytail holder, the Scunci, soon colloquially referred to as a scrunchie.
$2.4 million: Amount for which Revson successfully sued a company for knocking off her product in 1997.
10: Inches in length a ponytail must be in order to be donated to the charity Locks of Love, which provides sick children with wigs.
2009: Year Nicki Minaj rapped of her skills on Mya's "Ponytail": "Pull it with no hair clips/Ponytail, no scrunchie."
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16: Approximate number of years chef Mario Batali has had his ponytail.
5: Number of seconds Karl Lagerfeld says it takes him to style his ponytail.
12: Percentage of Allure's Facebook fans who find ponytails on men sexy.
2: Number of ponytails, one over the other, that David Beckham wore on the soccer field in 2003.
2012: Year a Stanford professor found the mathematical reason a jogger's ponytail sways from side to side instead of up and down.
16: Age of Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas when Internet commenters criticized the looped ponytail and hair clips she wore during competition.
4: Number of the Fab Five Olympic gymnasts who wore ponytails.
$50: Cost of an appointment at John Barrett's Ponytail Bar in New York City, which opened in 2012.
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