Short, Back and Battle of Hastings!

We recently witnessed the birth of an internet sensation and currently (August 2025) I am unable to look at social media without seeing the image of a man with a very distinct haircut. The man has been dubbed ‘Ibiza Final Boss’ and his image is often captioned with the phrase ‘short, back and Battle of Hastings’. I must admit, I have recently noticed a trend in men’s haircuts which are looking more and more distinctively Norman and similar to those we see depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. The Ibiza final boss with his ‘short, back and Battle of Hastings’ haircut is the perfect representation, although perhaps an extreme case of this growing trend among young English men.

The Bayeaux Tapestry – Anglo-Saxons

The Normans as depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry have always fascinated me with their distinct features, fashions and haircuts. These distinctions reveal not only a difference in fashion between the Norman invaders and the Anglo-Saxons but they also make it easier for the audience to decipher which side an individual depicted on the Tapestry belonged to.

The above image depicts King Edward the Confessor, seen here seated conversing with Harold Godwinson. The Normans were positive towards Edward, the cousin of William the Bastard, the latter had claimed the former designated him as his heir thus giving him a legitimate claim to the English throne. Edward is depicted throughout the tapestry sporting a long beard. This was intentional, Edward was around 60 years of age upon his death on 6th January 1066 and his long beard not only reflects his advanced age but also Anglo-Saxon fashion. Age was synonymous with wisdom and on the tapestry, Edward’s status in this regard was perfectly represented by the long beard. Edward’s long beard also marked him out as distinct from his Anglo-Saxon contemporaries emphasising his exalted position.

Harold Godwinson likewise appears with facial hair, through lacking the long beard of Edward, he nevertheless reflects Anglo-Saxon fashions which, in the eleventh century showed a preference for moustaches and beards. The hair itself is left to grown long and full on the head.

The Bayeaux Tapestry – The Normans

From a Norman perspective the portrayal of the Anglo-Saxons as moustached was a gender insult intended to feminise the conquered, for the victors, the Normans, are depicted as clean-shaven, as Norman fashion dictated.

As depicted above, in the mid eleventh century it was fashionable for men to wear their hair shaven at the back and left to grow long at the front. Similar, but not exactly the same as our ‘Ibiza final boss’ with his ‘short, back and Battle of Hastings’ cut. Such a hair cut severed a practical purpose; Norman knights were accustomed to warfare and the mid eleventh century saw Normans regularly engaged in military activity. Long hair was a hinderance to helmet wearing, whereas shorter hair made it more comfortable to don head coverings.

Norman Fashions

According to William of Malmesbury one Anglo-Saxon scout, scoping out the invading Norman force declared: ‘almost every man in William’s army seemed to be a priest, all their faces including both lips being clean-shaven’.¹ Malmesbury went on to say: ‘for the English leave the upper lip, with its unceasing growth of hair, unshorn’.² Head and facial hair could thus also be a mark of different ethnicity. But likening the Conqueror’s army to priests was a way of emphasising their moral superiority to Harold and his troops.

Indeed, after 1066, some Englishmen were forced to shave their beards and thus the modification of hair could also be means of exerting dominance over one’s subordinates. By the same token, having hair or a beard in a particular style could also be an act of defiance; according to Matthew Paris, in the 1190s some Englishmen continued to wear beards as a mark of hostility towards the Normans.

Later Norman Hairstyles

An interesting shift in Norman hair cuts can be seen in the latter eleventh century, under the reign of William the Conqueror’s son, William Rufus. Eadmer criticised the men at William Rufus’ court:

‘Now at this time it was the fashion for nearly all the young men to grow their hair long like girls; then, with locks well combed, glancing about them and winking in ungodly fashion, they would daily walk abroad with delicate steps and mincing gait. [Anselm spoke out against] the most shameful sin of sodomy…lately spread abroad in this land which has already borne fruit all too abundantly and has with its abomination defiled many.’³

Eadmer, a cleric, found Rufus’ court to be oppressive and foreign; thereby he used hair as an effeminising device of criticism. And although he does not explicitly state it, he suggests that this recent trend was associated with the sin of sodomy (a complex term which could refer to men enjoying intercourse with either men or women). We do not have surviving sources telling us the courtiers’ opinions, but it is most likely that, despite Eadmer’s criticisms, they did not regard long hair as ‘effeminate’, and instead grew it long in keeping with current high status male fashion. Probably they viewed long hair, like the earlier kings did, as evidence of virility, not of its lack. And who in the eleventh-century was asking clerics for fashion advice anyway!

Indeed, Rufus’ court was a reflection of wider trends and by the eleventh and twelfth centuries, long hair was deemed, by some, inappropriate for men and became a concern for Church Reformists. Orderic Vitalis noted that the Council of Rouen (1096) declared: ‘no one should grow his hair long but should have it cut as is fitting for a Christian’.⁴ The prohibition of long hair featured within the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar which stated: ‘Nor should they wear their hair…too long’.⁵

Short, Back and Battle of Hastings?

The ‘short, back and Battle of Hastings’ haircut appears to show a revivial of the eleventh century Norman haircut and it’s a trend I’m exciting to bear witness to! However, I would argue that the distinctive bob haircut is reminiscent of a less famous example, that of Henry V who found fame as the victor at Agincourt. Henry was, like his Norman forebearers, incredibly militarily active and sported a haircut which was fashionable in the fifteenth century; cut short above the ears and left to grow long on top of the head. Interestingly, Joan of Arc was said to have had her hair cut in this fashion, probably in an effort to blend in with her military male counterparts.

Hair has always been used to distinguish certain groups or as a sign of one’s masculinity. Likewise, in depicting a particular group as long haired or clean shaven can be used to indicate the perceived femininity of a group of men. Intentionally or not, it is interesting to see a current shift towards fashions followed by some of the nation’s most celebrated warriors, which could say something about considerations of masculinity in the twenty-first century!

---

1. William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, R.A.B. Mynors, R.M. Thomson, and M. Winterbottom (eds. and trans.) Vol.1, (Oxford, 1998), pp. 450-451 ↩︎
2. William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, R.A.B. Mynors, R.M. Thomson, and M. Winterbottom (eds. and trans.) Vol.1, (Oxford, 1998), pp. 450-451 ↩︎
3. From Eadmer, History of Recent Events in England ↩︎
4. P. Stafford, ‘Meanings of Hair in the Anglo-Norman World: Masculinity, Reform and National Identity’, p. 156 ↩︎
5. J.M. Upton-Ward, The Rule of the Templars, The French Text of the Rule and the Order of the Knights Templar, (Woodbridge, 2001), p. 25 ↩︎