With binge-watch performances from the likes of Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy, razor-sharp suits, and bloody good haircuts across the board, BBC’s popular crime drama Peaky Blinders had us gripped from the very start. It follows the story of a gangster family running a crime racket in Birmingham just after the First World War. It’s been one of the most stylish things on TV since 2013 but apparently, not everyone was on board with the look that hair and makeup designer, Laura Schiavo, had in mind.

It took about a week to convince the cast to chop off their hair for the now-iconic, period-style Peaky Blinders haircut. Iddo Goldberg (who plays Freddie Thorne) claims he went under the razor first – which encouraged the ‘Peakies’ to copy him. One of the main points of reference for the look came from the book Crooks Like Us by Peter Doyle: a compilation of portraits of criminals by the Sydney police from the 1920s, but the style is also partly inspired by military haircuts and nods to earlier historical eras.

Peaky Blinders outfits – all herringbone coats and baker boy hats – have understandably become popular off-screen, Schiavo is still baffled by the popularity of the men’s haircuts: “It’s strange, when I first did it, the boys wanted to wear hats to hide it, but now they don’t need to as everyone is wearing it.”

Off-screen, the appeal lies in the fact that the harsh back and sides show off your bone structure (or beard) and the high contrast between the style on top of your head is a guaranteed head-turner. Plus, undercut hairstyles and fade cuts of various kinds have been a barbershop favorite since before Peaky Blinders started.

What Is The Peaky Blinders Haircut?

When we first meet mob boss, Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy), he’s returned to Birmingham from the hell of the trenches. His hair is worn in a “disconnected, unblended style that is very short and sharp” says Schiavo. It also draws on the styles worn by the ‘sloggers’ or hooligans from the late 1890s.