backcomb

• back-comb

back +‎ comb

backcomb (third-person singular simple present backcombs, present participle backcombing, simple past and past participle backcombed)

Backcombed mohawk

1. To hold hair and comb it towards the head, thus giving it a bushier look; tease.
   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 5,

     Her dark-blonde hair, worn long at Oxford, had been cut and backcombed, Diana-style, and quivered when she shook her head.

backcomb (plural backcombs)

Backcombs

1. The hairstyle produced by backcombing.
2. (dated) A decorative comb worn as an ornament and to secure a hairstyle.
   • 1876, Lex, Remarkable Criminal Trials in Bengal:

     There was a part of a bottle of liquor on the table—the furniture of the hall was disarranged—a pair of slippers, two small combs, and a backcomb were lying near an easy chair.

   • 1912, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade Marks, volume 39, issues 1-6, page 252:

     A backcomb comprising a pair of oppositely disposed members of sheet material each provided with teeth along one margin, a pivot pin securing the members at one end in overlapping relation.

   • 1920, David Herbert Lawrence, The Lost Girl:

     Her father had produced a pink crêpe de Chine blouse and a backcomb massed with brilliants—both of which she refused to wear.