A popular hairstyle known as ‘The Edgar’ has sparked a major backlash, with some restaurants and schools trying to ban those who wear it.
The bowl-shaped style – which has been compared to the modern Moe of Three Stooges and Spock of Star Trek look – is typically favored by Mexican-American young men known as “Edgars.”
But the trend is causing widespread division within Spanish-speaking communities, as locals increasingly link the hairstyle to crime, while others accuse critics of being racist.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, a San Antonio restaurant called for a ban on ‘Edgars’
Mikey Valdez, 18, has been identified as one of two shooters in a deadly shooting at Fiesta in San Antonio in April. Valdez was shot and killed by police responding to the gunfight between Valdez and another man
In April, two gunmen rocked the city of San Antonio after opening fire at a popular festival and shooting five innocent bystanders, local authorities said.
One of the suspects Mikey Valdez, 18, an ‘Edgar’, had just been released from prison for unrelated car burglaries and was killed along with his accomplice by police who rushed in to protect the public.
Valdez and a second gunman ‘had some kind of beef and decided to take it to the market square, among all those people’ Police Chief William McManus stated after the shooting.
After the fight, local restaurateur Ricky Ortiz posted a meme with a “no Edgars” sign on social media, suggesting he didn’t want anyone with this hairstyle at his popular restaurants El Camino, Besame, Ay Que Chula and Perfect Tender.
“The Fiesta Commission needs to foreclose on the whole thing, charge a cover and have a no-Edgar policy,” Ortiz said of the organizers of the event Valdez targeted.
‘A good portion of the people in this city are absolute [trash can emoji]. Make it unaffordable for them to attend at all.’
But Ortiz’s comments drew backlash from the majority Hispanic community, with some San Antonio residents accusing him of being a racist.
‘Imagine that you discriminate [against] your customers,” wrote Instagram user @allsold0ut San Antonio Stream.
‘Lol, you live in the town of “Edgar”. This is a new form of racism.’
Ricky Ortiz, the owner of El Camino and several other eateries, later said he was only joking about not allowing Edgars into his business
Several young men with “Edgar” hairstyles are suspects in a murder case in San Antonio, Texas for a May 2022 slaying, according to local station KENS 5
But Ortiz, a first-generation American with Mexican parents, defended his comments.
“People who accuse me of racism are speaking from ignorance,” he told the local publication.
“They don’t want to acknowledge or admit that the majority of kids who get these haircuts want to live in a culture that is influenced by gang membership and things like that.”
He’s not alone: the anti-Edgar movement is spreading to other cities as well.
In El Paso, students led an effort to ban the style from Riverside High School in 2021.
Despite collecting dozens of signatures, no ban was imposed, but the initiative sparked widespread debate about the new craze.
“Especially in El Paso, we’ve had a lot of crimes committed by people who happened to have the same hairstyle,” said the administrator of El Paso’s most popular Instagram account, @therealfitfamElPaso, who asked to remain anonymous.
“Where we are now, we kind of look at these guys as bad guys, even though there are plenty of good guys of the same stripe.”
In a recent post about a shooting, the social media page administrator posted the photo of the suspect in jail, with “Edgar” written on it.
Comments included “of course he has an Edgar cut” and “the haircut is right.”
Riverside High School students in El Paso led a failed effort to ban the Edgar from their campus in 2021
El Paso restaurant Steakpedo joked about preventing future Edgars through the power of tips
The Edgar trend emerged in 2019 and became popular during the pandemic, the creator of @therealfitfamElPaso explained.
It is believed that the style got its nickname from Major League Baseball player Edgar Martínez, a former Seattle Mariners player. aol.com.
A young customer asked a hairdresser to etch the player’s likeness onto the back of his head in a video that went viral.
Still, others argue that the look has Native American roots, specifically the Jumano tribe who lived in the Lone Star State between 1600 and 1800.
“The hairstyle and aesthetic can be read as resistance to Western notions of beauty or style,” Sonya M. Alemán, associate professor of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told Dallas Morning News.
It is believed that the ‘Edgar’ hairstyle got its name after a young man in Puerto Rico asked his barber to etch the MLB player’s face onto his head
Regardless of its origins, it’s unclear whether the controversial hairstyle is a dying trend or here to stay.
A hairdresser Carlos Flores, 19, of Kyle, Texas, said he averages about seven requests a day for “Edgar” haircuts from young Mexican-American men in Central Texas.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t do an ‘Edgar haircut,'” he told NBC News.