Pompadour refers to a hairstyle which is named for Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), mistress of King Louis XV. Although there are numerous variations of the style for both women and men, the basic concept is hair swept upwards from the face and worn high over the forehead, and sometimes upswept around the sides and back as well. After its initial popularity among fashionable women in the 18th century, the style was revived as part of the Gibson Girl look in the 1890s and continued to be in vogue until World War I. The style was in vogue for women once again in the 1940s. The men's version, as worn by early rock and roll stars such as Elvis Presley, was popular in the late 1950s. Variations of the pompadour style continue to be worn by men and women in the 21st century.

In recent years the pompadour hair style has been adopted by those enamoured with vintage culture of the late 1950s and early 1960s that includes antique cars, hot rods, American folk music, rockabilly bands, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley, as well as actors such as James Deanand Desi Arnaz.

There are Latin variants of the hair style more associated with European and Argentine tangofashion trends and occasionally with late 20th century musical genres such as rockabilly andcountry.

This style has become popular among Italian Americans and the "goombah" or "Guido" subculture. The style is often parodied in shows like The Sopranos, which portray stereotyped characters - especially Silvio Dante.

In modern Japanese popular culture, the pompadour is a stereotypical hairstyle often worn by gang members, thugs, members of the yakuza and its junior counterpart bōsōzoku, and other similar groups such as the yankii (high-school hoodlums). In Japan the style is known as the "Regent" hairstyle, and is often caricatured in various forms of entertainment media such as anime, manga, television, and music videos.

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, sported a pompadour.

Today, the pompadour hairstyle is worn on celebrities which include Conan O'Brien, Bruno Mars, Macklemore, David Beckham, Logan Fife, Zac Efron, Zayn Malik of One Direction, Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and Justin Timberlake.