They’re calling 2013 the “Year of the Bang.”
We’re not talking about gun control—we’re talking about hair. It started with the Duchess of Cambridge who cut her bangs last year and started a flood of requests to mimic the look at salons all over the world. After First Lady Michelle Obama followed suit, you can pretty much assume that you’ll never see a woman’s full forehead again. At least not until the look changes again.
Click here to our slideshow: The Most Powerful Women with Bangs
Bangs have been in and out of fashion over the years. In the 1880s, one of the most powerful women in the world, the soon to be Queen of England, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, wore frizzy bangs.
So did Theda Bara, the silent film actress who was considered a sex symbol in the 1920s.
Michelle Obama wasn’t the first woman in the White House to make bangs a signature look. 
Mamie Eisenhower’s tidy little fringe and pillbox hats made the look a lot less wild and adventurous than Bara and the Queen intended. Of course there are queens, and then there are queens.
The “Queen of Bangs” was one special lady—Cleopatra, played in the movie by Elizabeth Taylor. 
The epic movie was the highest grossing film of 1963 In 1970, when all sales were counted the film grossed $62 million ($366.88 in 2012 dollars). But it cost $44 million to make ($323 million in 2012 dollars) and ultimately lost money.
