Utah claw
n.— «“It was often used in reference to something I came to refer to as the “stiffened frontal bang facade,” a hair tierra set in place with blow drier, hair spray and teasing comb. The heights these can sometimes reach is quite ridiculous.”…”I grew up in an area of West Virginia where such hairstyles are quite popular. We always used to refer to the tall, teased bangs as ‘joke-catchers’ (kept the joke from going over one’s head). A friend from Idaho whom I met in college informed me that her circle of high school friends had dubbed the style of bangs the ‘Utah Claw.’”» —“Re: “Bad Hair Day”” by apowell@liberty.uc.wlu.edu (April N. Powell) Usenet: alt.usage.english Mar. 7, 1994. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
When Marilyn from Boston, Massachusetts, used the expression Them’s the berries! with neighbors in her hometown of nearby Arlington, Massachusetts, she was surprised they were unfamiliar with it. The phrase means something like “That’s...
“Are we ready to order yet?” Why do restaurant servers use the word “we” when they’re not eating with you or helping you pay the bill? And a story of Cold War intrigue: A young saxophone player’s clever ruse to smuggle information past KGB...