A widow’s peak is hair that comes to a point at the top of the forehead.
Today the term generally applies to men with receding hair, but it began as a reference to women with just such a pointed hairline.
The reason it is called a widow’s peak is because it resembles the pointed crest of a sixteenth-century mourning hood worn by widows when their husbands passed away.
It was believed that if a woman developed a hairline resembling the front of that mourning hood, her husband would soon die.
For a time, similar hair growth on a man was called a widower’s peak and was equally bad news for the wife.
The mourning hood was called a biquoquet.
