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I would like to understand what that part, a farfalla, might mean in reference to a very modest man, a government official, rather old (a widower, but still young enough to marry anew). I know that farfalla might refer to someone who is not serious in their ways, but here this is simply not the case. It might be a name for a style of hair-cut, but I did not find anything on Google Images that might refer to this case. Here it goes (Pirandello, Il fu Mattia Pascal):

Omino lindo, aggiustato, dagli occhietti ceruli mansueti, credo che s'incipriasse e avesse anche la debolezza di passarsi un po' di rossetto, appena appena, un velo, su le guance: certo si compiaceva d'aver conservato fino alla sua età i capelli, che si pettinava con grandissima cura, a farfalla, e si rassettava continuamente con le mani.

Thank you very much!

Charo
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Evgeniy
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    I don't know ... it intuitively seems like a symmetrical haircut... – Riccardo De Contardi Jan 07 '17 at 22:21
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    I read the novel several years ago (1978, I believe) and I don't think I noticed the passage. I agree with Riccardo that this should be some symmetrical haircut, possibly with locks descending on the sides of the forehead. – egreg Jan 07 '17 at 23:56
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    It could be something like this: https://books.google.es/books?id=1JvVJm98NMgC&pg=PA349&lpg=PA349&dq=pettinatura+farfalla&source=bl&ots=zlx_FZARN_&sig=T6qFbcTXbfdHxf2PacdGqzWGBWM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHisONrLLRAhULXhQKHby7AtIQ6AEIGzAG#v=onepage&q=pettinatura%20farfalla&f=false. – Charo Jan 08 '17 at 10:43
  • I agree with the symmetric hairdo, but, just to be a nitpicker, let me note that here Pirandello describes how the character pettinava, that is, combed his hair, not how he cut it (of course, if it were not cut symmetrically, it would be difficult to comb it so). – DaG Jan 08 '17 at 10:55
  • @DaG: So maybe this character had in some way to "design" the silhouette of a butterfly as combing his hair. – Charo Jan 08 '17 at 11:17
  • I know the haircut wouldn't be the same, but I immagine someone combing "il fiocco a farfalla" which appears in the photo of the Roman feminine bust in the book I linked before: this person should in some sense "design the silhouette of a butterfly". – Charo Jan 08 '17 at 11:27
  • @Charo You think the character was partly bald? That hairdo in the book is, of course, strictly feminine, and therefore no conservative man would put his hair that way… But if he did not have much hair, then he might be able to put what remained of his hair in a butterfly-like shape by combing it… – Evgeniy Jan 08 '17 at 12:39
  • Well, he couldn't have too little hair because it says "si compiaceva d'aver conservato fino alla sua età i capelli", but it might happen to him to be bald in the middle of the head. But we really don't know. – Charo Jan 08 '17 at 14:08
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    The meaning, as already said, seems like a symmetrical haircut but more specifically a haircut where the hair are parted in the middle. Like this. Farfalla means butterfly and in this example the hair center parting seems the body of a butterfly while the two hair parts are the wings – dym Jan 31 '17 at 11:36
  • @dym Thank you very much! Why don't you make this an answer? :) Actually, for me the information that this expression does refer to a haircut is the crucial bit: I was not sure even of that… – Evgeniy Jan 31 '17 at 20:47

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The meaning, as already said, seems like a symmetrical haircut but more specifically an haircut where the hair are parted in the middle.

Like this

Farfalla means butterfly and in this example the hair center parting seems the body of a butterfly while the two hair parts are the wings

dym
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    This is an opinion, and an already formulated one at that (as dym himself remarks), not a sourced answer. – DaG Feb 02 '17 at 00:46
  • @DaG Well, language is such a matter that opinions shared by many nearly become a truth… :) My problem was, in Russian “a butterfly hair-do” couldn't make sense under any condition whatsoever, so I just was puzzled… So, the major part of the mystery solved… As to the actual type of hair-do, the character did not have a lot of choice, I presume. – Evgeniy Feb 02 '17 at 10:43