An absurd hairstyle, upswept, covering heads of Brits and Europeans before the war (10)
I believe the answer is:
antebellum
'an absurd hairstyle upswept covering heads of brits and europeans' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'before the war' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'before' could be 'ante' (prefix meaning before) and 'ante' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for antebellum that I've seen is " prior to hostilities".)