|
Another interesting subject is hair styles. was never sure if it came under "clothing" or not but I think that it related and I know HBC cover hair styls. I can only write about my own experiences - but it is interesting to read about other's experiences in HBC - and in so many countries too! This relates to my secondary school too as I have photograph of my friend's form at my secondary school. I am not in it - it is a form in the prep department - but it is in 1971 during my first year at the school and also illustrates a bit more about our uniform other than that I have already told you. What strikes me about my friend's photo is the hairstyles! I think that I already told you that I was the only boy from my primary school who went on to this "posh" school. I know that I soon found out that their parents were more lax as far as clothing went than boys from my area were. I know that my Mum always insisted that we had a "short back and sides" at the barbers - and so did most of my friends' - my mate Michael's uncle used to cut his and his brothers' hair and I can tell you some funny stories about that! Anyway - the boys in this photo still had to wear caps (we didn't) and it was always amusing to see them perching their caps on top of their "barnet's" ("Barnet" is London slang for hair - rhyming slang - "Barnet Fair" = "Hair"). As for the photo. - well it is how I was dressed when I started the school. The stripes on the socks are the same colours as the ones on my jumper in my passport photo. (these don't wear jumpers as it's the class photo at the end of the year - Summer). The prep school boys wore exactly the same uniform as us - except for them shorts were compulsory. Some of us only wore shorts for the first year or or so.
There were no rules in my primary school as far as I knew, but our Mums kept our hair short. our primary school was in a working-class section of London. Most of us came from families that while not exactly poor cerainly were families where our mums had to watch the pennies. Something I learnedf when I began attending my grammar school was that their were differences between working-class and more affluent families. I know that my Mum always insisted that we had a "short back and sides" at the barbers - and so did most of my friends' - my mate Michael's uncle used to cut his and his brothers' hair and I can tell you some funny stories about that! I know that I soon found out that their parents were more lax as far as clothing went than boys from my area were.
I recall a written rule on my secondary school uniform list - " hair no longer than collar length". Obviously some of these boys at my secondary school are pushing the limit - with their Mums approval - and the rule obviously didn't apply to the teachers!. No wonder us boys rebelled later on! Some boys obviously have their hair cut so as to keep within the school rules (below collar length!) but they are expensive looking cuts. I didn't notice at the time. My Mum still took us to our old barbers near where we used to live - and that was the standard short back and sides haircut. I only recall that as at the time I used to have furious arguments with her as some of the boys at my new school used to get on at me about my sticking out ears. I never had that problem at primary school - and the ears were just an excuse really. It was because I was from a different background I think. I told my Mum but she still insisted that the barber cut my hair as always - short back and sides and round the ears. It was because she wanted to get her money's worth! I don't blame her and she did say that I had chosen to go to that school and not to the same grammar school as my brother which is true and she said I had to learn to stick up for myself. Which I did eventually. As I told you my mate Michael - who was from a larger family still - used to have his hair cut by his uncle and he hated that - but that was a question of saving money too.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossary]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
