Figure 1.--.

Greasers preened their hair with various oils and lotions. Surfers refrained from the use of any greasy addition, but some liked the bleached outdoor look. Others carried combs. pocket mirrors, and even hair spray with them. Side burns grew in popularity. One editorialist warned, "Sideburns are creeping across America like crabgrass, wispy strands inching past the year and down the cheek of men and teenage boys, each one a pennant proclaiming, however, seedily, that inside the impersonal shell there lives a person. [Life, 1968] Teen age boys began spending as much time preening their hair as girls. The very nature of the American barber shop began to change. The once proudly male reserve of the barber shop stocked with sports and fishing magazines was replaced with boutiques and female barbers. Some boys wanted their hair teased and blow dried. Sculptured hair dos were formed with razors and not just clippers and scissors. It was the increasingly length of hair that stirred the passions of young and old alike. While younger boys did not normally adopt the long hair of their teenage brothers, the shaggy bangs of John F. Kennedy Jr. helped insire longer hair for the younger boys as well.

1961

I believe the Beatles first visited America in 1961. Although their hair was of rather modest length, they launch the fashion of long hair which was soon sweeping American and Western Europe.

1962

A young John Kennedy begins appearing in bangs, often shagily cut. The John-John cut has a tremendous impct on the hair styling of younger boys--even after his father's assasination in 1963.

Created: March 7, 2000
Last updated: March 7, 2000