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April 9, 2024 22 mins

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When my father firmly clutched the scissors, threatening the life of every strand that dared grow past my ears, little did I know this battle of the locks was a rite of passage—a generational dance as old as time. Today, we embark on a journey through the follicular revolution that witnessed men's hair transform from a symbol of conformity to one of rebellion. We'll traverse the cultural landscape of the 60s and 70s, where locks grew long in defiance, and icons like Elvis and the Beatles dared to let their hair down, quite literally, setting the stage for what was not just a style, but a statement. Listen closely as I recount the tales of personal confrontation and societal shift; a time when a head of hair could speak volumes about war, peace, and the pursuit of individuality.

Fast forward to a time when the man bun reigns and the pandemic has thrown the rulebook out the salon window, we reflect on how current hair trends echo the past's cultural clashes and signify more than mere fashion. My own journey from a hair skeptic to an observer of the pandemic's accidental hair liberation movement reveals a surprising truth: while hair may serve as a canvas of expression, it is but one thread in the tapestry of our identity. Tune in for a heartfelt dialogue on the evolution of male hairstyles, a nod to the icons who paved the way, and a celebration of the freedom to let our hair—whatever its length, style, or statement—truly be our own.

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, this is John Ward .
This is Baby Boomers, theStrangest Generation, and I want
to talk about hair, men's hair.
Hair's always been importantHair length, hairstyle, hair
growth but it seems to me likeit was never more important than

(00:32):
it was in the 60s and 70s,because that's when teens and
boys and men began to grow theirhair long period.
Now, george Washington had longhair.

(00:53):
He had a wig.
Jesus apparently had long hair.
He does.
In every Easter movie I've everseen, benjamin Franklin with
headlong hair.
And hair always seems to havebeen a flashpoint between

(01:15):
fathers and sons period, betweenolder generations and younger
generations.
Think about Michael Jordan.
He was a huge star in the 1980s, probably the biggest star

(01:41):
athlete you know still is.
What did he do?
He shaved his head.
Prior to him, african Americanmen's hair was afro, light afro,
short afro, thick, big, fullafro.
In the 70s, michael Jordanshaved his head and then every

(02:05):
other athlete with an afro,pretty much every other athlete
shaved their head period.
So what's happening?
I got a theory.
It's a pendulum, it's a giveand take, it's a yin and yang.

(02:33):
Every generation of sons isgoing to start the process of I
don't know.
Call it rebellion, call itbreaking free, call it
independence, but generations ofmen break free from their dads,

(02:56):
from their dad's generation,with hairstyles.
So Jordan shaves his head,everybody shaves his head,
everybody shaves their head.
And the next generation ofathletes do what.
They come out with friggin hairbraided down to their shoulders

(03:21):
.
Why?
I think it's rebellion.
I think it's down to theirshoulders.
Why I think it's rebellion.
I think it's their way ofsaying you're old, I'm young,
I'm new, you're done.

(03:41):
But in the 60s and 70s it had alot more to do with revolution.
It had a lot more to do withDad.
Your hair is short, slick back.
You wear a tie and a suit andmaybe you wear a blue collar or

(04:05):
whatever, but your slick backhair ain't doing it for me, no
more.
I'm going to grow my hair, I'mgoing to separate you from me,

(04:25):
I'm going to piss you off andI'm just going to get as far
away from you socially as Ipossibly can, and I'm going to
do that by looking as differentfrom you as I possibly can.
Here's not just a look, it's astatement.

(04:50):
When I was 7, 8, 9, 10 years oldin the mid 60's, at the end of
school, when the summer came, Igot a buzz cut.
Every kid on the block got abuzz cut.
Every kid's hair was taken downas short as it could be and it
would grow out through thesummer and then when you went

(05:12):
back to school you'd startgetting haircuts.
We didn't really care at six,seven, but as we got a little
older and we started seeing theimages of Elvis, the Beatles,

(05:37):
british rock stars as comparedto Frank Sinatra, dean Martin,
with the slick back here therestarted to become a little hair
related separation, rebellion.
Hair wasn't a fashion statement.

(06:01):
Hair was a flag, a statement, aform of rebellion saying I am
different from you, I amseparating from you.
I am growing my hair.

(06:24):
Now, in my case, I couldn't growmy hair.
My father would not allow it inany way, shape or form.
I get a haircut all the time.
But hippies, just kids on theblock, anybody my age group was

(06:47):
trying their hardest to get longhair because it made you cool,
it made you different, it madeyou different from your dad and
his generation.
My dad's generation, thegreatest generation, ran to war,
ran to Europe, ran to Normandy,ran to Korea to fight.

(07:33):
When I was eight years old, thekids of draft age in my area I
was too young they weren'treally running to Vietnam.
There was a draft so they hadto go.
I remember I asked my dad oneday he went to Korea for fun
Korea.
And I said to him when I wasolder, dad, why did you sign up
to go to Korea?
And he said to me the day Iheard about what was happening

(07:56):
in Korea, me and my friendscouldn't get to the draft office
quick enough.
We signed up, we wanted to gofight that war, we wanted to
free those people Period.
And they came back home andthey put drill cream in their

(08:19):
hair, cut it close, slicked itback.
And that's not even talkingabout like the 50s, where the
greasers and the DAs that wascalled the duck ass haircut.
You see it in old 50s movieslike American Graffiti and the

(08:42):
Lords of Flatbush FonzieRemember Fonzie with the slick
back hair.
But when rock and roll hit,world War II was over, career
was over.
There was a lapse of maybe 10,12 years before we got into

(09:07):
another friggin' conflict thatwe might not have needed to be
into.
There were fathers like minewho had come home from these
horrible, terrible wars and seenall this shit and had did all

(09:31):
this shit and had shit done tothem and opened up concentration
camps, just came back toAmerica and said, look, I'm in.

(09:51):
I just want to forget this shit.
I want to have babies.
I want to move out of the city,get this little pink house with

(10:12):
a white picket fence, with awife I can depend on and a job I
can get a pension from work 30years at conform put security,
stability and looked the part,and they gave birth to the baby

(10:33):
boomers.
They wanted to look successful.
They wanted to wear suits ties.
They wanted to wear suits ties.
They wanted to conform.
I'll tell you, I always thoughta tie was like a noose around my

(10:54):
neck.
When I worked for a big company, I went corporate for about 10
years of my life.
I had to put a suit and tie onevery day and I just thought
that tie was like a noose aroundmy neck.
That said, I hereby agree toconform to you by proxy, as

(11:17):
symbolized by this noose aroundmy neck, and I hated it.
And I hated that I had to have,in order to succeed in that
corporate world, that I had tohave a haircut.
I had to have my hair a certainfriggin way or I wasn't gonna

(11:39):
make it in it.
In all honesty, I didn't carewhat I looked like.
I wasn't fashionable, I wasn'tinto my hair, I wasn't into what
I wore.
I just knew I didn't want tolook like my dad.
He wore Occasionally when hewas going out on social events.

(12:04):
He was a steel worker, so hedidn't really dress on a
day-to-day basis as if he was acorporate executive.
But if he went to a wedding ora party or he had one of those
70s house parties, he would weara suit, suit, turtleneck, tie,

(12:27):
you know shoes, and I waswearing a T-shirt, a raggedy
T-shirt, raggedy jeans, partlybecause we really didn't have
the money to dress me that good,but also because, if we did, I
wouldn't have dressed like that.
It just wasn't going to happenbecause I wasn't part of that
generation.
I was watching the Beatles, Iwas watching the who, I was

(12:52):
watching CSN Crosby, sill Nash,young and they were growing
their hair and they were growingit to make a statement.
And, god darn, I wanted to makethe same statement but my dad

(13:16):
would not let me.
In the 70s, as a teenager, as ateenager, hair defined where you

(13:39):
stood in terms of your socialrelevance in school.
If you had long hair, you wereexotic.
You were tough, you were adruggie, you were someone to be
reckoned with.
If you had short hair you werea jack, a smart kid or just a
regular friggin' kid.

(13:59):
But if you had long hair, goddamn man, you could be in.
I couldn't really grow my hairthat long.
I mean it was long, butaccording to today's standards
it was long.
But my dad just was not goingto allow it because he thought

(14:24):
it was going to hinder myability to succeed.
He didn't want me working in aplant, he wanted me to go to
school, he wanted me to get acorporate job and it was just
not going to happen.
But he would just not allow itbecause it had so many social

(14:45):
stigmas attached to it.
Long hair meant drugs.
Long hair meant you didn't likein America.
Long hair meant you weresubversive, you were
uncontrollable.
And to me, if I could just growmy hair I could maybe get more

(15:10):
chicks, I could maybe look alittle edgy, I could just be in
with the in crowd.
But it wasn't going to happen.
There were songs about itAlmost cut my hair.
There's a whole friggin'Broadway musical album called

(15:34):
Hair Give me a head with hair.
Long, beautiful hair.
Hairstyles weren't justhairstyles.
They were political statementsrevolting against the previous
generation.
Nothing different from thedreadlocks that current athletes

(16:01):
wear, separating themselvesfrom the bald head of the Jordan
era.
There finally came a day Icould grow my hair.
I was older, didn't live athome, had this freedom, man, I
could grow my hair, a beard, Ican do whatever I want with my

(16:25):
frigging hair, and I didn't,because the meeting had left.
The rage was over.
I'm just trying to make a livingand I pretty much know if I

(16:48):
walk into a place to try and geta job and I get long hair, I'm
not gonna get the job.
I know if I'm driving my cardown the street and I get pulled
over and I got long hair, I'mprobably going to take some shit
from the cops.
Plus, I really didn't look goodin a long hair the few times I

(17:14):
tried it.
So then, what happened After me?
After us?
The hair of the 80s became likereally stylish really.
You know pompadours and loosegel and crazy stuff, as opposed

(17:36):
to you know, like Bob Seger andhis great song, walking into the
disco with the long hair, andit became really stylized.
And to guys like us, if you puttoo much time into your hair.
There was another thing.

(17:56):
It meant that you paid too muchattention to yourself and it
meant that any guy that paid toomuch attention to how he looked
, other than Italian mobsters,might be gay.

(18:18):
So kids went back to you know,say I'm like 35, 40.
Kids go back to the short hair.
Now say I'm like 35, 40.
Kids go back to the short hair,my father's generation hair.
They're slicking it back,they're getting it super cut.
You know, now I'm trying toplay the game.

(18:38):
I'm trying to compete.
I'm 34.
I'm competing with these youngkids.
I'm in corporate America.
I started getting my hair cutshort, short, short.
Then the freaking facial hairhit right.
In the 70s you could have amustache.
You know every athlete, every,you know Tom Selleck, burt

(19:07):
Reynolds, you know kind oflongish hair mustache.
Now the mustache period went.
Now you could have full beardsand it's about 15 years ago.
Every guy went full beard.
Look at Conor McGregor, look at, you know, guys with these long

(19:29):
, long beards.
The hair got shorter but thefacial hair got longer.
I'm not sure what that was allabout.
It was just like a fashion fad.
But I don't think it had thesame kind of meaning that long
hair had in the 60s and 70s.

(19:58):
Now I see young guys are growingtheir hair long.
I see them on TV, in TV shows,I see them in magazines and
movies and their hair is gettinglonger and they do this thing
with this ponytail on top oftheir head.

(20:18):
And I want to say, man, you'rekind of looking like a girl.
Why are you doing that shit?
It don't look right to me.
But then I correct myself and Isay, when I was growing my hair
long, my dad really wasn'tsaying you look feminine, he was

(20:38):
saying cut your friggin hair soyou can get a job and conform.
These guys with their ponytailson top of their heads and I'm
like, I don't like it.
Then I check myself and I sayit's just freaking hair, that's
all, it's just hair, it'snothing.

(21:00):
Then the hipster generation hitwith hair and beards and hair
and perfect hair and this andperfect hair and they're this
and you know.
And in the end COVID hit and Icouldn't get a haircut and my

(21:22):
hair grew long and I looked inthe mirror and I said I kind of
look like shit.
I want to clean my hair up.
And finally I got a haircut,felt better, looked better and,

(21:45):
as I was getting that haircut,looking in the mirror and the
barber was shining the mirroraround the back of my head and I
was getting that haircut.
Looking in the mirror and thebarber was shining the mirror
around the back of my head and Iwas.
I had a brief whiff of thememory of me wanting my hair to
be long in 76.
So bad.
And saying to myself'm righthere, right now, I really don't

(22:13):
give a shit if my hair is long,short, midline dyed, bald,
shaved, I don't care, it doesn'treally mean anything.
I don't care, it doesn't reallymean anything.

(22:35):
So that's it, the history ofhair in the 70s and 60s.
I hope you liked it.
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