Hair Yesterday and Today

If you still have any doubts, take a close
look at the cover photograph of their first
major album -- MEET THE BEATLES. This is
the one that started Beatlemania.

They had an earlier album on VeeJay Records,
but it was this first Capitol Records album
that launched their career.

Take a look at their hair.

Notice how short it is compared to what you've
seen in pictures of hippies. It is just long
enough in front to comb over their foreheads
as bangs. It's sort of shaggy in the back and
on the sides, though not by much.

Unless you remember, you may find it hard to
believe that this was the hair that changed
men's hair to this decade. If you've got a
mohawk or your hair is green or longer than
a crewcut or styled in any way . . . you're
following a trend that The Beatles began
either directly or by veering off in a new
direction -- to be somehow new and
shocking and different.

That hair created a world-wide controversy
that eclipsed the issue of their music.

"They look like girls." was what everybody
over 21 said.

Yes, by the time they played Ed Sullivan
their hair was longer overall than on that
album cover, giving rise to the "mop top"
label. But today it would pass as conservative.

But in those days most guys had either crew
cuts (and they weren't waved or permed or
decorated in any way. That would have seemed
extremely homosexual (("Gay" had not yet
been assigned as the acceptable slang for
male homosexual)) -- to put it in polite
terms. Most people would not have used the
polite terminology.)

Or guys had hair long enough in front to
comb to one side.

That was it.

The hair on the back of your head was NOT
supposed to touch your neck. And the hair on
the sides was NOT supposed to touch your
ears. That standard was enforced at my
junior high and high schools until at least
1970.

Look at junior and senior high yearbooks from
1964 through 1970 or so. You'll see that most
guys have long hair in front combed over their
foreheads as bangs. But their hair is short
on the sides.

That's why. We were allowed to grow the front
long enough to be bangs, but had to keep the
sides off our ears. If I had a dollar for
every time in the 1960s use his fingers and
a flip of his head to brush his hair out of
his eyes, I'd be a multimillionaire today.

Long hair became socially acceptable among
young people at the exact same rate that
The Beatles's hair follicles kept growing
their hair.

The longer their hair grew, the more tolerant
we became of it.

And the less certain we became that long
hair equalled homosexuality. I don't recall
ever doubting their heterosexuality.

There was the strong evidence of their music --
not that gays can't make sexy music -- but
the way they sang to FEMALE lovers was
undoubtedly genuine. They obviously knew how
much girls could twist up a guy's feelings -- to
make them feel good and break their hearts.

They had public wives and girlfriends.

Also, there was the screaming. I don't recall
thinking about this consciously, until stories
of rock groupies began coming out years later, but
I'm sure I knew instinctively that when four
guys can make every girl from 8 to 28 scream
nonstop at a concert, some of those girls
would be willing to do anything else those
4 guys wanted them to. And there were
millions of such girls around the world.

(Don't get me started on gay rock stars who
write songs romanticizing woman sex symbols --
stressing they're something "more than physical"
since they don't respond to women physically --
when said sex symbol (undoubtedly a nice person
and underrated comedic actress) would never
have become a star at all without said super-sex
appeal to heterosexual men.) Stick to singing
about your love for Daniel. I don't identify
but I respect the sincerity.

(Also, don't even get me started on comparing
women who had nothing in common besides being
blonde, beautiful, famous and dying too
young.)

Antiques Travel