The Height of Hair

It’s hard to explain to kids these days that haircuts were a social obsession in the 1950s to the 1970s, a symbol of what you stood for.

From a tweet by @seamuspetrie of facial hair in college yearbook portraits of male seniors from 1898 to 2008:

The later 1950s to mid-1960s were the least hirsute era. But then the hairiest year was suddenly 1973 when less than 10% of college men had no facial hair.

Back in 2012, I reviewed a forgettable Tim Burton-Johnny Depp movie Dark Shadows about a vampire that comes back to life in 1972. The best thing about it was how precisely it depicted how 1972 looked different from 1973:

The 53-year-old Burton absolutely nails what 1972 seemed like to an adolescent. A prosperous, cheerful year, 1972 was the last point when the social decay inherent in the 60s was still more of an elite affectation than a mass affliction. I suspect that the moment when the 70s fell apart for good was January 22, 1973, after which many Americans apparently took the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision as an endorsement from on high to party hearty.

Do men’s fashions change as dictatorially anymore as in, say, 1945 to 1975? It’s hard to explain to kids these days that haircuts were a social obsession in the 1950s to the 1970s, a symbol of what you stood for.

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Originally published in The Unz Review on December 17, 2022.