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Hi all - Maybe some of the older posters here can chime in on this, but I was wondering how rare it was for men to have long hair between WWI and the 1950's.
Everyone's pretty familiar with men growing out their hair starting in the 60's, but in old photographs, movies and TVs shows, I don't think I've ever seen a single guy with long hair during this time period.
Did anyone do it? Was it considered too "socially unacceptable" during this time?
In fact, long hair was seen among serious classical musicians, orchestra conductors and professors during the period. Maybe you have heard of the term "longhaired music". It was a term referring to classical music, less popular among the masses, but more for the more educated. It was a reference to the snob appeal of the music. Oddly it was among the elite that the long hair occurred, then in the 60's and 70's the tables turned and the opposite occurred, widely and in music as well.
Very interesting stuff, I didn't know about this (except for orchestra conductors commonly having long hair, but in my own time - the 80's and onward - and professors in the 60's). This makes me curious about what's been written on the history of long hair on men.
The first half of the twentieth century was saw pretty widespread short hair in the US, at least, though there were exceptions, such as artists and orchestra conductors. During the 1920s and 1930s many young men wore fairly long hair on the front and top so they could achieve a full slicked-down look. You may notice in many old films where such guys get into a fight or something and their long hair falls close to their chin.
The beginning of the last century was a period of rapid industrialization and also of militarization, which inspired a trend of conformity and uniformity in appearance. It wasn't until the 1960s that a youth rebellion against this took full bloom and males began expressing more individual character in their appearance to some degree.