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Hi Hairy People,
The first day of Summer is almost here -- the season to grow your hair out as long as possible, before having to return back to school in September!
(That's actually what I remember most kids my age doing when I was a teenager, back in the 1960s...)
In June of 1967, the famous "Summer of Love" that happened in San Francisco's Haight - Ashbury neighborhood, I was only an 8th grader (just graduated and going into my Freshman year of High Scool in Sept.). My dad decided to take that whole summer off to take the family on our first trip out to the West Coast, and then across the Trans-Canada Highway to see Expo '67 in Montreal -- a HUGE road trip, especially by today's standards (but gas was much cheaper back then, as well as we camped the entire trip to save $$)...
After staying with relatives in LA, we drove up the Big Sur coast to stay with another relative who lived near San Francisco. She took us into the city one day, including giving us a tour of the hippies in the Haight-Ashbury area. My dad still insisted on me and my 4 brothers always getting our annual crew cuts at the beginning of the summer; so we did NOT at all "fit in" with the scene there (LOL, an understatement)....
My brother Bruce took tons of photos of the hippies, as my dad bitterly complained about their long hair the entire day. As for me, my jaw was too far dropped down into my lap to do anything other than drool with amazement and envy that there were guys who had the balls to grow their hair long like that (in the suburban Chicago town where I'm originally from, long hair on males was definitely THE popular fashion of the era; but, San Francisco guys had WAY longer hair than most Chicagoans -- some were even past shoulder-length!!!)!!!!
In Sept. of that year, when I went into my Freshman year of High School, most of the local kids from my hometown were proudly showing off their 2- 3 months of summer hair growth (what we now call "awkward stage" hair); but school dress codes were still strict, -- and even the most rebellious of the cool Chicago area longhaired teens had to comply to cutting at least some of that beautiful length off....
Fortunately, well before I graduated from HS in '71, my school had finally tossed in the towel re. their stupid anti-longhair dress code rules.
So, there you go: a bit of Longhair History that I remember, because I actually lived through it! (And as far as that old joke, "If you remember the '60s, then you weren't really alive during it!" goes... Well, I honestly DO remember it, because I was fortunately too young to have been tripping on acid or anything like that - LOL)....
And to think that nowadays a lot of guys think about having short hair for the summer, just because the weather gets a bit warm... What a bunch of sissies (LOL)!!
- Ken in San Francisco
Hi Ken,
I'm amazed at your memory from that long ago as I have no idea what I was up to that summer of '67.LOL.Well maybe that has to do with the fact that I was around 5 years old then!So even though I was alive during that 60s era I was way too young to be exposed to any of it.By the time I was your age then, it was mid to late '70s.Still I vividly remember the kids in my class who did have longhair back then.Most were the so called troublemakers which was unfortunate being it gave longhair a bad mane for the good guys that had it.My longhair days didn't take off for me until after graduating HS in 1980.A couple years after that the hair farming took off:)It was like a light bulb lite up for me wanting to have longhair on myself.It was quite a journey that has lasted decades with no falling off the wagon to shorthairdom.LOL.My hair took all sorts of twists and turns from shaggy to shoulder blade length to permed and eventually to going for maximum length:)Anyone who knew me my whole life will only remember me as that longhaired freak being my hair has been that way more than 50% of my life.Well I don't regret it and when I look back on my years on this planet being a longhair will be more than a footnote;)Cheers my friend
Mark
"... a bad MANE?" Pun intended, right? (LOL)
Hey, thanks for the reply, Mark -- and it's fun to read your long hair history as well!
The cool thing about hair is that we can look back at photos of ourselves from various times in our life, and just by seeing our own hair length and hair-styles, this can often mentally transport us back to remembering other events happening in our lives at the time. I had sort of a mullet during the late '80s, for example -- the only time in my life that I attempted to grow my hair that way. Back during much of the '70s, I did the reverse: I kept trying to grow my bangs long, but kept the rest of it as conservative as possible. Hair helps me remember my own personal history!
Talk to you later, Mark -- and keep that great mane of yours growing as loooooooong as possible!
- Ken
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I do remember those BS "dress codes". Dress is something you put on as in clothing. Hair on the other hand is part of your body and is your property. You can't take off and put on your hair each day like clothes. As far as I am concerned, those in authority at school really had no right to force you to cut your hair. They did not own your hair, you did, and in my opinion that was crossing the line.
There were active demonstrations at my middle school over this and kids ditched class to demonstrate. ca. 1967
One kid, I think his name was Sam Cory, if I remember correctly, defied the haircut rule. His mother was supportive of him as well. I think she was forced to remove him from that school because the narrow minded bigoted administrative staff refused to budge on the issue.
We also had corporal punishment as well, in 1967. One kid, Joel Delman, I remember him so well, (who was a Karate Black belt) refused a swat. He threatened to clean their clocks if they tried to give him the swat. That guy was a hero to me. He got pulled from my school, and I think, was sent to a private school after that. It was a no win situation for both sides.
In high school, the hair issue was abolished. That was about 1969. I tried to grow it long, but did not know how to care for it. If MLHH had existed in 1969, I might have been successful. LOL
Scott
My heroes of those days all had what we thought was long hair. Somehow, though, it didn't really occur to me that I could have long hair myself! Long hair wasn't banned by the school, but nobody had it. I won't count the boy who had a plastic Beatles wig from Woolworths, LOL!
OTOH, when I changed schools at age 11 in 1969 there suddenly seemed to be other guys with long hair. It still wasn't the school that stopped me from growing mine, though, it was my parents. I was 13 (which brings us to around 1971) before I really started the long drawn out war with them over my hair, and by then I had become part of a minority who were forced to keep their hair short by their parents. "But mum, everyone else has long hair".