Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.

If you, like me, are taking refuge from Brisbane’s hot January in a movie theatre, chances are you have been to see American Hustle.  Who can forget the extended opening sequence with an unrecognisable Christian Bale fixing his hair?  It will become a classic opener if only for its painstaking depiction of one of the most pervasive hairstyles – the comb over.  I am sure I am not the only woman who groaned at this scene…for us, we live in the hope that the comb over will one day die.  Men -  the comb over doesn’t fool anyone;  despite this, it continues to find favour.  In fact, American Hustle has apparently given the comb over some respectability – NOOOOOO.  

So what does men’s hair have to do with popular culture?  Believe it or not, hair is a marker not only of biology but also of politics, religion, wealth and fashion. 

Politics.  Hair loss in men is nothing new.  Sculptors have given us depictions of Julius Caesar with his brushed his hair forward BUT Julius Caesar was, apparently, completely bald.  The fact that most of Caesar’s statues have him with a “rim” of hair reflects that history really is written by the victors.  Why did sculptors feel it necessary to give one of the world’s greatest military leaders hair?  Certainly it can’t be ability – there’s no link between hair and capability surely.  Masculinity?  More likely.  

(BTW - 2,000 years (or so) later Caesar’s style was taken up by celebs such as George Clooney and Justin Timberlake – but they didn’t need to cover up.  The claims about Caesar’s hair were reported in Journal of the American Tonsorial Anthropological Association-but I’ve been unable to locate such a journal and the name sounds a little suspicious to me).

Sampson and Delilah.   After disclosing valuable military secrets to Delilah, she cut Sampson’s while he was asleep – thus breaking both his cultural vow (not to cut his hair).  His short hair was a visual signifier that he had been sapped of physical and psychological strength.

Other political greats with less than average hair include Ghandi—whose shaved head was clearly a statement of simplicity. And of quiet strength and determination-okay that’s my reading.  There are several websites dedicated to great bald leaders. 

Strength.  The other end of the comb over spectrum – the better end – is the bald end.  These are the men who dare to shave it all off.  Once upon a time, bald men were scary people.  But since about 1990, the chrome dome has morphed from scariness to strength and researchers found that a bald head has become synonymous with "masculinity, strength, dominance and leadership potential."  Where’re your hairy statues now Caesar?   

This shouldn’t surprise us as it was only a few years beforehand that super short haircuts – were also signs of strength and manliness – I’m thinking of the crew cut of the American Marines. The Ivy League crew cut has a complex meaning – the name came from the “crews” of the university rowing teams of the 1920s/1930s (Harvard, Princeton etc); it differentiated them from the long hair football players (worn long for protection).   Later the style was worn by ‘clean cut’ business executives.  This hair style later reappeared as the buzz cut and was influenced by the action movies of the late 1980s when the body beautiful became married to the sweaty heroes of patriotic American films. Note that a body hair also seemed to disappear at the same time. The buzz cut was uniform, practical and linked to the armed forces.  Rappers reinvented the buzz cut in the 1990s as the hi-top fade (Schooly D and Doug E Fresh).   Simon Cowell even had one once.  Shudder.

Summary: 

short back and sides came to be associated with practicality, conservatism, sporty hard men

 long hair for the romantic, non-traditional, aristocratic “soft” blokes

Personal (Political) Ideology

The long hair of the 1960s and 1970s came to represent a free flowing ideals of the hippies.  Long hair was the visual representation of the divide between the uptight short hair of the armed forces personnel and those make love not war guys.  It was also a marker of the differences between the office worker and executives of huge corporations that destroyed nature and the keep-the-planet hippy movement.

Roundhead

And this was not the first time hair has been such an obvious marker of different beliefs.  Think of the roundheads and the cavaliers.  In the British Civil War, the puritans’ immensely unflattering style (short cropped, close to their heads) mirrored their simplistic approach to life and was a direct refutation of the king’s elaborate lifestyle.The Royalists’ long ringlets (often wigs) showed their support for the king. 
 


 The roundhead hairstyle has morphed  represent simplicity in extreme – think Three Stooges and Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber. 

Money

Hair is expensive.  The cost of elaborate styling means one has the time and the tools/personnel to achieve the right look.  Consider wigs.  Wigs are especially expensive – the more elaborate the wig, the wealthier you are and of course they are immensely impractical.  The wig is the symbol of conspicuous consumption—they are unnecessary.  Unless you are a balding king that is – Louis XIV is reputed to have been the first king to don a wig to cover his incipient baldness. He hired 28 wigmakers and soon was sporting some pretty long locks.  Charles the II followed suit—to cover his greyness. Soon everyone who was anyone was wearing a wig (except for the busy working man of course) and then came THE hair product of the 18^th century: powder. While we mainly remember the WHITE wigs, powder also came in various colours – violent, blue and pink. Wigs might have become a fashion statement BUT they had their roots in hygiene / health:  most especially the spread of syphilis and hair lice.  One of the symptoms of syphilis is hair loss and a wig covered this loss and therefore covered the disease;  it was easier to shave your head and wear a peruke rather than to deal with the daily irritation of lice.

So perhaps you thought wigs had gone out of fashion?  Today in Asia men buy wigs that mimic their favourite   These are used in cosplay or worn on weekends because the styles are too “contemporary” for the work environment – or because they cover the baldness – come to think of it I don’t remember seeing that many bald Japanese men.   
popstars.

And of course men’s wigs lead us to the toupee – I’m presuming the cost of a good one is exorbitant and that it requires considerable effort and skill to make it “natural” and to sustain washing and an active lifestyle.  The yesteryear of the bad toupee seems to be long gone. The classic is Bill Hunter's blonde piece in Strictly Ballroom (1992).  In fact, Strictly Ballroom is a testament to men's hair styles - comb over, toupee and quiffed. 

Some Hair Fashions We’d Rather Forget

1.  The Mullett – a style that has it all – short in the front and long in the back.  Billy Ray Cyrus killed it for the mainstream – the style has become synonymous with rednecks and working class..why?  For the balding

man there is the fading glory -- nothing on top but loads behind.  It's a close second to the comb over.

2.  The Male Perm – thanks again American Hustle for reminding us.  Part solidarity with African Americans?  It was adopted as a political statement?  Or maybe just another fad?  The fact that the guy in American Hustle was doing his AT HOME – reminds us of the cost of elaborate hair dos.

3.  Also related is the jhericurl – Samuel S Jackson in Pulp Fiction.  Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson were devotees at some stage. Greasy looking and never good looking.

4.  The Rat Tail – who invented that?  A modified mullet – usually seen on Dog the Bounty Hunter and football stars.  Stop it we say.

5.  Corn Rows - Just don't work. Unless you're  Bo Derek. 

6.  Dreadlocks - only for Rastafarians really. 

7.  Afro - another perm gone mad fashion.

8.   The Comb Over.   There are so many on the net...I have up choosing the "best" one.   However kudos to Donald Trump who continues to sport a magnificent one.

Back to the Comb Over

The comb over has been assisted in recent years by hair products that "cover" the balding pate.

When I lived in the USA, I (and many others) were vastly amused by spray paint for the head. Yep it was paint – in a can – something that people (not just men I presume) literally sprayed on their head to cover the offending spot.  It was back in the 1990s and sold on those long infomercials. Today these ads are still around - but on YouTube.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GeF7A05zQ8).    In fact when you search on youtube there are dozens of pretend-hair products search "spray on hair for men".   A more recent improvement have been hair fibres - they are sprayed over thinning hair and some people swear by them. If you're a fan of Two and a Half Men you might remember this

Here’s a website with many of the options.

Yes, balding can be seen as embarrassing for people, men in particular, and no matter how many studies link baldness with virility, many men still seek to cover a changing hairline.  But of all of these camouflages - please men, the comb over is not one of them.  Be brave, go the full Monty..