With the exception of the comedy rock band, “The Upper Crust,” once powdered wigs went out of fashion at the end of the 18th century, men kept their hair cut short and neat until the early 1960s.
When the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 with their mop-tops it sparked a revolution in men’s fashion and the youth of America began to forsake their crew cuts in favor of long hair. The mop-top was so named because it reminded the older generation of a wet mop.
Beatle friend Jürgen Vollmer first cut his hair into a mop-top, inspired by the way his hair looked pushed flat on his forehead after going swimming. Vollmer cut Paul and John’s hair into the mop-top when they visited him in Paris. George and Ringo followed suit soon after. The cut became so popular that companies started manufacturing and selling Beatles wigs.
The long hair trend didn’t just start with the Beatles. The folk singers of the late 1950s and early 1960s such as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott were inspired by 1940s folk singer Woody Guthrie, a migrant worker turned singer songwriter. Guthrie let his hair grow shaggy and unkempt, a look that inspired his new folk singer protégés.
Between the influence of the innocent looking mop-top and the shaggy folk singer locks, men’s hair was getting longer and longer. By the end of the 60s, hippie culture permeated the youth of the UK and the US. Both men and women grew long hair past their shoulders. Long hair became strong symbol of rebellion against the cultural norm.
In the 70s things got dirtier. Dread locks became popular with the proliferation of reggae. Heavy metal started to make an appearance as well with bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. One thing that these bands all had in common was long hair. As the genre grew in popularity so did the importance of long hair. It became a symbol of the hate, angst, and disenchantment felt by the subculture and was used as a tool to rebel against anything and nothing.
Long hair on men has been and still is an important part of American countercultures. Beatniks and Folk singers started by simply letting un-styled hair fall into their eyes and past their ears. The Beatles let it grow even longer so that it could be bopped around as they preformed.
For hippies, long hair became a political statement against the social injustices of the cultural norms. Once it reached the Heavy Metal scene, it became an important part of the music; to head bang properly required the metal hair. It was so important in fact, that Heavy Metal bands who shed their long locks as they aged, experienced a back-lash; gone with their hair was their counterculture credibility.
