An Apple Core, a Toilet: Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood by Tom Purcell
Book: An Apple Core, a Toilet: Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood by Tom Purcell
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Authors: Tom Purcell
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and women were embracing variations of the cut — a sameness of style that had been unimaginable during the conformist ‘40s, ‘50s and much of the ‘60s.
And if you were a 10-year-old kid, say, in 1972, yours was mostly a “1950s” upbringing — but, boy, would the world change during your formative years, as male and female fashions got really confusing.
Jane Fonda was the first female star to wear the shag. She didn’t part hers down the middle, but it was shoulder-length and feathered over the sides. Fonda displayed her new look in the movie “Klute” in 1971.
Though Fonda was the first famous woman to sport the shag cut, Cassidy was among the first male stars to sport it — he did so at least a year before Fonda did.
Cassidy was soon joined by the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Andy Gibb, David Bowie and many other famous males who used blow dryers, once the sole province of women, to fluff out their locks.
By the late ‘70s, with the success of “Charlie’s Angels,” most every woman in America, including my five sisters, was sporting the Farrah Fawcett look — a long, thick, fluffy shag that was a slightly enhanced version of what the male pop stars were sporting.
In any event, somewhere in there a new era had been hatched — one in which the hard lines of the 1950s that had separated men and women in general, and male and female fashions in particular, would be blurred forever.
***
It is worth noting, at this point, that hairstyles have changed plenty throughout history for both men and women.
Roman men wore their hair over their shoulders. Our country’s founders liked their locks long, too. Ben Franklin sported a ponytail. George Washington and other well-to-do fellows of his era wore long white wigs.
Men parted their hair down the middle during the Roaring ‘20s, as a photo of my grandfather shows; it was taken on the Lake Erie shore in 1922, when men also wore striped swimming trunks and striped swimming shirts.
My grandmother wore her hair relatively short — she curled it with rollers and it fell just below her ears. She wore that style — the look of the silent film stars during the Flapper era — until she died in 1972.
All of this is true. But what is also true is that the years following World War II were a homogenous, conformist time in America.
Most women wore their hair long and flowing — or at least in a distinctly feminine manner.
Most men wore their hair short — parted on the side, or combed straight back, or in a butch cut or crew cut, like Sgt. Carter’s hair in “Gomer Pyle,” which my Uncle Mike wore throughout the ‘60s. I emulated my Uncle Mike’s cut one summer, as he was my favorite uncle.
Throughout this period, the only look that in any way approximated the shag’s tangled youthfulness was the James Dean pompadour — which, as I said, my father had sought to emulate when he’d been a teen.
Dean’s pompadour was greased up and combed straight back and straight up to create a curl above the forehead that looked like a breaking ocean wave.
The pompadour was made possible by oil-based products, such as Brylcreem, made famous by its jingle:
Bryl-creem, a little dab'll do ya,
Bryl-creem, you'll look so debonair.
Bryl-creem, the gals will all pursue ya,
They'll love to run their fingers through your hair.
The point is that from the ‘40’s through the early ‘70’s, most people’s hairstyles were as strait-laced, homogenous and conformist as everything else was during that period.
During the early ‘70s, many men were still sitting around barbershops, getting their hair cut short as they grumbled about politics, the price of bread and whether or not the Pirates were going to make it to the World Series that year. They passed around the coveted Playboymagazine, which the barber kept hidden behind the counter.
You never saw a woman in a barbershop, except to
And if you were a 10-year-old kid, say, in 1972, yours was mostly a “1950s” upbringing — but, boy, would the world change during your formative years, as male and female fashions got really confusing.
Jane Fonda was the first female star to wear the shag. She didn’t part hers down the middle, but it was shoulder-length and feathered over the sides. Fonda displayed her new look in the movie “Klute” in 1971.
Though Fonda was the first famous woman to sport the shag cut, Cassidy was among the first male stars to sport it — he did so at least a year before Fonda did.
Cassidy was soon joined by the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Andy Gibb, David Bowie and many other famous males who used blow dryers, once the sole province of women, to fluff out their locks.
By the late ‘70s, with the success of “Charlie’s Angels,” most every woman in America, including my five sisters, was sporting the Farrah Fawcett look — a long, thick, fluffy shag that was a slightly enhanced version of what the male pop stars were sporting.
In any event, somewhere in there a new era had been hatched — one in which the hard lines of the 1950s that had separated men and women in general, and male and female fashions in particular, would be blurred forever.
***
It is worth noting, at this point, that hairstyles have changed plenty throughout history for both men and women.
Roman men wore their hair over their shoulders. Our country’s founders liked their locks long, too. Ben Franklin sported a ponytail. George Washington and other well-to-do fellows of his era wore long white wigs.
Men parted their hair down the middle during the Roaring ‘20s, as a photo of my grandfather shows; it was taken on the Lake Erie shore in 1922, when men also wore striped swimming trunks and striped swimming shirts.
My grandmother wore her hair relatively short — she curled it with rollers and it fell just below her ears. She wore that style — the look of the silent film stars during the Flapper era — until she died in 1972.
All of this is true. But what is also true is that the years following World War II were a homogenous, conformist time in America.
Most women wore their hair long and flowing — or at least in a distinctly feminine manner.
Most men wore their hair short — parted on the side, or combed straight back, or in a butch cut or crew cut, like Sgt. Carter’s hair in “Gomer Pyle,” which my Uncle Mike wore throughout the ‘60s. I emulated my Uncle Mike’s cut one summer, as he was my favorite uncle.
Throughout this period, the only look that in any way approximated the shag’s tangled youthfulness was the James Dean pompadour — which, as I said, my father had sought to emulate when he’d been a teen.
Dean’s pompadour was greased up and combed straight back and straight up to create a curl above the forehead that looked like a breaking ocean wave.
The pompadour was made possible by oil-based products, such as Brylcreem, made famous by its jingle:
Bryl-creem, a little dab'll do ya,
Bryl-creem, you'll look so debonair.
Bryl-creem, the gals will all pursue ya,
They'll love to run their fingers through your hair.
The point is that from the ‘40’s through the early ‘70’s, most people’s hairstyles were as strait-laced, homogenous and conformist as everything else was during that period.
During the early ‘70s, many men were still sitting around barbershops, getting their hair cut short as they grumbled about politics, the price of bread and whether or not the Pirates were going to make it to the World Series that year. They passed around the coveted Playboymagazine, which the barber kept hidden behind the counter.
You never saw a woman in a barbershop, except to
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