Figure 1.--.

Some key dates in the history of modern hair styling include the following. Some trends developed over long time periods. Other major developments can be traced to a specific event or person. I've just begun to compose this chronology. Please let me know if yoy can think of other important dates which ought to be considered here.

It should be noted that until the 20th century, the fashionable hair styles of the day were mostly limited to the affluent upper classes or aspiring middle class. Many of these fashionable styles were very expensive to prepare and maintain. For the upper classes the dictum of contemprary fashion was often quite rigid. The rising incomes of the middle class in America and Europe has brought fashionable hair styling within the range of an ever widening sector of the population. Other factors such as mass communication and advertising, the trend toward casual styles, and the growing acceptance of individualism, more and more people adopt fashionable styles or those suitable to their individual

1885

Francis Hogdson Burnett published Little Lord Fauntleroy in 1885. References to the heros curls and perhaps more importantly the illustrations accompanying the book crate a sensation in America and Europe. Styling boys hair in long curls increases greatly in popularity, including that of some older boys. While Little Lord Fauntleroy was not pictured in ringlet curls, that style becomes especially popular in American and becomes associated with Little Lord Fauntleroy fashions.

The Early 1940s

Millions of Americans entered military service begining with the draft in 1940, even before the attack on Pear Harbor. Many became accustomed to the short military hair cuts and continued wearing them when they returned home after the War. When the babby boomers started arriving many had their hair styled in crew cuts like dad. By the late 1940s American boys were wearing their hair shorter than any other period in history.

The 1950s

The 1950s saw a variety of important trends. The crewcut or even shorter butch was enormously popular. Teen heart-throb and rock-and-roll chrooner, Elvis Preseley, along with movie idol. Jammes Dean, make side burns enormously popular for older teenagers. Elvis Presley's lengthening sideburns, however, were a shot over bow of America's buttoned downed, short hair ethic.

The 1960s

Greasers preened their hair with various oils and lotions. Surfers refrained from the use of any greasy addition, but some liked the bleached outdoor look. Others carried combs. pocket mirrors, and even hair spray with them. Side burns grew in popularity. One editorialist warned, "Sideburns are creeping across America like crabgrass, wispy strands inching past the year and down the cheek of men and teenage boys, each one a pennant proclaiming, however, seedily, that inside the impersonal shell there lives a person. [Life, 1968] Teen age boys began spending as much time preening their hair as girls. The very nature of the American barber shop began to change. The once proudly male reserve of the barber shop stocked with sports and fishing magazines was replaced with boutiques and female barbers. Some boys wanted their hair teased and blow dried. Sculptured hair dos were formed with razors and not just clippers and scissors. It was the increasingly length of hair that stirred the passions of young and old alike. While younger boys did not normally adopt the long hair of their teenage brothers, the shaggy bangs of John F. Kennedy Jr. helped insire longer hair for the younger boys as well.

1961

I believe the Beatles first visited America in 1961. Although their hair was of rather modest length, they launch the fashion of long hair which was soon sweeping American and Western Europe.

1962

A young John Kennedy begins appearing in bangs, often shagily cut. The John-John cut has a tremendous impct on the hair styling of younger boys--even after his father's assasination in 1963.

Created: March 7, 2000
Last updated: March 7, 2000