Bad Hair Daze 0

Back in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un and the Beatles came on the scene, schools invested lots of energy in mandating that boys not grow their hair.

It was considered a sign of the Apocalyse for boys to have hair even a couple of inches longer than a short back and sides, let alone as long as an American icon such as Buffalo Bill.

Indeed, one of my fellow students, a star pitcher on the baseball team a year or so ahead of me, was ordered to cut his hair because it was too long; mind you, these days, he wouldn’t be noticed. In a brilliant seizure of malicious compliance, he shaved his head. As this was long before the “bald look” was the Next Big Thing, the principal* ordered him to wear a toboggan cap until his hair grew out, so a toboggan cap it was for the rest of the school year.

By the time a few more years had passed, the high school hair wars were recognized to have been a phenomenally stupid waste of energy over stupid stuff.

It is comforting sign of continuity to know that school administrations have not lost their ability to waste energy over stupid stuff.

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*The principal was a fairly reasonable guy. His family was friends with my family and we used occasionally to visit them in their house, where my brother and I would play with their daughters.

He attended my mother’s funeral as the last surviving member of their bridge club.

Back then, long hair on boys made lots of grown-ups stupid.