HAIR DON'TS Artists have disagreed rather widely in depicting the hair styles worn by early inhabitants of the Garden of Eden. The male often had a rather short covering on his head and neatly curled in trim ringlets. That was the preferred "Adam" look." The "Eve" - a feminine style in Garden couturier's shop talk - featured length or every other quality in most versions. Long hair was very much in demand due to it marked shortage of first quality, sizable fig leaves.
Long hair styles were "in" and "out" for both men and women for centuries, and now that I ,personally, am in a counting stage which allows me to look at pretty much the whole of the past century, I would say I came along at a time when long hair was on its way out. Woman began to "bob" their hair and during the celebrated "Flapper Era"of the 1920's is filled with memories of pert young girls with short hair, short skirts, short patience with all males unable to wiggle to such dance tunes as "The Charleston", Five-Foot-Two" and "Black Bottom." en trimmed back some, waxed and oiled down to the scalp. They strummed dance tunes on shortened tenor guitar called a ukulele - which we shortened to "uke".
When the 1920's got to "29" we ran out of money. Hair care became a matter of just hanging to what we had. Our "Barber Shops" weer all segregated and sex-regated, as well. There were no signs saying: "Men Only!" but it was understood that men when to barber shops; women to beauty "salons" or "parlors. In the summer time you might see a domineer mother in a man's barber shop overseeing her kid's annual sheering. Now and then a nervous, distraught Mama used to have to stand by while Junior got his first hair cut.
Today we have a wide variety of services in barber shops including a price schedule which knocks your hat off so your hair - standing on end at that moment, is easier to cut. Zip! Spang! Buzz Snip! It all over! There now, ante up.
There is, of course, a wide variety these days in styles You can stay old-fashioned ,or sedate if you, like and stay with the same old mold or you can add a little adventuresome novelty to you home life - even engender possible grounds for divorce by getting one of those "spike" hairdos that are so popular right now. Get your barber to sop you hair down with a heavy oil or a mild wax - three-inch length, more or less and wait eagerly while he expertly fingers sections of hair into upright peaks, Indian tepees, Egyptian pyramids, or pointed machine cogs all over your skull casing!
Then step out of that barber's chair and stand tall in full confidence as a new man! Never before will you ever realized what it means to be on your own.
I've gone back to "skee-ball" custom cuts myself called "flat tops",""crew cuts" if you need to sound more formal. My hairbrush is a bath towel. My "barber" is one of my daughters who has a hirsute husband and who has raised two well-shorn boys.
.L.M. September 6, 2005 [c549wds]
