a love/hate relationship with my hair

And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:30)

I have always had a love/hate relationship with my hair.

That sounds silly, but it has never done what I wanted it to do.

When I was younger, I wanted it to go like what I perceived as the beach boy look. That was where the hair kind of went over straight over your forehead. I did everything I could do to get it to do that. The closest I got was at camp when I was twelve or so and hadn’t washed my hair for a whole week. It was so stiff, it pretty much did what I told it. Of course, it was grotesque, but still. What price glory.

When I got into high school, it developed a little wave on the front. It would come over straight and then dip down. I worked trying to get rid of that. One day, someone asked me how long it took to get that curl and it made me angry. They didn’t know how I tried to get rid of it.

After a bit, I realized that the waviness of my hair could look good. I found out that Michael Nesmith and I had very similar hair and he didn’t seem to mind. Of course, what I wanted then was straight hair, as hippie hair was more straight.

I found out about that time that my hair would go into an Afro if I didn’t comb it after washing it. I liked that. But I still fought it.

So I went and got it straightened about 1972 or so. It fell great onto my forehead until about a day later when the front abruptly bent at an odd angle. So I cut it as bangs (popular at the time among some of the rock singers), but it was not the look I wanted.

I went off and on for several years until finally I decided that it was going to do what it was going to do whatever I wanted. I grew it long and I cut it short.

Finally about 1980, I decided to get it straightened again. I made the mistake of going to a beauty college to have it done. When the girl got through, it was a mass of small curls. That was a popular look at the time – the end of the processed disco era – but it was not what I had gone in for. In fact, the girl who did it started crying when it was revealed that it had done the absolute opposite of what I had gone in for.

I kept it for a week, then had it straightened again. It was awful.

About that time, hair started getting shorter again. I finally came to grips with it.

I have worn it cut off in a burr for the past few years with occasional forays with longer. But mostly a pretty close burr. As I lost my hair, I did what most guys did, I accented my beard.

I had always had a beard from the time I got out of the army, but now I got the new look, what someone called the new toupee: super short hair with a goatee. Guys did that so that people would not think they were balding.

I decided the other day to grow it out again. Now the back sticks up from lying on it at night. I do not know why it does right now, but it does. So I am back to fighting it, trying to get it to lie down again.

I suppose I could shave it again, but that would be admitting failure. I want it to be longer and I want it to lie down. I do not want a cowlick.

One interesting thing though. Not long ago, I was combing my hair (it was quite short) and over the balding area at the front was my little front curl. Small, yes, almost vestigial as it is a couple of inches higher than last time I saw it, but there nonetheless.

I kept it that day and showed it to Ella.

young men's hair styles

I was looking at guys in the mall and looking at their hairstyles. There are some strange ones out today.

Nothing really nifty like when I was young, of course. Well, that isn’t true, though, because I have seen a resurgence of late 60’s hair styles.

But there are so many weird ones mixed in too.

One of them is the bedhead look. The hair is mussed up and looks like you just got out of bed. The odd thing about it is that it is done on purpose and has gel to hold it that way.

Another is the mohawk and several of its variations.

I remember when we were in high school back in the 60’s. The dress codes always spelled out exactly what we could wear and what we couldn’t. One of the hair styles that were verboten was the mohawk. I remember thinking, as did all of my friends when we talked about it, that who in the stupid world would want to wear a mohawk hair cut. That was dumb.

Then the British punks brought it in during the 70’s and early 80’s and now you see it a fair amount. And guess what? I still think it is silly. Of course, I am a guy who buzzes his hair all off, so go figure. But still, it looks silly.

One of the mohawk’s hair styles is also a corollary of t he bedhead. The center part is combed up into a center row. You don’t actually cut it into a mohawk, but it is awful close.

I am glad to see the mullet gradually disappearing, though. It was odd, even though for a while I wore a variation, back when it was popular. Mine of course, was elegant.

So many young men are starting to wear their hair like late 60’s rock stars, and some, in what I used to think of as the Vietnam veteran’s style: longer in the front and kind of combed over. A lot of the Vietnam vets I knew had a variation of that haircut. I suppose that it was the military haircut grown out. Mine never would go like that, so I just let mine grow back then.

Sometimes it is a bit startling to see someone who looks like someone you used to know. They can’t be, though, because the guy you knew is your age and this kid isn’t. I was at a seminary for a class once and there was a fellow there who had long curly blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. He looked for all the world like a guy I knew back in the early 70’s. Only this was in 2008. I went to him and commented on that. He listened politely and we laughed about it and he probably went off thinking, old coot. But the similarity was so great.

I have even seen some Afros. I had one of them for several years. My hair went into curls if left to its own devices so it fit.

Still a lot of shaved or very closely cropped haircuts around, though. Someone called that the new toupee. A guy shaves his head if he is going bald and pretends that it is just shaved. Everybody knows as well as everybody knows when you are wearing a toupee.

I also see guys walk by in groups. All of the guys in the group will have similar hairstyles. That is kind of funny when the hairstyle is a bit different.

I love to see the massive diversity of humanity. And hair is one thing, I guess.

No point to this. Just an observation.