Male appearance in the 60s - Hair

by Unknown 03:22 0 comments Planning Research

The Mop-Top

Arguably the most iconic men's hairstyle of the 1960s, the moptop was popularised by the band The Beatles and further emulated by rock groups such as The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits and The Doors. The moptop was a haircut that sported a fringe of long bangs that grazed the eyebrows in front and hung down to hit the shirt collar in back. It was based on a haircut that John Lennon and Paul McCartney saw on the streets of Paris in 1961 and liked so much that they had their hair cut to match it exactly. 

The Crew Cut

From young boys to business men, this style, continuing from the 1950s, was considered clean and wholesome. The crew cut is also known as a "flat-top," which means the top of the head is cut to give a flat, level effect, and the "buzz cut," in which the hair is shaved as close as possible to the head. This hairstyle is also used mainly in the TV drama 'Mad Men' where the characters are business men based in New York. Since the 1960s, the crew cut has been considered the haircut of choice for the clean-cut, conservative boy, teen or man - which will suit our police men and detectives best. 

The Rockabilly Look

Music legends like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash wore a stylised haircut known as a "Rockabilly" or "pompadour." This style's swept-up, waved and locked in place look was first worn by musical artists in the late 1950s and early 1960s and seen as as sexy due to the magnetism of the men who popularised it. The hair itself was short in the back and long in the front, with the front pieces worn swept up and away from the face, secured with beeswax or other product with strong holding power. The sexiness of this look emerged when the icons who wore it, like Elvis, got moving onstage, allowing the carefully set hair to fall forward over the eyes.

Sideburns

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, sideburns did not extend far past the ear and they were kept neatly trimmed. By the middle of the 1960s, British bands brought long sideburn styles back into the mainstream. The Beatles influenced many young men to grow their hair and sideburns out to be like their idols. Later, stars such as Jimi Hendrix made shaggier sideburns popular. By the end of the decade, sideburns of varying thicknesses and lengths were commonly seen on television and on film, and the American public copied these styles. As a result, even extreme sideburn fashions like the wide porkchop style became popular.

Beards

Similar to the evolution of the sideburns, beards in the early 1960s started out as small and neat, and then took on a variety of forms. Styles such as the goatee and the goatee and moustache combination known as the Fu-Manchu were common. In the last half of the decade, long, unkempt hair became popular for men in the free love movement, and beards were grown to match.

   Moustaches

Moustaches did not gain wide appeal, unless combined with a beard, until the last years of the 1960s. These were not necessarily associated with hippies, but rather reflected the influence the long hairstyles and fuller facial hair had on the rest of society.

Conclusion 

As our characters are police officers we want them to be incredibly formal and smartly dressed, therefore we are going to style both the detective and the officer with neat crew cuts. Although facial hair did become popular in the 60s we will be keeping our male characters clean shaven to keep up the appearance of men of authority rather than the hippie and 'free love' movement.