Miscellaneous Videos - 149

Male and Female Hair Trends in 1963

This article follows up my previous article Johnny Castle's hair was too long.

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In 2017, the scientific journal Transactions of Computational Imaging published a scientific article titled A Century of Portraits: A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks. The article explains that computer analysis of high-school yearbook photographs found that the size of young men's and young women's hairdos fluctuated over time from 1930 to 2013.

The scientific article was explained for ordinary readers on The Pudding website, in an article titled The Big Data of Big Hair, written by Elle O'Brien. Her article included an interactive graph, from which I have taken a screen shot that highlights the year 1963.

The median size of men's and women's hair -- 1930 - 2013 (highlighting 1963)
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

The above graph shows that in 1963 the sizes of men's and women's hair were just beginning a steep rise -- especially the size of men's hair.

Below is a YouTube video about the scientific article.

Below are two samples from 1963 high-school yearbooks.

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In the below graph I have highlighted the year 1958.

The median size of men's and women's hair -- 1930 - 2013 (highlighting 1958)
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

In 1958, the size of women's hair began a rise that lasted 28 years -- until 1986.

Meanwhile, the size of men's hair continued a decline that lasted until 1960. Then the size of men's hair rose steeply until 1979.

In other words, the size of women's hair began to rise in 1958, and the size of men's hair began to rise two years later, in 1960. Because the size of women's hair already had begun to rise, the size of men's hair eventually was allowed to rise too.

Then when the size of men's hair rose steeply during the 1960s and 1970s, the size of women's hair continued to rise even higher. Women display their femininity by displaying their differences from men -- and vice versa.

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As I pointed out in my previous article, before 1964 men's hair was considered to be too long -- too feminine, too sissy -- if it covered any of their foreheads, ears or collars. The Beatles violated those rules.

Johnny Castle likewise violated those rules. In 1963, everyone at Kellerman's resort would have noticed that his hair was too long -- too feminine, almost sissy. However, nobody in the 1987 movie audience noticed that Johnny's hair was too long.

The median size of men's and women's hair -- 1930 - 2013 (highlighting 1987)
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

By 1987, the awareness and memory of the rules about men's hair in 1963 had disappeared.

Michael Glickman

Michael Glickman, thanks for your many comments. I might respond to some of them.

If you want to submit an article about the movie, contact me at ...

MikeSylwester@gmail.com