1948 Trim, Were Similar
Are Today’s Hair Styles Really New?.
Tak. lemen
in the pictures above. The haircuU
are remarkably similar. Yet the
young Geraon Stroud’s haircut was
trimmed in IMS while 28-year-old
John Carothera’hair was cut in 1989.
This ‘new’ style is the way many
black young men have chosen to
wear their hair. But the question is
“Is this hair style really‘new’? ”
Men like Nathaniel Edward (who
has been professionally barbering
since 1998 but who has been cutting
hair since he was nine years old)
know better. This new hair style
called the “Fade” was also popular
ly known as the “High English or
Low English” haircut back in the
’40’s.
“The High English" was cut
closer to the higher crown of the
head,” Edward explained, “while
the “Low English” was cut low near
the ears. Today we have more of the
“High English style.”
I first noticed the resemblance
between the ‘new’ “Fade” of 1984
and the 1948 “High English” style
while looking at an oldie but goodie
movie. And I’m talking old.
I noticed the blacks in the movie
had the same haircuts that I had
seen my teenage neighbors sporting.
“Well,” I thought, “this new hair
cut isn’t ‘new’ after all.” When I
discussed this with Edward, owner
of Edward’s Barber Shop on Beat
ties Ford Rd. and Gerson Stroud, a
retired Charlotte Mecklenburg
educator my assumptions were con
tinned.
Stroud was principal of West
Cabarrus Senior High School from
1969 until 1974. If you remember this
was the era of the large afroe or
bushes. Before the bush the Yul
Brenner (bald heads) and the Julius
Caesar (haircut close and shaped
around the bead front and back)
were the two dominate hair styles
for black men.
“But around 1967 the bush became
prominent and in 1970 it was in full
swing,” Stroud remembers.
Unlike many authority figures
who scarfed at the long length
(remember the hippies and yippies)
Stroud sported the Afro. “I liked the
bushes and I had to be in line with
my students.”
Another style that has come back
from the grave is the old process,
Edwards commented. Today its
called the curl. There is even one ar
tist in Charlotte who specializes hi
finger waving men’s hair.
“Styles for black men's hair usual
ly come and go, and then come in
again,” tdward noted. “The trend
of hair is just like clothing. Those
double breasted suits were worn
when I was in junior high school.
Those small bottomed pants were
-■ being worn when I wa*-13 years nidi
The trends are just repeating
themselves.”
When the styles grew longer it was
time for some barber shops’ eulogy.
According to “The Long and Short of
It: Five Thousand Years at Fun and
Fury over Hair,” “Barbers gloomily
predicted long hair would doom the
barber shop ... By one estimate,
shops across America were being
forced to close at the rate of 100 a
month.”
Food Lion, me.
Announces Signing
Of New Leases
Food Lion, Inc. today announced
' the signing of leases for several new
Food Lion stores to be located in the
following locations:
•A new 21,000 square foot store to
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located In a shopping center to be
known aa Stanly Plaza, In Locust,
North Carolina.
•A new 29,000 square foot store to
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known as Orchard Square, in
Augusta, Georgia.
•A new 29,000 square foot store to
be located on Victory Drive and
Ski da way Rood, to be located in a
shopping center known aa Victory
Square, in Savannah, Georgia.
Food Lien presently operates 280
stores in North and South Carolina,
Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, and
Maryland with new stores under
construction in Dunn, Charlotte,
Havelock, Hendersonville, Elkin,
Brevard, Burlington, and Lumber
ton, North Carolina; Aiken,
Charleston, Little River, Socastee,
and Barnwell, South Carolina; Har
risonburg, Richmond, Roanoke, and
Farmvflk. Virginia; Rogersville,
Bristol, and Kingsport. Tennessee.
Gerson Stroud
..'.’48“HighEnglish”
• But others who modernized their
methods and surroundings found
business and income booming,” the
book continues. “Instead of the
traditional quick trim, they offered
consultation in the styling and care
of the new long coiffure and turned
their establishments into masculine
beauty shops.”
“Barber shops do have to change
with the times,” Edward continued.
In the 1960’s and ’70’s long hair
was given much attention.
Beatlemania, the broadway smash
“Hair” and even television commer
cials were presenting a hairier USA.
The fury over hair reached such
boiling proportions that police would
sometimes arrest and shave long
haired men; billboards such as this
one: “Students of Norwalk Beautify
America ... Get a haircut” were
erected because of controversy, ac
i ' : :
John Carothers
... ’88 “Fade”
cording to Bill Severn author of
“The Long and Short of It...”
In contrast Ancient Greek men
wore their hair so long they had to
braid it into knots on the crowns of
their heads and hold it in place with
hairpins. “With that tradition, it
seemed nothing less than a denial of
the hairy virility of the heroic past
when young men began to shave
their beards and cut their hair
short,” wrote Severn.
At the start of the 19th century the
“young Americans with short
“frightened owl” haircuts enraged
the long hairs of the older genera
tion.”
When the men who had started the
19th century by cutting their hair
short became the older generation,
younger men began to let their hair
grow long,” Severn continued.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
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