You ain’t cool until you’re slick

Gimme a head with hair

Long beautiful hair

Shining, gleaming

Steaming, flaxen, waxen

I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy

Shaggy, snaggy, ratty, matty,

Oily, greasy, fleecy

– from the musical Hair!

 

 

Flipping through the browser I came across a series of photos that showed the current “cool” look of men’s hair styles today.  Among them was this one they call the “classic 20’s” look.

 

I’m thinking, “Hey! It’s true what they say about what goes around comes around … and around and around.

This look may be trying to relive an older era of the wild times known as the “Roaring Twenties”,  a period of careless frivolity before the big stock market crash of Black Tuesday back in 1929.  But it was also a popular look during the 1950′s as my two elementary school pictures (circa 1956-58) attest to.

 

Check out those nose freckles

 

We kept hair grooming products like Wild Root and Brylcreem profitable for years.  It was even recyclable.  Just remove that goo that stuck to your comb after running it through your hair a couple of times and return it the bottle.

 

You weren’t cool if your weren’t slick (and greasy grimy)

You’ll also notice too that I was buttoning that top shirt button back then just like  what’s being mimicked in the current photo at the top.   And even though we lived under the threat from the Red Scare and an atomic bomb attack, we could still smile when the photographer said “cheese”.

Today, it’s all about how pouting, sulking or angry you can look.  Hey, I understand that your economic prospects aren’t as bright as they were for us and going to school each day or shopping at the mall leaves you wondering if another madman will pop out of the woodwork.  But you can’t let them take your smile away.