Why and when did men's hair go from looking like this to this? Three possibilities: wealth,
power and a tax on wig powder.
If you look at popular men's hairstyles throughout western history, you'll see that the length
fluxuates between below the shoulders to above the ears up until the 19th century. Prior
to that if you were a guy, how long your hair was would be largely determined by two things.
Who was in power and how rich you were. If we go all the way back to ancient Greece you'll
see long hair on men as a sign of wealth and power differentiating them from slaves whose
heads would have been shaven as a sign of their submission. But centuries down the road
in Greece that trend would actually flip-flop to where long hair on men would be seen as
a sign of false pride and excess so cut it short guys. If you look at ancient Rome under
Julius Caesar no big surprise short hair was the preferred style of the day. After they
conquered the Gauls in western Europe who tended to wear their hair longer, Julius Caesar
also ordered them to cut their hair short as a sign of deference. Talk about guys getting
intense with some hair. But the why of men's short hair certainly doesn't stop with Julius
Caesar whose signature doo wouldn't be revived until the romantic era of the early 19th century.
Oh la la. In the meantime however you see a host of European kings choosing to wear
their hair long as a sign yet again of wealth and power. In the 5th century you have this
guy named Chlodio who was known literally as the long-haired king. Eventually however
defeated by much shorter-haired Romans. Similarly during the Middle Ages the length of men's
hair positively correlated with their wealth so guys watching with really short hair you
would have been like a servant back then probably. And I would have been a king. During the 11th
century wealthy men's hair gets a little bit shorter in the style of Charles the VIII.
[Trumpet sounds.] They call this style the page boy. You leap frog into the 16th century
with Francis the First of France apparently torched off some of his beautiful locks, you
see short hair on men not so mysteriously coming back into vogue. That would soon be
over-shadowed in the 17th century by King Louis the XIV's love of massive wigs. I've
never felt so manly before. In a fascinating twist of hair-storical fate it's actually
these hair pieces that have a lot to do with the contemporary rise of men's short hair.
Specifically in 1795 the British government began levying a wig powder tax and in protest
men started throwing off their wigs and wearing their hair short although heavily styled with
a lot of products generally rich in bear fat. Because men rarely washed their hair and their
hair was full of bear fat, they had to wear those night caps so that they wouldn't stain
their pillow cases. They also had to put doilies on the back of their chairs so as to not leave
grease stains on their furniture upholstery. Like I said earlier you see the revival of
Julius Caesar style hair in the early 19th century with the romantic movement due to
its appreciation for classical art, hence old Napoleon Bonapart sporting the Caesar.
Other popular hair styles also included the Titus, the Brutus and the Bedford crop. Then
in the first half of the 20th century men continue to wear their hair short in large
part due to factors like World War I wherein soldiers were forced to get high-and-tights
so as to keep lice at bay in the trenches. In between World War I and World War II, legend
has it that a Yale student named Jock Whitney invented the crew cut because he was looking
for a hairstyle that would stay out of his way while rowing on the crew team. Ivy league
variations on the crew cut would also include the Princeton Crop and the Harvard Clip. With
the 1960s counter-culture some men started to grow their hair out in reaction to the
previous austerity of the World War II era, even still today especially for men in power
short hair is what is preferred. When you're looking at why men wear their hair short we
assume that it has to do with masculinity constructs but historically the answer is
not so precise. A lot of times it simply has to do with whose got the money, whose go the
power and whether or not Britain wants to levy a wig powder tax. Good thing this'll
never go out of style.