Essay: LONGER HAIR IS NOT NECESSARILY HIPPIE

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To be sure, the respectable longhair stands slightly in the hippie's debt. The equivalence of long hair and youth appeals to middle age; the 50-year-old may not look any younger or more like an actor if he lets his hair grow out —or asks his hair stylist to tease a bit more body into it—but he thinks he does. So do many women, the ultimate stylesetters for men. Long hair is also a way of advertising the distance a man has moved upward in a culture now more than ever devoted, in a time of expanding income and leisure, to the luxuries both provide. Good grooming is only part of it. The new American male also goes to the opera, masters a few French phrases, perhaps buys an elegant Edwardian suit and tours the Continent—where many of the latest styles, including long hair, originated. Good grooming is the most visible part of it; any investment, however steep, pays off just beyond the hair stylist's door. It is worth noting that, since 1953, the U.S. male has spent more money—and conceivably more time—in the beauty shop. The manufacture of perfumed products for men has risen by 400% since 1950; some colognes are now sold by the gallon. In 1948, two out of three men used aftershave lotions; today nine out of ten do.

The test of any new trend is acceptance. Long hair passes the test. During the protest stage some three years ago, when brow-shrouding male tresses bloomed all over the classroom, they drew down a withering fire from the academic Establishment. Today most of the hirsute scholars are back at their desks, tolerated if not entirely approved. "We ignore it," says C. W. McDonald, dean of men at Western Washington State College. "We do absolutely nothing against long hair even if it's down to their heels."

Will it go that far? It seems unlikely, but there are sociologists as well as barbers who believe that still more men will start growing still more hair and that the moustache and beard will proliferate. However, in the light of historical evidence that how men wear their hair is cyclical, it may turn out that the next generation will feel an urge to be clean-cheeked and crew-cut—or even bald.