1974: New Hair!
1974: what a year!
Brylcreem ran an ad touting the virtues of the “NEW” short hair. They “explained the difference between the short hair that went away and the short hair that’s coming back.” Ads, I guess, were always more lenghty then, and they used their space to tell you how to order your barber around to get the “NEW HAIR.” The style was a hint at the Luke Skywalker ‘do (or non-’do that was to come. Do you think barbers were helpful that their customers knew what they wanted, or do you think ol Bob and Gus who were cutting the dude’s hair since they were five years old thought, “Don’t tell me how to do my job?”
At any rate, here is how to get it:
Ask your barber to scissor your hair – no clippers – to a length of about an inch on top and in back, graduating to about an inch and a half in front and on the sides.
Around the neck and ears hair should be left shaggy enough so that it will still meet your collar and the tops of your ears. Trim your sideburns slightly, to the middle of your ears. Now you have only two problems to cope with: fuzziness and dryness. In no time short hair can look like sunburned straw. It needs frequent conditioning.
Re-enter Brylcreen, the conditioning hair dressing.
Oh, so this is not REALLY a public service announcement. You can’t get the style if you don’t use Brylcreem! By the way, Virginia Slims may have said “You’ve come a long way, baby,” but Brylcreen says:
We’ve come a long way since “a little dab’ll do ya.”
Wait a sec. My first grade teacher said that about glue! We used to use so much that we would have to peel the rest off our hands like we were shedding snakes when we got home.
One may wonder what the difference between 1974 and the current “I am sort of starting to grow my hair out” looks? This was actual a specific style that one worked towards versus just “letting it happen.”
The part that I thought was particularly funny, is that the ad proclaims that this would be the style SURELY that would last for many years to come. SURELY the writer didn’t see Disco or hair bands, or even Robert Plant coming. Or they didn’t want to.
1970s, grooming products, hysterical and historical hair | Comments (3)
3 Responses to “1974: New Hair!”
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Great blog! I’ll be back to read more. Oh what memories!
I think that the guy in the mirror is not the same guy who’s looking into the mirror. This is sort of like an outtake from the all-squares version of “Head,” there was a weird mirror scene in that too (with Davy Jones).
What a great ad though! I am using my non-Entrecard blog as my URL here – lots of 70s ads!
Lidian, I was ALMOST going to go for that theory (of it being another person), and then I remembered the study once about how our faces are not symmetrical. At least most people aren’t. If you placed a mirror image of one side of the face next to it and covered up the other side, and did the same to the other side, you would look like two different people. I.e. everyone thinks they have a bad side.
I am going to say the facial expression/brow creases, etc – it could be the same dude. Unless he has a twin brother who is an actor/model who looks subtley different.
I know I think way too much…