Back to the 60's!

2012

1972

Last night, my band, Red Paint, played a birthday party for a guy turning 50. The theme was the 60's so I went out and got a few props to make myself look like a 60's musician. Yep--found a tie-dye t-shirt (not pictured) and, most importantly--a huge head of hair. It was the "Howard Stern" model (labeled: DJ Wannabee). I also put temporary die (sold as "mustache wax") on my goatee to match, and brought out my wire-framed sunglasses. What do you think?

Of course, the folks at the party "dug it," but it also felt good to be looking like I did many years ago. It was a personal time travel experience--only with even MORE hair. I got to experience the hair-in-the-face annoyance and the hair-in-the-mouth-while-eating phenomenon that my wife has described. She wears her hair up almost all the time for that very reason. It felt good to rock-and-roll and shake that mop of hair. Wearing the sunglasses made me feel a little insular and "safe" in some way, too.

You can live your dreams--playing bass in my band is a big one for me--but looking "cool" too is another. I've never been much for costumes, but I'll bet this will be a big hit at some party this coming October 31st.

Gimme a Head with Hair

After looking at a global crisis yesterday, today I turn my attention to a subject dear to my heart--hair.

I grew up in the 1960s, when we all started out with short haircuts and many of us grew substantial manes by the time the folks had cleaned up Yasgur's farm at Woodstock. My goal, at first, was to look like a Beatle, but my kinky Jewish hair looked more like a bush. So, that's what I had. It was long in the early 1970's, but by the end of that decade, it was trimmed way down.

I identified with youth, hippies, musicians, artists, cool people, and so on. I heard the anthem from the musical HAIR in my head, and was waiting for the positives vibes of the Age of Aquarius to begin.

Well, here I am approaching 60, and my hair has thinned a bit and lost a lot of its dark brown color too. As I play rock and roll (and classical) bass now, I'd like to have cool hair, too. I feel like I look like a businessman or a "straight" person now, despite a full (white) beard (that's another story).

The problem is, when it's too short, my hair loses its curl, so it isn't "fun" anymore.

But, at the same time, I don't want to bother with my hair and I really don't think about it much at all, until it's time for a haircut.

What to do about it?

Probably nothing. But I can't forget how much it meant once--as an identity with what I saw as a new way of life, with moving from nerdhood to coolness--with growing up. The symbolic value was more than any other. I didn't need it to keep warm and there was no ceremonial purpose to the longer hair.

Even the members of the Grateful Dead have shorter hair now. So what am I thinking about?