....before finishing the Saga of Jake I'll give you this! This remembrance is a bit later on in the life of this family.
The Bowl Cut
In the late 40s, short and neat haircuts for boys were the thing! This was the accepted and desired hair cut for all boys of that day. The hair was parted on either side or the middle, and combed up and back to the sides and held neatly in place with ‘Rose’ hair oil! This aromatic oil was used by one and all - farm boys and city boys alike! Sometimes, OVERUSED, to the point of running down behind ears and down necks…under shirt collars!
Keeping a neat haircut could be a problem, with money in short supply as it usually was,
in this farming family.
Luckily, (or maybe not) the older brother of the family had acquired a hand-operated hair clipper. With three younger brothers in the family, he had ample material to practice his hair cutting. But one needed to catch the older brother in a receptive mood, to be assured of getting the desired haircut! On some occasions that clipper seemed to be pulling the hair out by the roots, rather than cutting it! This, perhaps, depending on the older brother’s mood at the time of the clipping!!
Ed, being a young teen, and wanting to look his best, had been pestering his brother for a haircut for awhile-with his hair becoming more straggly and unkempt with each passing day! The Rose hair oil was fighting a losing battle in keeping all that hair in place!
Finally, the haircut was agreed to and it got under way!
The young Ed was captured there, under his brother’s hands, being very still, so as not to invite the pulling from the clipper…not realizing at first what kind of haircut his brother was giving him!
The finished haircut looked as if a bowl had been placed on the boy’s head, with the scalp shaved close, up to the distance a bowl, placed on top of the head, might have covered! The rest of the hair was cut straight, with no tapering; being left to hang straight down all around the head!
:) It would take awhile for that hair to grow out!
(But as Charles has been known to say,” Country Boys Can Survive!”)
Yes!
This haircut was similar- but more drastic- to the haircuts ‘THE BEATLES’ would make famous, some 15 + years later! :)
Charles Edward never WAS a Beatles fan! ☺
Junie
May7, 2006
I can almost see it. Sounds like what would happen if anyone turned me loose with scissors or clippers.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteI never did try boys haircuts-
tho I did cut my 2 girls' hair when they were young.
I laughed and laughed because there was a time I cut my boys' hair and I remembered all the disasters. I am surprised that they still speak to me or send me Mother's Day Cards.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteGlad it made you laugh!! :) That's an often told story in my husband's family! :)
I never was brave enough to do my son's hair, but did my little girls hair until they were almost grown up!
Junie
Didn't cut hair but I remember one Fourth Of July when my dad gave all three of my brothers a mohawk along with two of their friends. The boys always tanned up so well that making them Indians for the parade made sense
ReplyDeleteand besides it was a cool cut in more ways than one. (got to look for that picture)
Momma,
ReplyDeleteHope you find that photo! :)
I remember some boys, when I was in Jr.High, did that-the Mohawk cut!
...very daring act for that time of the mid.50s :)
June