# Where did the name "head shop" come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 15, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-head-shop-come-from/539564 "2010-05-15T18:27:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siddhartha\_Vicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Siddhartha\_Vicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siddhartha_Vicious)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-head-shop-come-from/539564/1 "2010-05-15T18:27:22Z")
Sorry if this has been answered before. I did a very cursory search before posting. My wife and I were listening to reggae, and talking about how we only hear it in head shops, which then lead us to wonder where the term came from. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-head-shop-come-from/539564/2 "2010-05-15T18:46:58Z")
As in pothead or acidhead. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-head-shop-come-from/539564/3 "2010-05-15T19:52:40Z")
“Feed your head” is a relic saying from the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-head-shop-come-from/539564/4 "2010-05-15T19:57:13Z")
“Feed your head” is also found in the lyrics of Jefferson Airplane’s _White Rabbit_. The idea behind this is that taking drugs will open your consciousness and allow you to see things and think about them more clearly. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-head-shop-come-from/539564/5 "2010-05-15T22:50:13Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > As in pothead or acidhead. Yep, shops which catered to users of marijuana and psychedelics in the 1960s. Sold them rolling papers, hookahs, anything short of the drugs themselves. Comes into use around the mid 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-head-shop-come-from/539564/6 "2010-05-16T04:13:40Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > As in pothead or acidhead. The term was often shortened to simply “head” to refer to any general hippie type who used drugs. **Dick Clark, interviewing 13th Floor Elevators’ lead singer Roky Erickson on _American Bandstand_** : “Which one of you is the head of the band?” **Roky:** “We’re ALL heads…” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-head-shop-come-from/539564/7 "2010-05-16T11:29:43Z")
The suffix “-head” to indicate a drug addict goes back to 1911: > **[head | Etymology, origin and meaning of head by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/head)** > > HEAD Meaning: "top of the body," also "upper end of a slope," also "chief person, leader, ruler; capital city," from… See origin and meaning of head. It is used in a looser way to indicate a fan of band or singer, like Deadheads for fans of the Grateful Dead, Parrotheads for fans of Jimmy Buffett, and Phishheads for fans of Phish.