So I was clipping my hair today, always use a guard so the hair is short but not nearly bald. I prefer very short hair because you don’t get all sweaty and gunky and it requires virtually zero maintenance. Would go shave it off if that didn’t require regular shaves and have nasty associations.
So why is a shaved head considered aggressive? Is it 100% down to nazi skinheads or are there older cultural forces at play? Also, why did skinheads adopt the fashion?
Skinheads, bikers, neo-Nazis, convicts. Not so much nowadays, as a lot of people go with that look, including athletes and businessmen. But there’s also something about close-shaved hair that reminds me of an aggressive dog with it’s hackles up.
For a long time, it was a somewhat anti-social look and statement - a deliberate flouting of convention like tattoos or long hair on men, and it identified a person as being outside the mainstream. In addition there are the counter-cultural associations like those mentioned above, as well as common characteristic seen by individuals in certain elements of entertainment industry who banked on cultivating extremely masculine looks (wrestlers, body builders, movie bad guys).
Shaved heads are becoming more mainstream (I credit Michael Jordan with making it fashionable), but a lot of those associations still exist, and, in point of fact, at least some of the anti-social element still exists.
I’d say its a warrior’s haircut. Military and law enforcement types don’t need long hair that can be used against them in combat or prove to be a nuisance in the field. It may also imply discipline (again, military) which some people find to be intimidating.
Thanks for the insights. Funny how too long or too short are both frowned upon by some people.
Which is also part of the reason people like the skinheads went for the look, they certainly weren’t military but they saw themselves as militant.
I understand a big reason for short hair in the military isn’t grappling, just hygiene.
Hygeine, particularly louse control, is one aspect.
It’s also an issue with fitting respirators/gas masks, which is why it became a big issue after WWI. Facial hair in the military went out at the same time for the same reason. A thick head of hair or hair beyond neck-length interferes with the seal on a gas mask, which is not something that you want in the modern military.
Anything that’s not mainstream will identify the person as being outside the mainstream. That’s plain logic.
The less logical, and more subjective part is connecting “outside the mainstream” with “anti-social”, “subversive”, and “evil”.
Also, there’s always the possibility that this style has some practical agenda to it, like a shaven head because of some medical reason (like brain surgery, or shampoo allergy) or growing extra-long hair to sell it to a wigmaker. People ought to consider these as real possibilities, and a refusal to do so counts as bigotry in my book.
Some say, “I have my head like this for no other reason than I think it looks good,” and I believe they are sincere. But WHY do they like that look? Part of the reason might be that they WANT to look outside the mainstream, either consciously or subconsciously. And so on.
Shaved heads are quite popular in Sweden especially among balding men. I once guided a visitor from Malaysia around who asked me about it, immediately associating it with racist attitudes, but he got calm when I told him it’s just a fashion.
Except for the Navy. Beards came and went, then came and went again during my career from 1967 to 1990. Moustaches were always allowed.
The notion of clean-shaven heads as denoting aggressiveness is a relatively recent thing. It came in during the 1970’s. I distinctly remember it occurring at that point and my being confused at first as to what point the men who were affecting that style were implying. It indicated being an aggressive punk, sometimes a racist one. It didn’t directly derive from short military haircuts. It was only right after enlistment that military people had completely shaven heads anyway. The skinheads were men in the 1970’s who looked at what had slowly become the standard look for reasonably hip men during the decade or so before them, when having long hair moved from being exclusive to far-out hippies to being accepted among any mildly hip man, and decided that the only way for them to rebel was to reverse this trend. The neo-Naziism of the skinheads was another way for them to try to find some trend that reversed the attitudes of hippies as much as possible.
I guess the Navy isn’t too concerned about chemical weapons attacks.
Does the typical sailor even get training in using respirators?
As a guy losing hair, I’m just grateful to live in a time where I can shave it without looking like I’m making some sort of anti-social statement.
Don’t Tibetan monks shave their heads? It’s not always associated with aggression, I’d say.
Shaving/trimming off one’s hair, to me, implies a singular dedication to something, and you can’t be bothered gussying up your hair.
I’ve never thought of it as aggressive, but I can see how you would associate it that way. Could it also be because it often doesn’t look as good on non-aggressive types so they do it less? Not many 20 year old 115lb dudes in skinny jeans with shaved heads but a tough guy with a shaved head looks pretty good so they’re more likely to go that route. Then when you see the shaved head you think of tough guys.
Amen, brother.
Skinheads (and remember, the skinhead scene wasn’t racist or neo-nazi in the beginning, and there’s been a strong non-racist/anti-racist skinhead scene since the late 60s) shaved their heads for a couple of reasons. The original skins were working class kids in the UK, both the white teens and the children of immigrants from Jamaica and other West Indian islands. They started to mix the mod styles with the rude boy image brought over with reggae, rocksteady, and ska.
As the mod scene got fancier and began sort of tying into the hippie scene in terms of fashion - brighter colors, friilly shirts, longer hair - the working class “hard mods” deliberately went the other way. So the shaved heads were partially in reaction to that. It was also easier to keep clean and neat when you did physical labor (and those that didn’t still wanted to look like they did). And although the early skins were not political or, as a group, racist (though there were certainly racists among them, as individuals), they did like to fight (see: football hooligans) and short hair means there’s nothing to grab hold of in a brawl. Plus, when you have a group of guys and they all want to look basically alike, shaving everyone’s head is a good start.
So, you’ve got all that feeding into the style and soon enough it’s just a subculture marker. The media started calling them “skinheads” (after also being called peanuts, baldies, etc) and it was pretty much set in stone. In the late 70s, nationalist/racist groups like the National Front started recruiting among these kids and telling their other young followers to pick up the fashion, since skins were known for being violent thugs anyway. The media picked up on “nazi skinheads” and there you go. Bald = racist.
Pleas excuse any prejudice on my part, but it’s because IT MAKES YOUR HEAD LOOK LIKE A DICKHEAD.
Second that. I no longer clean-shave, but I trim down to next to nothing every couple of weeks. I treasure the low-maintenance aspect and clean-shaving was more upkeep than shampooing ever was.
This seems to suggest the opposite.
From Wikipedia:
They are indeed concerned about chemical attacks. Our boot camp training (1968)included being subjected to tear gas and instructions on the proper use of gas masks. Aboard ship we were instructed in the use of the “Oxygen Breathing Apparatus”, a self contained respirator during firefighting exercises.
We were told that beards would interfere with the proper fit of the OBA and were discouraged from growing them. Didn’t bother me though. I couldn’t even grow a decent mustache at that age. 