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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Alan Clayson

I was a long-haired teenage boy in the 1960s. Why did everyone hate us so much?

David Bowie, then known as Davie Jones, in March 1965. He and his group were initially banned from a BBC show due to the length of their hair.
David Bowie, then known as Davie Jones, in March 1965. He and his group were initially banned from a BBC show due to the length of their hair. Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Throughout the mid-to-late 60s, I had to fight every literal inch of the way over the matter of long hair. As I practised being Mick Jagger before the bedroom mirror, it was always on the understanding that, within hours, I might be in front of that same mirror after a parentally-dictated trip to the barber.

No amount of backcombing, pulling or applications of a thickening gel called Dippety-Do could disguise the brutal shearing. I’d be left making the best of a bad job, sprucing up for a Saturday night of raging pubescent hormones and perspiration.

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