Mellow And Groovy Fads Of The 1960s

When the 1960s opened itself to the annals of history, the beginning would in no way reflect the ending.

Women were now starting to gain numbers in the former workman's world. No longer content in just being a housewife and mother, women were finding jobs outside the home only to find most of the jobs offered were "women's work" with pay much lower than the man's salary.

Baby Boomers were steadily becoming part of the real world as many were teenagers or just starting college. The start of what would be termed the Generation X wouldn't come around until 1965. Birth rates which had skyrocketed during the late 40s and throughout the 50s was starting to go down. The rate of divorce was starting to go up. Although most would still see the "typical" family in a suburbia near you during the early 60s, things would change the definition of "typical" as being "there is no such thing as typical."

With each decade there will always be a certain pop culture that seems right only inside that decade and totally laughable if transferred to another one - at least until it becomes a retro fad.

With John F Kennedy in the White House, the US referred to this as the "Camelot" era. JFK was adored for his handsome good looks and his family had a clean cut Catholic image...so what if his father was a liquor smuggler during the Prohibition and worked with gangsters!

Jackie Kennedy wore her fashion statement carried over from the 50s, the pillbox hat and the bouffant hairstyle. With former First Ladies, it wasn't really a trendy thing for the youth to follow, but the Kennedy family had a feeling of class, style, and family values impressive with both the kids and the parents.

The bouffant hair style was only the beginning of the growth in sales of hairspray and gel. To follow suit to this style came the beehive and the bubble. While the bouffant came to be associated with class, the bubble was the joke where it was laughed about rumors of mice, bees and other rodents making a nest in the hair.

Then the long hair look came back. First for the women who grew tired of the hours long ritual of hair spray then to the men who wanted to show a slight rebellious edge against authority.

The men started slowly. At first it was shocking, even scandalous for a man or a boy to have hair an inch lower than the ear lobes. So they pushed the envelope further and it grew to their necks. Not to be outdone by men now starting to grow long hair, the women stopped cutting their hair and let it grow as long as it could. Some would iron their hair as curly hair got in the way of length. The men then followed suit and it was quite a sight to see what one thought was a woman with waist length hair only to have him turn around.

Groups such as the Beatles and Rolling Stones were criticized by parents who wished their children would stop listening to those long-haired freaks. If you want a laugh, watch the VH1 Classic channel and see the scandalous haircuts of the 1965 version and compare them to the 1970 version of these groups.

In the African-American communities, people were still torturing themselves with all sorts of nasty chemicals to get their hair straightened, but as time went on in the Civil Rights Movement it became a matter of "why try to look white?" More were moving into the Natural look. At first it was cropped pretty close to the head, but as the 60s started to wind down, it turned into the Afro. Also coming into style was the French braid/cornrow look with colorful beads. It took forever, it seemed at times, to get set up, but would stay in place with little touch up for a long time.

The British were coming! Again! This decade was in for a change on the music and dance scene. In the beginning, Rock and Roll music had died, at least if you read in too much to Don McLean's song, American Pie. The edge was lost on Rock music and became sappy. Then you had the singers turned actors (a trend which unfortunately still has not gone away) flood the big screen. Beach music was popular. At first it was the sappy music of Annette and Frankie to a more hip Beach Boys. Sure, it was fine for those California people, but the rest of the country was looking for something more, something different.

The wave of British bands have changed the sound of Rock music. Elvis was no longer king as he abdicated his throne for the big screen. The Beatles, aka the Fab Four, came in among the wave of others from England, but were by far the most popular to create a sensation known as Beatlemania. With their popularity came the television satire in the form of the pre-fab four called the Monkees.

Does the name Jawaharlal Nehru ring a bell? He was the first Prime Minister of India when it won independence from Great Britain in 1947. He was a noted pacifist who came into power with peace and was admired all over the world. What does he have to do with the 1960s? Apart from his death in 1964, we was both a model for a fashion trend and a political act famous in the 60s.

The political act was the Peace Movement. With Vietnam in trouble and our troops being sent into a so-called battle to fight the evil Communists, the young people protested a war which seemed immoral. Instead of fighting the powers with a harsh confrontation, they would resort to more peaceful ways of protest as favored by men such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They would stage sit-ins, love-ins, and basically gather in one place to do nothing except show the authorities they don't believe in the war by refusing to leave. Unfortunately, not everyone in the 60s believed in peaceful means to an end. The 60s were also ripe with assassinations and homefront terrorist acts of protest.

The Nehru jacket, which he wore, came into style during the mid part of the decade. Pierre Cardin developed a contemporary look for the Nehru jacket and introduced it to Sammy Davis, Jr who would show it off on stage. The Beatles even wore them and the hippie world would take an interest in these jackets in many vivid colors which would go along with another trend - the tie dye look.

By taking silk or cotton cloth and tying it loosely in different ways before submerging into the dyeing process, the end product would show off different patterns of bright colors. No doubt would enhance the effect of the pop drugs of the time - marijuana and LSD.

If you were of the crowd of experimental drug users or wanted to be a poser, you would have to furnish your pad with lava lamps, black lights, and posters painted with day-glo colors.

And what fashion trend victim of the 60s would go anywhere without a pair of bell bottom pants? At first it was similar to the full end-leg roundness seen on sailor pants, but as time went on the roundness got larger and larger.

At least the women didn't necessarily have to wear pants. They could wear the newly popular granny dresses which looked more or less like a very long sackcloth with wrinkles dragged from their grandmother's attic. It was the opposite look of those who wanted to show some leg which was popular at the time, but came into conflict with women who no longer wanted to be the sexual objects of men. While women were still sporting the mini skirts and string bikinis, baggy was also in. However, if you didn't mind being eye candy for the men, you could always wear that mini skirt with the white, patent leather go-go boots and imitate Nancy Sinatra.

1960 introduced a big boost in the freedom of women, the birth control pill was being made available. Now a woman could keep her good girl reputation even if she wanted sex outside of marriage. A married woman could choose to hold off child birth until she felt secure enough in her life or could pursue a career. While praised in some segments of society for the freedom it gave women, its critics argued it was the start of a morally loose society.

If you decided not to take the pill or misused it, you had the chance to get pregnant if you engaged in sex. The unwed mother trend was growing, although still frowned upon. To be a love child still had a stigma attached, but that was starting to become one of the norms of our society. At least if you were a mother, a new invention helped ease your daily life - the disposable diaper. Just be sure not to change Junior on the other new invention - the waterbed.

And to wrap of these decade of hippies, yippies, sex and drugs and rock and roll, there has to be a side note of the most popular social event to end the decade - no, not the moon launch - Woodstock!

Just gather your friends and lovers with a big bag of pot and acid as you cram into your VW bug or bus painted in day-glo colors and peace signs as you traveled to Bethel, New York on Max Yasgur's farm for a "Three Days Of Peace And Music" concert to help a Woodstock music studio. If you just happened to make it there and could tolerate the rain and weather elements, you would see some great and not so great musicians, some for the last time. Who would have thought then that they may never have a chance to see Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin. A crowd of over 400,000 people showed up and amazingly only 2 people died.

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