SHINGLE HAIRCUT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 September 1924, Page 3

SHINGLE HAIRCUT.

It appears that the shingle habit is devastating the heads of British women at an alarming rate. In Sydney it has gained sufficient sway to produce illustrated articles in newspapers, and in America it seems to have spread like a prairie fire. A New Zealander writing home says that at a very large concert -in California he saw only two heads that were not shingled. It is not merely a whim of flapperdom. Grey-headed grandmamas have rushed to be shorn as gaily as the most flapping flapper, and have demanded a permanent "wave,, too. It is understood that they now have to go to a barber as often as a man, but that does not worry them a bit. The reason seems to be that, if they have not succeeded as well as flappers in looking like boys, they enjoy the same freedom from the thraldom of hair combing and “putting it up.” A couple of energetic swishes through her locks with a comb and grandma, is ready to receive company or join a jazz party.

“Elderly gentlemen who gathered their fixed ideas two or three generations ago, and, maybe, are touchy on the matter of the human thatch, may be expected to denounce any fashion that deprives a woman of her crowning glory,” remarked a cynical individual, “but I can see no reason why women should not cut their hair, provided they do not thereby lose beauty. The keeping of hair tidy is a vexatious business, particularly in these days when women follow outdoor games. Still, long tresses have been always admired for their beauty. The primitive male probably grew hair until his little spark of intelligence made him realise that long hair sometimes caused him to go to bed hungry. This occurred when he was caught by his hair in a thicket when lie was hunting the family dinner on foot. In consequence he lost the dinner, and perhaps had some hair pulled out for his. failure. Then he may have thought of burning it short. Absalom was hanged by his hair in an oak. Such misadventures may have started the habit of hair-cutting. But down through history there, has been no general rule. Cromwell’s Roundheads fought the long-haired Cavaliers, and sailors in Nelson’s time were not afraid of their pigtails catching in the rigging.