[a vintage post reconstituted in honor of Britain's greatest footballer, Sir Bobby Charlton, RIP- and a great comb-over owner]
One thing I've noticed on my visits back to England over the last few years--you will never see a comb over anymore.
They used to be the mark of male middle age.
Bus conductors, men in betting shops, famous footballers, TV quiz presenters.... half the teachers at my school.... they all had comb overs.
At some point sense prevailed and the balding started to shave down their side tufts to near invisible.
Much more dignified (did they really think they were fooling anybody, the comb over squad?)... no need for yucky hair cream to plaster thinning elongated strands across the pate... and unlike the comb over invulnerable to the elements or a football colliding off the bonce.
However one side effect is that walking through a crowded public space in the U.K. today, it can feel like there's a lot of aging, getting-stout skinheads about.
The hat is a key accessory for a man of middle age...
ReplyDeleteI was in Italy and then the UK last week and saw some elegant hats on men of around my age. For those less into style, there is always the baseball cap.
DeleteI of course have no need of hat or cap, what with having a full head of salt-and-pepper hair. My dad had a shock of grey hair, rather like E.P. Thompson's, right up until the end.
Hats had gone way out of fashion in the UK by the end of the 1950s. By the 1970s, headwear was seen to be the preserve of a particular small minority of the UK population, hence the coded imperative outside certain venues: 'No hats'. Later superseded by 'No trainers'.
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