I adored Paul of the Beatles and I had pixie/Beatle cut for years.

My view on the Beatles and hair was a little different when I was growing up. I have to start at the first haircut I had that was not done at home. I remember my dad taking me to the local barber school. The cost for a haircut was two bits. If you’re a youngin and do not know what two bits is I’ll tell you! Way back when, well before your and my time the and before we had coinage in America we used the Spanish “dollar/peso” and that just meant weight. The Spanish dollar/peso had a weight of eight reales or as seen in pirate movies the well known “pieces of eight” or “eight bits”. The meaning of “bits” is the division of the dollar so “two bits” is a quarter of a dollar. Enough of history but see what inflation does for your money now a haircut will cost you $25.00 in a better salon or around $10.00 (including tip) at an average barber shop but they are also disappearing as did barber schools that were made popular at the end of WWI to help returning soldier learn a trade. Let me get back to hair! Yes I used to use grease or better known as pomade and slick back with special dew in the front with long sideburns. I was from the Elvis/Lavern and Shirley age. The first time I decided to make the big change was before the Beatles even arrived. I was influenced by the TV series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “Illya Kuryakin”. Illya Kuryakin was played by David McCullum. Yes he is the same David McCullum that plays the eccentric medical examiner on “NCIS” known as Dr “Ducky” Mallard. When he played Illya Kuryakin he had the coolest looking hair and played a role that made him respectful and someone that a person could look up to, like the character “Roy Rogers”. As soon as I could muster up the courage I saved what I thought it would cost for the “Illya Kuryakin cut” I went to the local barber shop and requested it. The barber just kind of looked at me with wonder as I sat in the barber chair surrounded by pictures of men with short crew cuts and flattop haircuts. The barber did trim my hair leaving it long but neat. I’m glad the Beatles decided to follow my lead and arrive in America with long hair!

Great post, R. Capelle. I'd love to get my hands on one of those posters that hung in every barber shop with examples of all those haircuts! Remember those?

I also recall Ilya Kuryakin. I was so pleased when David McCallum showed up on NCIS. I haven't watched the show much since the Kate-killing shark jump.

Remember him in a TV movie in the 60's called Teacher Teacher?

Speaking of hair and baby boomers.. here's an article i read from DailyCents.com I found interesting:
http://blogs.dailycents.com/?p=820#comment-9197

I guess dad’s were the same everywhere. I was not allowed long hair and by that I mean it had to be buzzed right off practically to the scalp. But like all dads, sooner or later they had to give in to the pressure. Times had changed and they lost control a long time ago. Theirs was a foolish generation that loved war and would fight any cause offered.

I was allowed (silently) to grow my hair out in the summer after 8th grade. One of the last but not the very last. Thing is, dads had no idea of the ostracism they subjected their kids to by enforcing a style long since dead. Standing out too much without good reason and merit is not a wise thing to do. I recall several boys who dads still made them cut it throughout High School. It was ridiculous. Thing is, a Beatle hair cut was hardly what one could call extreme, revolutionary, or rebellious. But the gap between that generation and ours was the size of the Grand Canyon, as far ff as the sun rise is to the sunset. We just didn’t get each other at all and I am one who believes that parents should lay up for children and not the other way around. Parents should be the understanding ones, more so than the kids.

The Beatles were well groomed and I still have a mild Beatle cut. It is a reasonable style. But when I grew mine out, it was with vengeance and rebellion, for my father was uncompromising and had given very little thought to life and was difficult to live under, at best. So I really grew it out. But it looked ugly as hell. Not well kept. I had no sense of style. By this time, no one really even knew how to give a Beatle hair cut. Senior year I had an afro. Had it for a couple or 3 years after high school as well and then went for a Beatle cut. It was great, even in the early 80s.

The 80s were a killer for me. Short hair, often a crew cut influenced by punk, was against everything I had come to hate. It was WWII again. It was those conservative 60s dads again. Hippies were not only out, but had become four letter words as well. I was confused and despised the 80s for the first 3 years or so.

I though the Beatle cut was the best and most reasonable compromised between the war-loving idiots of the 40s and 50s and the gone too far freaks of the 70s with hair on their shoulders or longer. And just sitting there watching the pendulum go back and forth between extremes was annoying as hell. Long live
Ringo, George, Paul, and John
Who played a trick and put us on
Dropped hints Paul was dead as nails
And rocketed their record sales.

I loved those guy. I was not crazy about their longer hair and wild look, but how ya gonna argue with that music, huh?
And I also remember that nearly every British invasion group also had the Beatle hair cut. It was evidently an essential look to have. The old look was totally out. The wet head was dead.

A beatles Cut! Are you nuts!! Those long haired hippies! Of course that be said by my grandfather! Old school I guess! No, I can't say I did! Although some of my little boy hair cuts look like someone put a bowl over my head and cut?? It wouldn't be until late Junior high that the hair started to get long! High School, down to the shoulders. Even dad in the late seventies got into the long side burns Mike Brady look with permed hair! Ugghhh! What was he thinking? I was no better! Come the 80's spiked orange hair when going to the punk and new wave clubs in DC! My hair is now short again as I work in the funeral industry and we wear short hair cuts! Hair is starting to grey now...Bring on the Greasion Formula!