Men’s hairstyles are boring. But it’s not like they can get much done… Or can they? For those who think it’s limited to crew cuts and pompadours, the latest video by Cut.com , as part of their ‘100 Years of Beauty’, proves them wrong. It shows the evolving hair trends for men from 1910 to 2010. The model, a rather good-looking Samuel Orson, sports 11 different hairstyles from over a century and his face changes dramatically with every new look. What remains constant are his disarming smiles and those cute dimples. No wonder the video is trending on social media and has more than 3,140,806 (when going to print) hits on YouTube.
The year 1910 shows him with a handlebar moustache and an overly-gelled side-parted style. 1920s has him sporting a clean-shaven look with a thread-thin middle parting and hair slick on either side. This has got to be the geekiest look of the century. “All through history, we see different prescriptions of what men should look like. We put that together. We looked at shaving and grooming advertisements,” says Chris Chan, video researcher, in one of the post-shoot videos.
A lot of the looks inspired by the 1930s style is very Clark Gable. The next decade sees Samuel with a sailor hat on. “Modelled on George Mendonsa, the sailor who was photographed kissing a lady on Times Square in the mid 1940s,” says Chan. The 50s has a bit of Elvis Presley’s pompadour. Fluffy long hair, a moustache and goatee that extends into a chin beard, is so hippy, so 60s. (It’s personally a favourite from the video.) The next look is almost similar, but a tad unkempt. With the 80s, it’s all slick, with the frizzy beard gone and his long mane trimmed and neatly brushed back. The makers of the video say it’s inspired by Wall Street. And the long hair and beard are back again with the 90s. Think Kurt Cobain, think grunge and that was what went into creating this style. The hair at this point is more voluminous, and that’s apparent as the model head bangs and shows the rock sign.
A behind-the-scenes video reveals that the model didn’t use any extensions or wigs and the stylists worked with his natural hair. “We didn’t shoot it chronologically, but shot it with hair and facial hair longest to shortest,” adds Chan. A fauxhawk is the pick for the turn of the millennium, which also saw the rise of the metrosexuals, and finally for this decade of 2010, the favourite is the man bun. Which is also popularly known as the lumbersexual style; and yes, that’s a thing. Take the word lumberjack, add sexual to it and what you get is lumbersexual, a trend that incorporates a retro style along with a beard, scruffy hair and plaid shirts. Sounds fab and no wonder Samuel looks his best here.
