There was sooo much going on during this tumultuous time that it’s hard to put everything in a piece to give it context.

There was also just a massive protest by the Boomers of conformity.  We hated it.  Girls were required to wear dresses to school.  Boys were required to keep their hair cut to a certain length — long hair was seen as being disobedient to authority.

Girls started wearing pants to school and were promptly sent home to change.  But girls everywhere started protesting by wearing pants, and they had to relent.

Boys started wearing their hair long, and wow you would think they were holding guns to the head of the authorities.  The girls let their “hair hang out” with growing it as long as they could — down to their butts if they could. Prior to this, girls were using curlers and tons of hairspray to keep tightly controlled hairdos.  Helmet head, if you will.

Just by our shear massive numbers, we were able to break some stupid rules that had no bearing on quality of life — they were nobody else’s business but our own.  I think even these little “victories” frightened the authorities and Kent State was more than just those students, but about the youth in general.

With that, here is a favorite song of that era about the importance hair played in the 60s and 70s: (ignore the creepy guy introducing the Cowsills)