Story: Personal grooming

In the 1970s long hair was first worn by men in their late teens and 20s, hippies and left-wing radicals, seen en masse on protest marches, at rock concerts and in communes (like that at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River, shown here). Complaints that long hair made men and women difficult to tell apart were often taken as evidence of the style's worth, as many argued that gender differences had been exaggerated. In the later 1970s the style spread. Long hair for men (sometimes along with lavish make-up) would eventually become the province of heavy-metal bands and their fans.