First we’ll start with where the idea of long hair in music originated and then trace it to Hair Metal. (also known as Glam Metal)

“Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭11:14-15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If you’re a counter cultural young adult in the 1960s, when Psychedelic Rock was big, that means you grew up in the 50s, when there was a huge pressure to have a good Christian family, at least in the United States. In that circumstance having long hair as a guy is a subtle act or rebellion against your Christian upbringing. Additionally, men fighting in Vietnam would have short hair to conform to military regulations and having long hair is a subtle act of protest.

If you’re a counter cultural Psychedelic Rock band is the United States this is exactly the style you want. With anti Vietnam sentiment high having all the parts of your act scream ‘Peace’ and ‘I disagree with your parents’ is a great way to attract people who disagree with the war in Vietnam and 1950s America in general.

Glam Rock was a phenomenon that surfaced in Britain in the mid 70s as a style of counter culture rock that focused being flashy and showy, pulling on influencers like Art Rock and Psychedelic Rock. Glam Rock in its attempt to be counter cultural drew from many sources but was often defined by what it wasn’t, the Beatles.

Basically all British rock artists at the time lived in the shadow of the colossus that was the Beatles, even if they were arguably past their peak, and Glam Rock made a distinct attempt to make any comparison between the two nonexistent. That’s why flashy clothing, sometimes even women’s, and long hair became the norm for them. Just looking at The Beatles, with short hair and in suits, and any Glam Rock band, with long hair and scandalous clothing, made it apparent they weren’t the same thing and not to be compared.

By the late 70s Glam Rock was dying as Punk Rock took the British counter culture stage, but the outfits, makeup, and hair of Glam Rock found a new home in some of the metal and hard rock bands of the US. These bands were seeking to distance themselves from the overproduced sound of 70s metal and rock and as a part of that took on the visual style of Glam Rock. This visual style played well to over top live performances, which soon could fill stadiums, and combined with the usage of the power ballad, the adaptation of rock and roll or pop style ballads to a hard rock/metal format, helped propel these bands to wide mainstream popularity by the mid 80s.

Glam metal ceded it’s throne to Thrash Metal and American Punk Rock in the early 90s. Both Thrash and Punk pulled from British Hardcore Punk and Glam Metal, but the visual style became less core to the genres which is why bands that formed in the late 80s but peaked in the 90s copied this style but bands that formed in the 90s often didn’t, making it seem like an exclusively 80s phenomenon.

So in short Long hair was a phenomenon that was picked up by various counter cultural movements over the late 20th century as a mechanism to show themselves as differentiated from the more establishment opinions of the day.

Bukszpan’s The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal (2003) and Auslander’s Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (2006) are two books I’ve pulled from and should provide more information on Glam Rock and Glam Metal.

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