Punk Hair Style

The punk hair style over time: what it meant, what it means, and, oh, the confusion!

The punk hair style has basically stayed the same, with a few changes here and there to fit the times (70's punk, 80's punk, 90's punk and so on).

In the 70's, when punk really began to take off, if your hair style was spiked or colored, you were a punk. When the 80's approached, rebellion became something like it never was before, and with the birth of MTV, it was easier to spread the rebel punk hair virus.

The punk hair style of the 80's thus blossomed to include not only spikes and unheard of hair colors, but the wonderfully uncouth mohawk, which Merriam-Webster defines as "a hairstyle with a narrow center strip of upright hair and the sides shaved." But there were so many ways young hooligans could fashion their ten foot spears. That's what made them so fun! I mean... other than the fact that it made everyone around them uneasy.

Your Idol and mine

A punk hair style in the 80's might also be a shaved head with tattoos, the devil's lock (a punk hair style lovingly worn by the Misfit's Glenn Danzig), wild and hair-sprayed...both dudes AND chicks.

Danzig's mother loved his Devil's Lock

People knew what you stood for by your obvious punk clothes and punk hair style.

Ah...but NOW....

Well, let's just say it's not so easy to discern anymore. The punk hair style has become part of mainstream fashion and not so much a personal statement. And being that my fiancee is one of what I like to call "the original punks," I know this disturbs the original punks... the ones who used to wear safety pins all over their clothes because they were falling apart and could not afford new ones. The ones who were punks, like the members of Pennywise or The Casualties, because it meant something deeper.

And it's been said, "punk is dead." Maybe this is true. And yet, the punk hair style lives on. It is a symbol of rebellion among all disturbed youth, an effective attention-getter, and will still shock and frighten the living daylights out of the elderly - a favorite pastime for any young one.

Sure, the word "punk" has meant many different things over the decades, and the punk hair style and punk fashion has slightly changed whilst maintaining its essence, but in my heart I know that there are certain ideals that the word "punk" encompasses that will never die.

And to those who wish to carry on the punk hair style to their senior prom, to their wedding day, and well into their middle age years, I say... rock on. After all, that is the true rule of punk...