Hairstyle Trend Roller Coaster

Decade after decade, the transition in between fashion trends has shown to be a constant influence over today’s generation. I remember my dad showing me pictures of him rocking an old fashioned top fade hairstyle back in the 1970’s. He stated that it was the style back in the day. When doing research for different trends during the 1900’s, the hairstyle trend has somewhat caught up with the style of today’s generation.

In today’s culture, males, mainly african american, have created their own hairstyle trend. It seems like today’s cultural trend is a replica from the 1950’s and the early 2000s. The popular hairstyle in today’s society consist of a low top fade with a side part. Some low fade, drop fade, and high fade styles are considered classic hairstyles for men. This classical hairstyle trend that you see today is somewhat different from how it was during the 1900’s.

During the 1910’s men were known for wearing their hair slick and straight back with a curly, thick mustache to complement their hair. As for African American males, they went along with the short, thick afro style. And sometimes they wore their hair braided back with a obligatory Bowler hat on top. Men during the 1920’s went with more a fresher look with a shaved, bare face. Along with their slick hair that included a line in the middle. In 1930’s, Hollywood movie stars took over the fashion trend by having a strong influence over how men styled their hair. Stars like Clark Gable caused men to take on the pencil mustache look with slick hair that was parted on the side.

African American males kept the thick short afro look going on throughout the 1920’s to 1940’s. From the 1950’s-1980’s, black men expressed more freedom by letting the length of their thick & natural hair show through afros and twists. Sometimes they added a stylish bowler hat just to add more flavor, but the afro didn’t fade away until 1990’s. After the 1990’s, Will Smith from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air look was on the a risen. But as you can see below, my grandfather attained this classic short afro style with thick side burns to compliment his afro. This style was very popular during the early 1900’s.

During the 1970’s caucasian men had the same stylish untamed look like African American men. Thickness, not so much, but the untamed look was there during this timeframe. Then from the1980’s to 2000’s, there were a mixture of styles that men attained every other year. It was either the archetypal Wall Street banker look with slick straight hair going back or sexy man bun in the early 2000’s.

So as you can see, the cultural trend of male hairstyles has developed into this everlasting roller coaster ride. It’s an exciting sight to see the style of curly hair with a fade from 1950’s repeat it self back in today’s culture. I would have to say, I’m enjoying this cultural roller coaster and I can’t wait to see what the new style will be in the next 5-10 years.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.