The Crew Cut

50s Actor & heart throb, Tab Hunter

The crew cut - which legend has it, was named after the Yale rowing teams of the late 1900s, became the standard cut in the US armed forces during WW2. Post-war, the  crew's popularity spread into the civilian population and in the 1950s it was the most common style for men.

Traditionally, a crew cut features short or medium length back and sides and  tapered hair on the top of the head, beginning shortest at the crown and getting gradually longer toward the front.Variations include an Ivy League cut which favors longer length all over and a buzz cut, which is shorter all over.

The flat-top crew, often associated with uncompromising military types, is yet another high maintenance variation, where the hair is designed to stand-up, forming a boxy square shape -frequent cutting is required to keep the square look.

In the 80s, Grace Jones gave the flat top new, cool meaning

In the 1960s, the crew cut became deeply uncool, as it was emblematic of the establishment. The mod look, cultivated by British bands required longer hair and the general breakaway from conservative short cuts became a symbol of the youth revolution. However, as fashion has a tendency to recycle itself, in more recent times, crew cuts became fashionable again in a retro kind of way.

The Crew Cuts...were a Canadian vocal group who had a hit in the 1950s with a cover version of Sh-boom,which was originally released by The Chords.