Quackcast 698 - the Haircast

The QuackCast

Hair is a weird thing isn't it? It's just a bunch of thin filaments that stand out and hang from the body, most visibly from the head. Everyone is bald as an egg underneath this coating of head-fur, but the floof on top takes on a life, body, and shape of its own even though the truth is that it's just thin threads all buffed up with a lot of air. Hairstyles can indicate class, status, wealth, occupation, style, coolness, lack of cool, age, date, and any number of other factors about a person and where and when they fit in society. We also have strong reactions to hair: love, hate, revulsion, or disgust. It can indicate whether a person belongs to a community, a society, a religion or a sect.

It's a gigantic subject, so lets limit it down to just a few things… In the 20th century the biggest events with hair were caused by the 2 world wars. World War one gave us the beginnings of female emancipation: in the 1920s after WW1 we had young “flappers” with their short, boyish haircuts, much to the shock of some people. But it was also the first beginnings of mass military service for millions of young men who were introduced to the mass enforced conformity of the military haircuts.

In the years between wars fashion fought back and other styles prevailed, but World War 2 bought millions more men and women into military service and THIS time those fashions stuck. It wasn't till the late 1950s and early 1960s the the first reactions to post war ultra-conservatism started to show up with what eventually became the counter culture movement exemplified by hippies. Long hair on men was seen as an act of revolution. Their conservative parents somehow forgot that their own parents and grandparents before them had long shaggy hair and beards (if they wanted them), and treated the long haired youth like something new and weird, when in reality it was their own conservative war traumatised generation that were the weird ones.

That aside, what hairstyles do you like? What do you gravitate towards? Do you like particular styles on characters that you draw or read about in comics? I love big hair and long hair on my characters because short hair is really hard to draw. But these days I experiment with my styles, even bald styles which are interesting, though not full bald because that's just easy mode.

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by The DD Anthology: A Flock of Dreams - A very dream-like cruise on a sea of somnambulance…drifting off into dreamland with piano and soft sounds. Floating on waters of heavy, dully shining mercury.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic: Tuk and His Dinosaur - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/jul/23/featured-comic-tuk-and-his-dinosaur/

Featured music: The DD Anthology: A Flock of Dreams - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/jul/20/quackcast-697-the-dd-anthology-comic/

Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS