11I began to notice an increasing number of men with short hair on Castro Street. I had let mine grown in New York because long hair symbolized the spirit of rebellion of our generation which I associated with peace, community, and personal freedom. Yet that changed over the years. By the mid Seventies long hair merely signified an interest in s*x, drugs, and rock and roll.
The decision to cut my hair wasn’t an easy one to make. While I was becoming increasingly alienated from the long-haired men in the Stud, whose conversations too often revolved around drugs, I imagined that men with short hair, on the other hand, were business-oriented conservatives whose views I didn’t share either.
What was unthinkable a few years before was a matter of when and why. I finally decided I wanted an im
