World War I subcultures
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Hairstyles at the beginning of the 20th century were not strict unless you were in a religious order or other controlled circumstances (the military or prison etc.). Both men and women regarded long hair as normal. Men and women had, after all, always had long hair, since prehistory.
After the First World War (1914-18) attitudes changed: the wartime trenches were infested with lice and fleas, so soldiers were forced to shave their heads. Consequently, men with short hair appeared to have been at the front in the war, while men with long hair might be thought of as pacifists and cowards, even suspected of desertion.
Some artists managed to avoid the war by sitting it out in neutral Switzerland. A group of artists in Zürich invented Dadaism as an anti-war, anti-art, art movement and a parody of the pro-violent attitudes of Futurism. These artists became political activists in an underground anarchical attempt to change the course of self-destruction.
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