Ongoing History Daily: Bad rock’n’roll haircuts

Rock music and hairstyles have gone hand-in-hand from the beginning.  However, sometimes things get a little out of sync.  In fact, we almost screwed up the evolutionary process back in the 80s. 

About a dozen years ago, a professor from Oxford University looked into this and concluded that the asymmetrical hairstyles of that decade–think the dude from A Flock of Seagulls–went against nature’s key message that symmetry and evenness are beautiful.  In Darwinian terms, symmetry signals good genetic heritage.  Someone who displays symmetry is, therefore, a good bad with whom to perpetuate the species. 

But because there was so much asymmetry with artists of the 1980s, no wonder we look back on the hairstyles of that decade and wonder “What were they thinking?” 

I wonder how many of those people with bad haircuts had kids?

Want more? Try the Red Hot Chili Peppers Video Game.