John's Hair and "Show and Tell"

One of the greatest things about The Beatles was their ability to change. Not just musically, but physically. Seems like most performers keep the same look over decades. But not our Lads.

I remember when John Lennon had his hair cut for a role in How I Won the War in late 1966. Big news that was. It even made the newspapers. A Beatle cutting the famous hair!

A kid at school (must've been 5th Grade) brought the news photo for "Show and Tell". He ended his presentation by saying he didn't believe it. It was a hoax, he said. There's NO WAY John Lennon would cut his hair off!

That's how much of a symbol those haircuts were. I didn't want to believe it either, but I figured it was true. And I did feel a bit betrayed. Afterall, the few kids (like me) who grew their hair long back then took a lot of heat for it.

It's funny in retrospect, that if you look at the length of his hair in the film, it's still kind of long. Not by Beatle standards, but certainly not a crew-cut or anything radical.