According to Cosmopolitan, the shag haircut of the 1970s has become all the rage in 2026.
That makes me grumpy because I’m still upset about the David Cassidy shag haircut my sisters made me get in 1973, when I was 11.
Mimicking a Teen Idol
As I explain more fully in my book, “Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood,” Cassidy, the heartthrob star of TV’s “The Partridge Family,” was a huge star in 1973.
Like millions of teenage girls, my sisters had a major crush on him.
They told me I’d be the first kid at St. Germaine Catholic School to part my hair down the middle and feather it over my ears. They told me I’d be popular with the girls.
So I did the unthinkable. I pedaled my Huffy Spyder bike three miles to the unisex hair salon behind Murphy Mart, the Walmart of that era.
I set my crumpled bills and coins on the counter.
“Make me look like David Cassidy,” I said to the bun-haired lady, a smoldering Marlboro cigarette dangling from her bright red lips.
She clipped and she cut. She applied goops and sprays. When she held up a hand mirror so I could see the finished job, I was horrified.
I didn’t look like David Cassidy.
I looked like Danny Bonaduce.
Reckoning with My ‘70s Dad
The rest of that day, I hid in my room until my father demanded I join the family for supper.
I took my seat to his right. He sensed something was off immediately.
Washing his burger down with gulps of Pabst Blue Ribbon, he kept looking at me.
“What the heck happened to your hair?” he finally said.
“I got it cut.”
“But it’s parted down the middle.”
I nodded.
“Why would anyone part his hair down the middle?!”
I had no answer for him then. But today, psychologists and fashion experts offer interesting insight into fashion’s deeper meaning.
Fashion’s Meaning
As it turns out, fashion says as much about our culture and the times we live in as it does about the people wearing it.
Even with inflation stuck around 3.5 percent and gas prices hovering over $4 a gallon, people are reaching for softer, more playful retro looks—like the modern version of the shag made popular by David Cassidy and Farrah Fawcett.
As Forbes put it, “Economic turbulence has a way of pulling people toward nostalgic fashion.”
But there’s something deeply American in this trend. Choosing a light, free-spirited style even while prices are high is a quiet way of saying: Sure, things are expensive right now—but we’ll be just fine. We’re Americans. We don’t stop being cheerful and hopeful just because the road gets bumpy now and then.
Karen Pine, a professor at the University of Hertfordshire, has shown that clothing affects our mental processes and perceptions, which can change our minds and the way we think.
In her book “Mind What You Wear: The Psychology of Fashion,” she explains how people internalize the symbolic meaning of their outer layers.
In other words, these playful retro fashion trends just might be beneficial to our national psyche.
Do you mean something as simple as getting a 2026 version of the shag haircut could loosen up rigid mental processes and perceptions—and maybe even soften how we relate to people with whom we vehemently disagree?
Hey, it’s a small, playful step, but it’s worth a shot.
Addams Family Disaster
Which brings us back to my David Cassidy haircut. It wasn’t until 1991, when I was 29, that I got rid of that out-of-fashion style.
I had just arrived in Los Angeles to join my childhood best friend for a road trip up the coast and immediately realized that in trendy L.A., my Cassidy shag was way overdue for a slick ’90s makeover.
I went into the nearest high-end salon and set my credit card on the counter.
“Make me look like Gordon Gekko,” I said to the stunning blond stylist.
She clipped and she cut. She applied goops and sprays. When she held up a hand mirror so I could see the finished job, I was horrified.
I didn't look like Gordon Gekko.
I looked like Eddie Munster.
Find Tom Purcell’s syndicated column, humor books and funny videos of his dog, Thurber, at TomPurcell.com. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.
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