Retro Sam.
Oh sideburns, is there anything you can’t do?
In 1936 President Roosevelt’s brief experiment with sideburns, grown on a yachting cruise, provoked only laughter. Sideburns made a comeback in the mid-1950s, when James Dean’s sideburns identified him as a Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Spurred by Elvis Presley, sideburns were sported by “hoods”, “greasers” and “rockers” as an emblem of rebellious post-pubescent manliness by young men who scorned to be “Ivy League”.[5] Sideburns gained new connotations in 1960s hippie subculture: the struggle of a New Jersey youth to wear sideburns to his public high school graduation made a newspaper article in 1967[6] and in the 1970s among youth subcultures such as hippies and skinheads. Sideburns also became a symbol of the gay club scenes of San Francisco and Sydney, Australia. Because of their multifarious history, sideburns may be seen as either stuffily Victorian and ultra-conservative, or as a sign of rebelliousness.
