Hats & Hairstyles for Gentlemen

Hair was a very important part of your style as a gentleman.
Only a vagabond would walk around with long, uncombed hair.
Going to the barber would be a important and often recurring event in the life of a 1930's/1940's Gentleman.
You would have a shave, a wash and a trim, hair in those days had to be short, very short.
These lovely hairstyles would be covered by a hat or cap when outside, almost everybody would wear a hat when outside!

On this page you will find more about hats and hairstyles and many pictures.

Hats

As mentioned before hats and caps were very important in the 1930's.
Most men wouldn't go outside without a good hat or cap.
They weren't just practical but it was the fashion, many felt naked without one.

Men's hats where simple and basic, usually made of felt and of a dark colour.
If you could afford it the hat would match your suit.
Although we all know the typical labourer of that era wearing a flat cap in a jaunty angle, many labourers actually wore normal hats that we would associate more with gentlemen on their way to the office.

Here I have some pictures of men wearing hats, the pictures are from the 1930s and 1940s and mostly made in the Netherlands.

This Dutch farmer is wearing another style of flat cap, not so flat!

Another farmer wearing a common hat, so typical of the era.
A hat one wouldn't expect on a farmer.

These two diggers are wearing the typical flat caps you would see everywhere during the 1930's and 1940's, not just on labourers but also in the streets and towns and worn by the upper-classes.

(CLICK ON PICTURE TO STUDY A LARGER VERSION)

These two labourers are strolling back home after a long days work.
The gent on the left is wearing the most common hat of the era, the gent on the right is wearing the typical flat cap so heavily attached to the working class image.

Hairstyles

There is one very simple description of the typical 1930's hairstyle; SHORT and SHARP!
Going to the barber was something the 1930s men did a lot, if your hair got to long people would raise their eyebrows, and you wouldn't want that!

A simple way of checking if your hair is too long is by looking straight ahead and asking someone to check if your hair is touching your colour in the back of your neck, if it is you desperately need to go and see your barber or you won't get a date for the dance!


Although the hair in the back was very short, it usually was long on top.
This longer hair was usually combed back over the head.

Facial hair wasn't uncommon but it wasn't as fashionable as it hat been a generation earlier.
Some men would have a mustache, usually not to big.
A sleek Clark Gable mustache is nice for a Dandy but don't be surprised if the girls giggle at you for all the wrong reasons.

Beards were very uncommon, you could expect to see a beard on a old man, a vagabond or someone in the navy but not on a average gentleman.


You can clearly see how the hair in the back of his neck is nowhere close to touching his collar.
You can also see that the hair on top is rather long and combed back.


This 1945 photo of a resistance fighter shows a man with very short hair, even on top.

This 1945 photo of a resistance fighter shows clearly that his long, wavey hair is combed back but now caught by the wind.

Again very clearly you see the shortness of the hair and how the hair on top is combed back.

This 1945 photo of a resistance fighter shows again long, combed back hair.


This 1945 photo of a resistance fighter shows a men with very short hair, its not even touching his ears, a style also popular by the German troops.

The hair on top though is very long and wavey.