“HAIR CUT, SIR?”

Otago Witness, Issue 3823, 21 June 1927, Page 76

“HAIR CUT, SIR?”

MIKE FLYNN STYLE ORDERED. UGLY FASHION REACHES DUNEDIN. Walk down the main street of Dunedin any afternoon or evening, and take stock of the “flashy” proportion ’of the youths who line the footpaths at busy corners. Each of them paid a visit to the barber lately and gave him extraordinary but definite instructions. The result is the “Mike Flynn” cut. From neck to crown the hair of each youth’s head is cut so close to the skinthat it remains a mere bristle. At the beginning of the scalp the cut ceases abruptly, and the hair is left long over the crown. The effect is that of a halfcompleted prisoner's clip—ugly and peculiar to a degree. As long as the subject keeps his hat on, he remains, to all outward appearances, a fairly respectable citizen with a fancy for short cropped hair. When the hat is removed and the “top-knot” is revealed he becomes a ludicrous mixture—a piebald slave to perverted masculine vanity. Young women are usually credi. d with foolishness in the fashions they adopt, but on this occasion the young men of Dunedin have gone one better—or worse. For this new style which has descended on Dunedin has nothing to recommend it. It looks silly, it accomplishes nothing in the direction of hygiene or comfort, it requires constant trimming, and it has a history of a most unsavoury character.

According to a Dunedin barber of long experience in the trade, the “Mike Flynn” cut is a resurrection of the genuine old “prisoners’ crop.” Many years ago the accepted method of cutting prisoners’ hair was to place a round basin on their heads and cut short all the hair that remained visible below the rim. The effect was somewhat similar to that of the “Mike Flynn,” although the modern counterpart of the old convict has the hair short up to the crown.

For some time the toughs and gangsters of Australian rtties have worn their hair in this style as a badge of office, but in New Zealand it has been accepted by scatter-brained city youths as a sign of smartness. In Auckland it has become exceedingly popular, in Wellington it is being widely adopted, and in Dunedin the cult is spreading. Credit for introducing the style to New Zealand is given to one Mike'Flynn; hence-the title. “Young men are coming to me an’d asking me to cut their hair this way,” said the barber. “It is an ugly and senseless style, but that is not my business. I would shave them bald if they wanted it.”