Sideburns, Mustaches, Mutton Chops? Facial Hair Of The '60s & '70s

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From left: Neil young in 'The Last Waltz' (1978), Wayne Garland's 1978 baseball card, and Ron O'Neal in 'Super Fly' (1972). Sources: IMDB, kronozio.com, IMDB

In the 1960s and '70s, facial hair -- including mustaches, sideburns, goatees, Van Dykes, soul patches, mutton or lamb chops and other creative topiary -- was a means of free expression and identity. The 1950s had been an era of extreme clean-shavenness; in movies of the time, a 5 o'clock shadow was a visual shorthand for intoxication or derangement. As young men threw off the shackles of conformity, they began experimenting with facial hair. From the beatniks' goatees and Van Dykes to full hippie beards, and then into the '70s with massive sideburns and pimp-ish mustaches. If you could grow it on your face, you had free rein to do so.