III.5.4. "LOOKS," A SOCIABLE ART

Menu: 3.5.4. "Looks:" a sociable art

APPEARANCE, A WAY TO COMMUNICATE 

Self-expression in a harmonious community, a philosophy that is still more powerful if it is not formulated

          Fred, vendor of  men's clothes 

In brief

• Making oneself a composition

• Young men's exuberant hair, beards and moustaches

• How those styles began

• Barbershops and beauty salons line the street

• Hair-dressers' salons' good humor

• Shops that continue the emphasis

• Reinventing dandies

• Detour: politicizing Black men's fashion

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Next,

Making oneself a composition

MAKING ONESELF A COMPOSITION

SEEN IN LA GOUTTE D'OR

The first poster of the Institute of Islamic Cultures

# # #

Dressing to fit surroundings

» 

*     *     *

Next,

Young men's exuberant hair, beards and moustaches

YOUNG MEN'S EXUBERANT HAIR, BEARDS AND MOUSTACHES

EXPRESSIONS OF CONFIDENCE AND OPTIMISM

Young women adopt braids and color...

At a festival, 2025

Young men do the same:  

Grocery cashier, 2000

                     Café waiter, 2021                                       In the métro, 2022

Photos taken in 2025

 

City Hall employee (beards &                                 Market vendor

moustaches tell the same story)

               Café waiter                                         Notions' vendor 

Festival and trade show participants

Security guard

African children like them too:

Children in Bobo Dioulasso

# # #

American contrasts:

• A movie uses hair to show a character's timidity 

 

"Friendship," 2024 by Andrew DeYoung with Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. Image cut to emphasize figures / zoom

The unsure man with very short hair and no beard or mustache does not want to be noticed,  in contrast to the self-confident figure he admires.

• More pronounced beards and caps can express toxic masculinity.

         Oath Keeper photos

Hair styles express American men's hard times,

and those of the young Parisians, cheerfulness.

Because of the French safety net

and immigrant communities more solid

than those of working-class men whose jobs are gone? 

*    *     *

Next,

How those styles began

HOW THOSE STYLES BEGAN

TOURNAMENT CONTENDERS WORE HELMETS TO BE IDENTIFIED FROM THE BLEACHERS... 

Book of Tournaments of René d'Anjou, 15th century

And athletes in the 2014 World Cup chose coiffures from their neighborhoods to be identified on television...

The Best and Worst of the Haircuts at this World Cup by hairdresser Franck Provost (in French with pictures), Huff Post, 2014

That their neighborhoods had made familiar:

In 2013

They harked back to signs in African markets:

Wood panel at Abidjan's Treichville market in 1973: Notice the "Kennedy" cut. 

# # #

Young people immediately adopted them. 

Performance at the Fondation Cartier, 2015

Then girls turned to braids 

while boys retained the cuts.

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Next,

Barbershops and beauty salons line the streets

BARBERSHOPS AND BEAUTY SALONS LINE THE STREETS

 

A KILOMETER WHERE HAIRDRESSERS AND SHOPS THAT DEAL WITH "LOOKS" IN OTHER WAYS ALIGN 

There are more barbershops than beauty salons because men's beards and cuts need more upkeep than women's braids and hair extensions. 

Adapted from an Internet map

Rue Labat, a small street between two arteries (rue des Poissonniers and boulevard Barbès)

Arts a century apart

A bride whose curves stand out: 

Part of another suggestion

Rue des Poissonniers (though textile shops take over)

Rue Boinod:

Exit of métro Château Rouge

Between boulevard Barbès and rue Doudeauville 

On rue de la Goutte d'Or, barbershops face each other: 

42 rue de la Goutte d'Or

51 rue de la Goutte d'Or

That salon at 11 at night.

Another neighbor, around the corner,

on that evening closed at 10.

*    *    *

A poster on the window of the only barbershops

of very long rue de Ménilmontant,

which is largely white, progressive and trendy.

 

Rue Ménilmontant, 20th

European barbershops may take up 

the idea of the African posters,

but the establishments are relatively rare 

and the proposals limited.

Next,

Hairdressers' salons' good humor