My High School Senior Photo 1971

Submitted by Michael Ely December 1st, 2010
Certifikitsch Winner

Thought I share my senior pic too. I grew up near the beach in Southern California and we would put lemon juice in our hair to get blonde highlights. As long hair for guys was all the rage in 1971, my hair would have been longer, but my high school forbid males to grow hair over their ears (that rule changed the following year). However, as you can see, we could have long sideburns. No hair spray for me, I prefered gobs of hair gel!

7 Responses to “My High School Senior Photo 1971”

  1. Allee Willis

    I love that everyone’s putting their high school photo up. if you’re reading this and haven’t done so yet please let us see you and all your adolescent glory here at AWMOK.

    I love your smooth total surf hair. Perfect Beachboy hair.

    I used to squeeze lemon juice on my hair as well but it looked like you were pretty blonde to begin with. It never did much for my hair but psychologically I believed I was turning blonder by the day.

    What high school did you go to that they prohibited long hair for males? You’d think it was so liberal in California. Which beaches were you near?

    • Michael Ely

      Yes, it would be great fun to see more high school photos! My high school was Los Alamitos in CA. I attended the first year it opened, and it was an experimental school back then in which the students were allowed to design their daily schedules, that is, we decided which classes we would attend at what time (we could even schedule time to sit outside on the grass and do homework). All the classrooms were small cubicles within larger buildings and we had moving walls and our library was called an instructional media center. Hippie teachers from all over the country came to be a part of the experiment. It was wild! Why we couldn’t have long hair when our teachers did was beyond me, but we did wear tie-dyed shirts! The beaches I grew up near were Seal Beach and Rodondo Beach.

  2. k2dtw

    Great post… It all sounds so wonderfully California. I love your sport coat…it looks like the fabric was a little nubby??… or was it sharkskin??
    Did anyone do a little hair bleaching with ammonia and hydrogen peroxide??? It sounds scary, but it worked like a charm, you could see the immediate results in the mirror…I know…smile

    • Allee Willis

      I never let ammonia hit my head but my hairs certainly saw their share of hydrogen peroxide. I remember some kind of subliminal effect but nothing as a noticeable as what you describe. I guess I was missing the ammonia.

  3. MyFunCloset

    Lookin’ like a surfer with sun bleach hair. Nice. Your HS must have been the most amazing experience. By ’71 long hair was part of the culture. What were they thinking?