mitchco a go go!

LIFE has recently made their archive of images available to be searched via Google Image Search. I was digging around today, and decided to see what they had in the way of Elvis. As expected, there were a number of photos of him in uniform, and a few of him tearing it up onstage. What I could NOT have predicted were a lot of images that looked more or less like this:

Evidently LIFE did some sort of photo-essay in 1957 about how popular it was for TEENAGE GIRLS* to get their hair cut & styled like the King’s**. There are a number of photos of one girl in particular,

1. “getting her cut like singer Elvis Presley”
2. “examining her Elvis Presley hair styles” [sic]
3. “showing off her Elvis Presley-like hair style to her friend” (who looks a lot like her grandma)
4. “talking to an unidentified man”, and finally
5. a man looking at two teenage girls with Elvis Presley hair styles

I know that 1957 was a very different time, being half a century ago, but can I take a moment to just say

LESBIAN
I mean seriously, did these girls go get their hair cut like Elvis so they could then go to sock hops and MAKE OUT with each other? Did they sit in front of mirrors and masturbate, thinking of Elvis? Did very confused 15 year old boys sit in their rooms with pictures of Elvis, masturbating and thinking of their girlfriends? And how did the BOYS get their hair cut?

Getting your hair cut like your sex idol does take out the middle man***, I suppose. It’s a widely accepted fact that Elvis was smoking hot, but I guess this is our proof that his hotness cut across the board, muddling the boundaries of gender and sex and confusing the shit out of everyone. Elvis! I salute you.

*presumably straight teenage girls, at that!
**the King being Elvis, not a drag king.
***literally! ha!