In his column, Jan Müller remembers past hair transformations … and associated phases of life.
Maybe I should try it with a great one. My hair was at least allowed me. The great was also the first youth culture-rebellious hairstyle. The hairstyle of the greaser and teddy boys. Until 1993 I occasionally experimented with hairstyles. In 1977 I noticed a hair for the first time as exceptional. At that time it knocked on the door of our primary school classroom. An approximately 12-year-old boy in Jeans vest with AC/DC backpatch and long hair entered casually and asked his little brother, my classmate Mike, around his apartment key. He had forgotten his own key at home. I didn’t have my own apartment key. And Mike’s brother looked pretty daring in my eyes. I was impressed and I looked at Mike how much he admired his big brother.
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In the same year the first punks ran through the streets of my hometown. Some of them with bright colorful hair. I still know exactly how wonderful I found it! They looked alive and free. Quite different from the blown popper, with their side parts, which were also numerous in my Winterhude district. Nevertheless, the first music that really inspired me was not punk, but the hard rock from AC/DC. My friend Martin (hairstyle: briefly at the front, long behind) made me familiar with this band. Kiss, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest followed. Almost simultaneously also some NDW and then punk, punk and again punk.
After all, Arne Zank and I bought us used Bundeswehr boots. That was our punk statement
I was 13 and did not come up with the idea of getting a complete punk outfit. I felt too young to have a justification for it. Rather, I continued to go to the hairdresser as normal. It was the city hairdresser in downtown Hamburg to which my parents sent me. While the hairdresser always cut me the same hairstyle, I didn’t speak a word to her. I was a shy child. At least after the hairdresser next door I was able to purchase records in the Technical department store Brinkmann and admire the punks at the Mönckeberg fountain from the corner of the eye on the way home.
After all, Arne Zank and I bought us used Bundeswehr boots. That was our punk statement. But from the pants to the hairstyle we wore a normal outfit. Strangely enough, I let my hair grow for a long time at some point. Although I found the film “Hair” that I had seen in the cinema. “Hair! Let it live / God gave me / my hair!” That was too self -related to me.
My heart was full of lovesickness, my face full of pimples and I had a lot of trouble with my father
At some point I fell in love. My first girlfriend had green -colored hair and I had my long hair cut off by her. After I had left her after a short time, I also started to color my hair. Red, orange, turquoise, green. Everything mixed up. I loved the colorful color pots of the Directions brand, which I bought in Hamburg’s Marktstrasse. Nevertheless, it was an unfortunate time for me. My heart was full of lovesickness, my face full of pimples and with my father I had a lot of trouble because of my wild appearance and my rapidly worse evidence.
Then a terrible stroke of fate broke into our family, which exposed the argument with my father as completely ridiculous. My brother had cancer. He died two years later. I had an inconspicuous hairstyle to the funeral of my brother. I no longer know if I went to the hairdresser. In the coming months my hairstyle was only a negligence. My hair became longer and partially matted. I probably looked like a grank.
The haircut symbolized my farewell to the underground and the beginning of something of its own
On the first day of my studies that started out of disorientation, I met someone there who had a similar hairstyle as I did. That was Dirk von Lowtzow. We founded our band Tocotronic together with Arne Zank. After a few weeks, Dirk and I had our hair cut off. Incidentally, I went to the city’s most expensive hairdresser. I thought it was good that this hairstyle looked a little like the hairstyles of the popper from the 80s, but without being a popper hairstyle. In addition, at that time hardly anyone really wore such a hairstyle. At least not in Germany. For me, this new haircut was probably important. He symbolized my farewell to the underground and the beginning of something of his own.
My hairstyle became more symmetrical over the years, but I don’t feel like a fundamentally new hairstyle. I always thought it was good when pop musicians have only changed their look slightly. Kiss, the Ramones and Mark E. Smith impress me. I am satisfied with my Tocofrise. I think I won’t get a great one.
This column first appeared in the music express edition 9/2025.