Universal Truth #5 - Hair is Important in Christian Music


As many of you know, live music is re-emerging as a way to get parishioners back to visiting their houses of worship on a regular basis. Christian pop music has become popular again. In fact, it's easier to get a gig at a church as it is in a bar these days.
Christian pop has long been a fixture in the U.S. and while I don't follow the genre religiously (pun intended) there is one thing I have noticed about the visual style of the performers. Much like Duran Duran was all about the billowy shirts, Christian Pop is all about the hair. Let's take a quick walk through some Christian Pop history and see what we find:


As for the title - I'm sure these three ladies meant it in the nicest way. Now lets take a look at the coifs. They're difficult NOT to notice hunh? Hair so large and unnatural that it warps the face to the point that you can't really be sure they're actually women. The one with the glasses reminds me of an interviewer with the BBC in London. His name is Nigel something or other.


Okay that's one example you say. It doesn't prove a thing. Let's move on to







Yeah. For some reason when I see these ladies I suddenly get an urge for Jiffy Pop. Perhaps the hair was meant to distract you from the identical home-made dresses. Or the fact that green and red are the worst colors to mix when printing text. They probably used the album as a test for color blindness.






Okay, to the 80s now. Lest anyone think I'm picking on the fairer sex - let's have a look at how the guys stack up hair-wise. Here's Mylon LeFevre (Mylon???). During the 70s Mylon actually played with the likes of Duane Allman, Eric Clapton and George Harrison. He even won a Grammy. Then, after a near fatal drug overdose in 1980, he devoted his life to Jesus and cleaned up his act.


What did he do with his new found sobriety? He grew his hair of course. Perhaps he felt he had to do it from an aesthetic point of view in order to balance out the crocheted blouse and ornamental neck-piece. For what it's worth he's still preaching and has his own ministry. His website is http://www.mylon.org/



If you don't recognize her hair then surely you recognize her face. Yes its Lisa Whelchel who played Blair from the Facts of Life TV show. Lisa's talents also ventured to singing and in the 1980s I remember her being booked to perform at a church not too far from where I lived in Brampton, Ontario. I had a crush on her and even though I wasn't a Baptist, I almost went to see her sing. Almost. Hey, I was probably about 13 and all my friends were into heavy metal. Who was I going to go with? Anyways, back to the hair. It's big, it's Christian, but from a guy who grew up in the 80s, it also rocks. If you're going to have big hair and your a woman, this is how you want to look.






Now we come to the present. This is a publicity photo for a Christian rock band called Skillet. For the most part the hair is now subdued. But the fellow in the front has adopted a coif that, while smaller, pays homage to Christian hairdoos gone by. Personally, I think his stylist was trying to do a Geraldine,(see below) but just didn't have the volume needed to get the job done.

No comments:

Post a Comment