Hair v. Bread

The cultural confrontation of more or less conventional Americans and the longhaired young at times savors of Roundhead v. Cavalier, or H.G. Wells' Morlocks v. Eloi. How elemental the face-off can become was demonstrated last week in Monterey, Calif., when the state unemployment-insurance office ruled that jobless men with long hair can no longer collect unemployment benefits.

The office had surveyed 900 employers in the Monterey Peninsula area; 81% of those who responded would not hire anyone with hair that was not neatly trimmed at neck and ear. Said James E. Hammond, director of the Monterey office: "We feel that if a man has shoulder-length hair and his type of work is such that it requires public contact and the employers will not hire him, he has voluntarily restricted his chances of finding work." Hence the longhair is not entitled to unemployment insurance. The state office in Sacramento is backing Hammond. Only 3% of the employers surveyed want to hire girls who wear midi or micro-mini skirts either, but for the moment they are chivalrously being kept on the unemployment rolls.

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