Of Hair and Ale

This year, the Fourth of July, usually a date reserved for festivities on the other side of the Atlantic, was dubbed ‘Super Saturday’ by the UK government. Desperate to kick-start an economy that, as in so many countries, has all but ground to a halt, pubs and hairdressers were allowed to open, albeit with social distancing in operation.

At first sight, hair and ale don’t appear to have much in common, but they have been entwined before in British history. Long hair and a liking for beer were associated with Cavaliers, Merrie England, the High Church. A dislike of such fripperies was the territory of the Roundhead, the Puritan, the Chapel. Of course, such caricatures are often just that – John Milton, poet laureate of Puritanism, wore his hair long – but allusions persist.