Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

This is the story of William Reynolds, Jr., of Jersey Shore. It happened in early November of 1904. I got it from the Clinton Republican, who got it from the Jersey Shore Herald. (The Clinton Republican seems to have gotten a lot of their news from the Jersey Shore Herald.) The opening paragraph read,”Just before noon Wednesday William Reynolds, Jr. passed through an ordeal to which he has never before been subjected.”

The ordeal in question?

He got his first haircut.

“First Hair Cut In Nineteen Years For Boy,” the headline announced, in the same size type that would later be used to announce World War I. Until age nineteen, William had never had a haircut before. He’d chosen to wear his hair very long throughout his entire life, up until that point. This was highly unusual in the early 1900s, and many people had commented on it.

“Young Reynolds has attracted a great amount of attention by his singular whim both at home and abroad,” the article read. “Metropolitan Sunday newspapers have depicted him as being a modern Sampson.”

However, all good things must come to an end, or so a parade of eminently ignorable adults in my youth told me, and Reynolds’s long hair was no exception. He didn’t make the decision lightly, however: It took a certain amount of peer pressure and fear of rejection to convince him. Specifically, musical rejection—Reynolds played the drums. When it was announced that Jersey Shore was organizing a drum corps, he took a strong interest in joining, and he was aware that they wouldn’t allow him to become a member with such long hair. And that was what convinced him to cut it.

Or rather, to have it cut. On a Wednesday morning, Reynolds walked down to the barber shop of George Shurr, who claimed to have been honored to be selected for the job. Shurr was a fairly popular barber, and the gathered crowd watched with interest. The haircut was said to have been “neatly executed.”

With all of the interest, it’s not entirely surprising that William would receive a few offers to purchase his long hair, somewhat “Gift of the Magi”-style. Several people began to bid on the hair, one man going so far as to offer three dollars, which is twenty billion by today’s standards. Reynolds turned them all down, however. The Herald reported, ”These offers were, however, rejected, William refusing to part with so old a friend.”

There was no mention of what William intended to do with the hair (or, for that matter, what anyone present intended to do with the hair.) Obviously, as he kept it, he wanted to save it somehow, but what happened after that is unclear. If you live in Jersey Shore and open an old trunk sometime, and notice it’s full of hair, try not to be too alarmed. It could be a Reynolds family hair-loom.

“Although 19 years old, this young man until Wednesday morning had never had a haircut,” the Herald explained on page one. “The joys of going to the barber shop and have thar sweet smelling substance put on your head, which all children delight in, and the agonies of having the hair go down your back were never William’s until Wednesday.”

William left the shop pleased with his cut, presumably carrying a bucketload of hair, as well. I’m assuming he joined the drum corps, and I hope he was successful at it. As for the Jersey Shore Herald and the Clinton Republican, well, they both got a fairly involved and detailed column out of one guy and his first haircut. I mean, who the hell writes something like that?