Male Cuban Hairdos: Variations of the Same
Photo
Feature
by ONEL*
HAVANA TIMES — If you go for a stroll around Havana today, you won’t be able to avoid noticing the new hairdos now in style among young men. Outlandish styles will in fact surprise you at every corner.
Barbers say that boasting of a unique hairstyle has become the latest fashion, but the repetition of the same designs (with only slight variations) proves this is not the case.
In Cuba, some of the most popular hairstyles include the magua, the tiburon, the moñito, the Yonky, the Yonky-magua, the magua-tiburon, the tiburon-moñito, the moñito-magua and similar combinations of the same thing.
(*) See more of the work of Onel.
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But, the Castro family regime doesn’t take in refugees – like its allies in Syria, it creates them!
Cuban youth are no different to youths the world over in that they like to be different, they like to challenge. The way youngsters dress, speak, or behave generally has nothing to do with political ideologies.
As for Cuba taking a share of refugees from the Syrian conflict…..I think this would be a good thing. Just think about it, all the Castro-haters would have to find something else to complain about.
old-CT. You choose to describe what I have written as “crap”. Obviously you don’t comprehend why Cuban youths would wish to express their individuality when having been instructed since the age of 18 months to respect authority and how that “respect” is so essential for the Castro family regime.
Let me quote President Raul Castro Ruz speaking on the 7th July, 2013:
“one must take into account that the family and school must install respect for the rules of society, from early childhood.”
The key rules for society in Cuba are those laid down by the regime in their Constitution and Raul Castro Ruz was emphasizing that they must be followed
As I wrote correctly:
“Respect for authority being critical with the ultimate authority being the Castro family regime bolstered by the Communist Party of Cuba,”
Whether I like or dislike any particular hairdo is irrelevant – what I do like, is Cuban youths finding a way to express the individuality of character that is anathema to communist thinking!
Regarding the refugee crises in Europe created by the Asad family regime in Syria, why doesn’t Cuba show some concern and invite a few thousand of the refugees to Cuba? Why doesn’t Mr. Putin similarly invite a hundred thousand of them to Russia rather than the free Western Democracies including the generous offer of the US having to accept all of them?
This is by far the biggest pile of crap ever written in these pages. How can anyone in their right mind blame the Castros for hairdos?
Now, as the Castros are to blame for the refugee crisis in Europe, perhaps you can get the USA/Canada to take a few thousand of these unfortunate people as that would be something useful.
The changing hairstyles amongst Cuba’s youth really got going two years ago, commencing with what we dubbed the “gorilla style” and a variant we described as “coconut style”. In some of the schools it was regarded as anti-authority and very much deprecated. With the ever increasing number of hairdressers following Raul Castro’s decision to move 500,000 people off the state payroll and compelling entry into “the private sector”, competition for customers increased and facilitated the increase in ever more attention grabbing styles. Whereas the normal charge for a haircut was 10 pesos, the charge for the variants increased to 12 or even 15 pesos. (remember that average earnings are only about 20 pesos per day.)
Perhaps the most watched programs on TV are the soccer games from La Liga in Spain and the Bundesligue in Germany. Some of the players in La Liga also adopted strange semi exotic hairstyles, further encouraging the new “culture”.
Cuban youth had found a way to express individuality – a natural expression much frowned upon by the communist regime which encourages uniformity in every respect. Uniformity is demanded by the educational system which emphasises from kindergarten to pre-university schools “respect”. Respect for authority being critical with the ultimate authority being the Castro family regime bolstered by the Communist Party of Cuba.
So, weird as some of the styles may be, they do reflect a desire to express both individuality and a growing resentment against the authority of the State.