I don’t claim to be an expert of shaved heads. But in 1977, decades before my own head became barren, I was invited to an unveiling of The Razor’s Edge: The Voice of Recreational Haircutting—the journal for women with shaved heads. My friend, the comics artist Yossarian (taken from the character in Joseph Heller’s Catch 22) was listed as a senior editor, but under the pseudonym Captain Stanley, he was also the editor. Yossarian, incidentally, was also a pseudonym for Alan Shenker. Thanks to Yo, I learned bald could be beautiful.
It was years after the various underground rags that we worked on together (Screw, The East Village Other, SMUT, etc.) had folded and Yossarian, who was hair-endowed, showed up one day with the first issue of this very serious niche-zine that predicted for over two years the rise of bald—not as a consequence of illness, but as an elective style for women.
The Razor’s Edge was more than just a quirky and often funny fetish mag. The writer Lynda Crawford wrote that even this foray into publishing, “could be seen as a strike against the whole beauty industry establishment; the image of these women was liberating, punk, radical—and for me it also resonated as a screw-you.”
Mr. Buddy, another of Yossarian’s pseudonyms, was the name he gave himself when he cut a friend’s hair, like mine when it fell way down my back, before it fell way down the drain in the bathroom sink.
PRINT’s Summer 2015 Issue: Out Now!
The New Visual Artists are here! In this issue, meet our 2015 class of 15 brilliant creatives under 30. These carefully selected designers are on the scene making the most cutting-edge work today—and as many of our previous NVAs, they may go on to become tomorrow’s design leaders. Why not get to know them now? Check the full issue out here.