Teen-Age Moderation

MANNERS & MORALS

In the class war of teenagers, the leather-jacket set long affected ducktail haircuts with lush sideburns, and early-to-bed, high school athlete types favored the crewcut or its level-roofed extreme, the flattop. Inevitably, such a division in the ranks, visible even to parents, had to go. The suave slobs in jackets--leaderless since Guitar-Whanger Elvis Presley played a command performance in an Army barbershop last March--began to let a little more of their hair be cut off. Their short-haired opposites took second looks at the fraternity boys home for Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations. Compromise result clearly evident last week: the "Princeton cut," long enough to part, too short to need much combing.

In Kansas City, where everything is up to date but seldom ahead of it, barbers formally welcomed the new middle ground (as well as a 25-c- fee boost, to $1.75). "I think it's a trend, maybe a revolution," marveled Barber Virgil Sherman Holycross, 59, patient servant of teen-age fads for 35 years. "Maybe they all want to look like they're learning to build a Sputnik." "It's sort of like a compromise between being a punk and an egghead," explained Central High Senior Larry Cornine, 17. "Personally I don't want to look like either." But Forrest Reno, 19, recent ducktail convert to the Princeton cut, plays it cool. "How else can you comb your hair with the palm of your hand." he asks, "and have it look so neat-o?"

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