The Highly Collectable Elvis “Haircut Sleeves” of the Sixties

Stylist and spiritual advisor Larry Geller’s new “do” didn’t do a thing for Elvis’s floundering career in 1966–1967

IN THE SUMMER OF 1966, I heard Elvis’s new single on the radio and hurried to the record store to buy a copy. I always tried to buy new singles as soon as they came out so that I could find a copy with a picture sleeve. Upon seeing the sleeve for this new Elvis single, “Spinout” / “All That I Am,” I was confused: Elvis’ face was puffy and round and he had the most ridiculous, un-hip hairdo imaginable.

In fact, the make-up — which in the past had made him look cinematically dramatic — combined here with the highly stylized hair made him look effeminate. This was definitely not a look any entertainer (anyone, straight or gay) needed in the very homophobic ’60s.

I had just turned 15 and I was one of my high school’s few Elvis fans, which was not something that one bragged about in most circles at that time. Presley’s fall from the toppermost of the poppermost had begun years before and was made worse by the arrival of the Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion.