A skinhead or skin is a member of a subculture that originated among working-class youths in London, England, in the 1960s. It soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working-class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in the late 1970s. Motivated by social alienation and working-class solidarity, skinheads are defined by their close-cropped or shaven heads and working-class clothing such as Dr. Martens and steel toe work boots, braces, high rise and varying length straight-leg jeans, and button-down collar shirts, usually slim fitting in check or plain. The movement reached a peak at the end of the 1960s, experienced a revival in the 1980s, and, since then, has endured in multiple contexts worldwide.
Skinhead women with straight-cut fringes in Portugal in 2008
SHARP skinhead
Hoxton Tom McCourt, a revival skinhead pictured in 1977
Late 2000s female skinhead with 1960s-style extensions
Head shaving is a form of body modification which involves shaving the hair from a person's head. People throughout history have shaved all or part of their heads for diverse reasons including aesthetics, convenience, culture, fashion, practicality, punishment, a rite of passage, religion, or style.
A Thai Buddhist monk shaving the head of a man preparing to also become a Buddhist monk; this is known as tonsure
French women accused of collaborating with the Nazis being paraded through the streets barefoot, shaved, and with swastikas burned on their faces in 1944
Actor Yul Brynner popularized a shaved head in the 1950s...
...as did basketball player Michael Jordan in the 1990s...
