Look! Up in the hair! It’s Super-mane!
A brand-new Superman has swooped into theaters, more boyish and all-American than ever before. Given the hype surrounding this latest incarnation -- starring a young and earnest Brandon Routh -- it looks like we’ll never tire of this comic-book savior. Superfans have rallied behind the caped hero since he touched down from Krypton in 1938. For his part, Supes has adapted, changing his look to meet the times. His age has dropped. His muscles have gotten more pumped. And, perhaps most significant, his crime-fighting hair has evolved with the ages. Here’s a history and analysis of the Man of Steel’s superlocks throughout the years.
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-- LESLIE GORNSTEIN
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1938
Superman bursts onto the pages of Action Comics, Issue No. 1, ready to bust some criminal heads.
Hairstyle influence: Krypton chic meets Clark Gable.
Styling method: Bathe in creek behind adoptive dad’s farm. Leap one to three tall buildings in a single bound to hasten air drying.
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1948
Kirk Alyn embodies the superhero in a 15-chapter movie serial produced by Columbia Pictures.
Hairstyle influence: Postwar jubilance reflected in the tightest, bounciest spit curls since Shirley Temple.
Styling method: Most likely pin curls. They’re stronger than they sound. Hollywood stylist Chaz Dean says even the Legion of Doom would have trouble straightening out that forelock: “Once you set a pin curl, and it dries, it pretty much stays there.”
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1952
Meaty former military man George Reeves bounds onto the small screen, playing the hero in a popular TV series through 1957.
Hairstyle influence: Forget the forelock. Too prissy. This Superman was all stand-up-straight Cold War military might. God bless America!
Styling method: Either, as Dean puts it, a “greasy, petroleum-based product” or several pounds of Brylcreem. Worked for all those Air Force boys, after all.
Bonus fact: This style was likely susceptible to wind, if not Kryptonite. “In all honesty, during filming, with all that blowing and movement, the hair probably kept falling,” Dean speculates.
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1973
Cartoon Superman makes a triumphant return, thanks to Hanna-Barbera’s “Superfriends” TV series. With him, the classic Forelock of Justice also makes a tentative comeback.
Hairstyle influence: The 1938 Superman, with perhaps a hint of Eddie Munster.
Styling method: Bondo? Shellac? Not once did we ever see that hair move. Ever. But then, neither did the show’s backgrounds.
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1978
Christopher Reeve becomes the living embodiment of the 1930s icon in this now-classic film interpretation.
Hairstyle influence: With its wave and subtler forelock, matinee idols of yore.
Styling method: Hmmm, extra glossy -- shoe polish, perhaps? “That blue-black hair is very rare, very hard to find naturally,” Dean says. “It’s what everybody wanted in the ‘80s.”
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1993
In a seminal DC comic, the Metropolis Marvel dies. Fortunately, nary a hair gets mussed in the process.
Hairstyle influence: Though still blue-black, his hair’s a little longer, a little wavier ... a little Bono.
Styling method: Clearly, it was a dye job for the die job.
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Also in 1993
Dean Cain slips into the legendary tights for TV, becoming the youngest-looking Superman to date.
Hairstyle influence: The moussed-up ‘80s, combined with a general movement toward, well, more movement.
Styling method: Quite possibly, enough mousse and hairspray to make Cain’s head harder than the dome at the Hall of Justice.
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2006
Brandon Routh appears as the umpteenth incarnation of this timeless hero.
Hairstyle influence: A more natural look. Clark Kent’s classic, wavy, blue-black hair has been replaced by a softer brown coif, though the crime-fighting spit curl stays firmly in place.
Styling method: Could Superman be using a curling iron? “Some people get those natural curls around the hairline, or the nape, but really, this look is a fantasy,” Dean says. “It’s odd.” (Not odd. Super.)