Headset Hair

When I first got into radio at WUSC-AM at the University of South Carolina I was also on a Naval ROTC Scholarship. Back then, hair length restrictions were pretty strict so I sported a flat top with closely shaved sides. As a result I had little trouble donning and doffing those old Trimm headsets that were the rage in the early 60s.

I was still in the Navy Reserves most of the time I was at WCOS so it stayed short there too. In fact, the barber shop in the Cornell Arms Apartment building was the same one that I used when I first came to Columbia. Willie Saylor, the proprietor and sole barber only knew one way to cut hair; short! So even when I began using those big old over the ear stereo headphones I still remained free of hirsute entanglements.

During my time at WIS-TV I became a little shaggier but I had already set my hair pattern in that I could not stand to have hair over my ears. I think that was a side effect of getting hair caught in headphones as I put them on and off during a show. It was never a clump of hair that would get caught. It was always a single strand. Ouch!! All I can say is that I could never be a girl and have to tweeze my eyebrows! The very thought of it makes me twitch.

By the time the late 70s rolled around I was the Chief Engineer of WIS-Radio and I was occasionally filling in for one of the live DJs, I was a Captain in the Group Staff of the Civil Air Patrol and trimming up more like the 60s than the early 70s. The rage in all the radio studios at the time was the Sennheiser MD 421 microphones paired with their HD-414 lightweight headphones. Those orange padded headphones were really light and could be worn with the longest hair without tangling. They were perfect for AM radio, easy to use and bright sounding. With shorter hair again, I never had a problem getting hung up with those headphones.

In fact my only problem with those headphones was with the jocks that liked to run their headphone volume just below fire engine siren level. The HD-414 headphones were of an “on the ear” design instead of the heavier “over the ear” design that blocked the sound escaping from around the pads. This combination quite often resulted in a sharp feedback squeal that set everyone’s teeth on edge. When one of the DJs insisted that I should do something about that. I handed him a pair of Koss headphones that must have weighed 4 pounds. I was not going to mess with the frequency response of the station just so he could run his headphones loud.

I must confess to the fact that I tend to run my own headphone volume louder than I should, not thunderstorm loud but loud enough. The thing that saves me the most is that the headset volume on the Wheatstone / AudioArts Air 1 console in my home studios has a volume limited to only freight train level. Unlike their D-75 console in the studios at WUSC-FM that could melt down a good pair of headphones. Somewhere a little over a quarter up is plenty.

I have always had fine hair. If it wasn’t for Brylcreem, I would never been able to control my wild hair back in my teen-aged years. Through my senior year of high school I sported a pompadour style that required a lavish application of the stuff. I definitely wasn’t a “little dab will do ya” kind of guy. During my early radio days, I was a “Butch Wax” man but somehow never had so much on that it stuck to the headbands of the Trimm headphones.

Now that I’m longer in the tooth, I’m wearing my “fine” hair a little longer with no hair care products. The hair line is a little farther up my forehead than it used to be, but headphone bands still cross my head in the hair zone. I’ve noticed that as I have gotten a little grayer, the lighter hair is thicker and wilder than my brown hair. In fact sometimes I look in the mirror to shave, I remind myself of the picture of Nick Nolte taken after a night of carousing.

The last time that I’ve had a professional haircut was in late January, before the “stay at home” orders and the curfews rolled in during the Coronavirus Crisis. Up until then, headphones were not a big issue, with just a little matted clump of headphone hair on the top of the head. I’d pat it down with a wet hand and I was good to go. But when it gets straggly, I sometimes catch a hair in the padding of the headband. That will get your attention, I can tell you. Fortunately my “in house” barber does a great job of keeping the mop under control.

So tomorrow morning my trustworthy Sennheiser HD 380 pro headphones will be sitting comfortably atop my Coronavirus styled hair and I’ll be rocking and rolling. Oh - just in case you hear a short burst of feedback, I am still in the habit of hanging my headphones on the microphone when I don’t have them on my ears. You know; old school style. No, the engineer in me doesn’t like that much but the DJ in me loves it. Oh MY!