What is "skinhead"

1969, in U.K. youth gang sense, from skin (n.) + head (n.). Earlier, in U.S., it meant "man with a crew cut" (1953), especially a military recruit.

n. 1 Someone with a shaved head. 2 Member of the skinhead subculture arising in late 1960s England or its diaspora, often associated with violence and white-supremacist or anti-immigrant principles.

n. a young person who belongs to a British or American group that shave their heads and gather at rock concerts or engage in white supremacist demonstrations

A skinhead is a member of a subculture originating among working class youths in London, England in the 1960s, that soon spread to other parts of the UK. Motivated by social alienation, skins are defined by their close-cropped or shaven heads, Dr Martens boots, braces, bleached jeans and smart shirts. The movement began in the late 1960s and reached a peak during an early 80s revival. Since the 1990s its style has been adopted by disaffected, Neo-Nazi youths in the former East Germany, Finland, central European countries and Russia.

Skinheads came in two waves; in the late 1960s and early 1980s. The first skins were motivated by an expression of alternative values, rejecting both 1950s austerity and the 1960s peace and love ethos, and were instead drawn towards outsider culture, incorporating elements of mod fashion and black music, especially from Jamaican rude boys. The second wave were often ex punks. Both first and second generation skins were influenced by the heavy, repetitive rhythms of dub, and by soul, ska and rocksteady. 1980s skins were closely aligned with anarchists, first wave punk, Oi! and dub. Contemporary skinhead fashions ranges from clean-cut 1960s mod-influenced styles to less-strict punk- and hardcore-influenced styles.

During the early 1980s political affiliations grew in significance and split the subculture, distancing the far right and far left strands, although many skins describe themselves as apolitical. Highly regionalised and excluded by society's moral norms, skinheads were tainted in the mid 1980s by tabloid hysteria of a fringe and violent far-right elements representing extreme nationalism. According to Shane Meadows, "It's unfortunate that the racist elements have become such a by-word for skinhead culture. The media has played its part in this, but by the same token it's clear the fascist element has always been fairly vocal in skinhead culture. The sad bit is that the more enlightened, anti-fascist aspects have not better promoted themselves."