VMI - Before the High and Tight Era

I've been prodding a co-worker to grow out his hair a bit so some small fluffy bits would poke out if he wore a baseball hat.  He's absolutely against this and came in with yet another very short haircut that I compared to a high and tight.  You look like you've stepped right out of VMI (the Virginia Military Institute, which sits roughly 100 feet from the shaggy hair capital of the world, Washington & Lee, my alma mater), I said.  This made him very mad - and it made him even more mad when I showed him pictures of modern day cadets.  But then I found these.  Minus collar boy above, these guys almost look like hippies - or W&L students.

Cadets circa 1920

New Year's Eve 1893