hair fairy

English

Noun

hair fairy (plural hair fairies)

1. (chiefly in the plural, historical) One of a category of gay queens or proto-trans women in the 1960s and 70s who wore their hair long and teased it.
   • 1968, Roxanna Beryl Thayer Sweet, Political and Social Action in Homophile Organizations, page 79:

     Most "hair-fairies" (also referred to as "street queens") use feminine pronouns and terms of reference among themselves […]

   • 1974, Lee Rainwater, Social Problems and Public Policy: Deviance and Liberty, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 317:

     There came a time when the role of the hair fairy was no longer enough. They wanted to be more like real women, and the logical way to do this was to dress as one.

   • 2007, Stephan Cohen, The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: ‘An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail’, Routledge, →ISBN, page 25:

     Young hustlers, dealers, drug users, transvestites, effeminate “hair fairies,” and runaways (supported by progressive ministers at Glide Memorial Methodist Church) established Vanguard, a group that challenged typical notions of propriety, ...

   • 2012, Todd J. Ormsbee, The Meaning of Gay: Interaction, Publicity, and Community among Homosexual Men in 1960s San Francisco, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 245:

     "No one deplores freaks of their set more than those involved in attempting to fade in the background. But this is America. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on whether you are a 210-pounder [woman] who enjoys waddling down Market Street or a Hair Fairy who feels that he must be a freak in order to gain attention.” CN 4.4, 5.