John Lennon had a completely shaved head when he attended the Watergate hearings in Washington D.C. on June 27, 1973. He was present as an observer, amidst a crowd of officials and spectators.
However, the shaving of his head was likely not specifically for the hearings, but rather part of a personal decision and possibly related to his ongoing immigration issues and a previous peace campaign. He had shaved his head earlier in June 1973, and was photographed with the new look at various events around that time, including the hearings. At the hearing, he told reporters: “I have my brown curls chopped off every two years, and I had a haircut again only two weeks ago.”
At the time, the Nixon administration was actively trying to deport Lennon, citing a 1968 cannabis conviction in the UK. Appearing with a clean-cut, short-haired look was a stark departure from the “long-haired hippie” image Nixon’s administration used to characterize him as a “dangerous alien.”
It was later revealed that John Lennon was a target of FBI surveillance because of his anti-war activism. When asked about being on a “political enemies” list at the hearing, Lennon dryly remarked, “We’re somewhere in the middle... Nobody has asked us to take sides.”
This was the second time Lennon had shaved his head in the early 1970s; the first was in January 1970 with Yoko Ono as a “peace campaign” statement.
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