the original 'Skins' were thought to be dockworkers in the Northern British port cities. Many of thse early Skins adopted the style out of necessity; short hair to prevent the spread of head lice while unloading ships from the 3rd World, steel toed boots for obvious reasons, and Sta-Press work pants and braces because denim was too expensive, and some yards had a no-jeans dress code.
http://sharpwvc.tripod.com/"...After a hard days work the original Skinheads tended to dress in their most respectable clothing and congregate at the mostly Jamaican run dancehalls where they mingled with the West Indian community, many of whose members would be their workmates from the docks, and adopted Ska as the musical sound of choice..."
Skinhead is more of a working class thing than a fascist thing... However, in England, working class means football, and football means violence. The NF recruited 'football hooligans' in their drive to creat a young right army, and many of those hooligans had the skinhead look.
http://www.io.com/~qsb/words/faq/skin.html"...The association of skins with fascism that shapes how skins are talked about in tabloids and talk shows may be greatly exaggerated but has some historical basis: the British fascist parties recruited aggressively among football hooligans - many of whom were skins - with the help of one of the most popular and charismatic oi bands, Skrewdriver (in the late 70s/early 80s). White nationalist groups, particularly White Aryan Resistance, tried the same in the US, and did have some success in recruiting among North American skinheads, and many of their followers shaved their heads in imitation of skinhead style.
A lot of skinheads fought back against the far right. In the late 80s and early 90s, SHARP (SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice) and then redskin crews such as RASH (Red and Anarchist SkinHeads) formed which fought off the Nazis, and claimed a distinction between 'traditional skinheads' who were nonracist (though no less homophobic than other youth), and Nazi 'boneheads'.
The violence among skinhead factions - some political and some just gangs chasing the adrenalin rush - resulted in clubs refusing to book skinhead bands, so the settings where skinhead culture could be enacted became sparse. But the image of the Nazi skinhead has captured the public imagination, and talk shows are especially eager to put them on display. They have not shown as much interest in the anti-racist skins who are very likely the majority of skinheads today. Nothing can be assumed of any skinhead's politics although the patches on his flight might give some big clues. Contrary to common belief, lace colors do not mean anything in most areas.
Forget everything you have ever heard about skinheads. Skins know who we are and recognize each other, but there is not much agreement as to what exactly separates skin from nonskin. For a lot of us, beer and brotherhood, oi and ska, defending the working class, and standing by your mates are a big part of it. Well, you can't automatically assume a taste for large quantities of beer: there is a growing number of straight-edge skins who avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs. For most of us, racial politics are NOT a part of it, and not all of us think you have to be straight to be skin..."
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