My husband says he had a black roommate at that time. According to Hubby, his roommate would squish his hair down and put the pantyhose over it, then put his fatigue hat on. After it had been like that for a while (I don’t know how long) he could take off his hat and pantyhose, and the hair would stay packed tight until he picked it. He had to trim the edges short, especially around the ears. When he would pick it out, it was huge, and it covered the areas that were trimmed.
Yup, that’s pretty much the way it was.