First off, this was a while male thing. The important thing to know is that we* didn't know anything about hair and our elders had no idea how to discus hair with us. It was a trend we now call toxic masculinity.
You went to a white barber. When you were a little kid, your dad told the white barber what to do, but when you got older you were expected to communicate this. Now you didn't show him a picture of the hair you wanted. That's what women and gay people did at hair salons. Instead you stoically and ineptly described what you wanted, but because we didn't know anything about hair and because all he knew about hair was the 5 different types of haircut he'd done since 1952 (Marine Corp 1, Marine Corp 2, Army 1, Army 2, and "OK for deer hunting."). Inevitably this haircut was a total failure and you never wanted another one from a white barber ever again, so instead your mom and dad cut your hair and they used a bowl. Somehow this caught on and white barbers learned that there were, in fact, 6 types of haircut. Thankfully it evolved into the mid to late 90s Butt Cut, just as the white barbers had begun dying of old age. This was slightly ironic, as a cropped cut became popular in the 2000s and the high and tight came roaring back some years later**.
*Well not me personally, I knew better than going with the mushroom/bowl cut, rat tail or mullet. I went with Army 2.
**Come to think of it, 90s hair styles for white males are probably the result of a time of relative peace and prosperity. As we could have just told the white barber "I want the haircut your grandfather had when he was killing people in Verdun." for the 2010s high and tight.