> It seems to me that back in the day everyone had long peyos why do onlythe chassidim hold on to that?
The arizal says theres no point of having more then the required amount so the question is on the chasidishers.
>Why does chabad smash their hats?
Not all chabadniks smash their hats its not a chabad inyan, besides those who do focus on penimios not chitzonius and then some copy them
>Why does chabad not wear streimlach?
>>Chabad used to wear some sort of streimel; the last lubavitcher rebbe dropped it because it made kiruv difficult.
Wrong the rebbe rashab ( i believe made an inyan that a strreimel is far lubavitch (the town) because of how heilik a streimel is. The freidiker rebbe didnt wear a streimel till his daughters wedding and the rebbe didnt wear it because of another yerusha inyan.