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Found this story about a twelve-year old boy, who had his first haircut in ten years after developing a phobia of them at age two.
It's annoying to read some of the comments in the article, like "a bizarre fear of haircuts" (maybe didn't want to have his hair short initially?)
I particularly liked the quote however, when he was teased about looking like a girl, he replied:
"If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me."
Interesting. Perhaps some short-hair people have "Chaetophobia"--fear of hair. :-)
On a more serious note, while I wish he hadn't been pressured by society to cut his hair, I am glad he dealt with his phobia. A certain amount of trepidation about getting a haircut is often warrented (hey, most of us have had at least one stylist who didn't follow directions well), but a true phobia emerges when the fear is irrational and begins to interfer with the individual's happiness and day-to-day life. Now that he's overcome his fear, if he chooses long hair again it will be a choice based on true desire, not fearful avoidance.
Mouse
Would have been nice to see before and after pictures.
The article says his hair grew 27 inches in 10 years. I'd love to have that length, but my hair has grown 17 inches in just over three and a half years. I thought MY hair grew slowly, but if my calculations are correct, his hair grew less than a quarter of an inch per month (about .225 of an inch per month).
my blog
His hair is probably at terminal length, and likely grows about 1/2" per month. His hair may have been 27 inches long for at least a few years. If left uncut, for the vast majority of people, hair will reach a maximum length of between 2 and 3 feet. 27 inches falls well within this range. (Yeah, mine is over 3 feet, but I am not typical.)
Someone added a link so you can see a photo of his hair.
Absalom
Ah, yes that's possible. For some reason I thought terminal length was much longer. I guess "I" may be closer to terminal length than I thought.
The hair on that boy looked really long (thanks for the link to the article with pics), maybe since he's smaller (since he's only 12), the hair looks proportionately longer.
my blog
That, of course, is quite close to the famous quote of Ma Ferguson, Governor of Texas, who said in opposition to bilingual education, that if the English language was good enough for Jesus Christ it was good enough for the school children of Texas. [grin]
Bill
Hello Everyone,
For those who are not British, or who have not been exposed to British culture, the Sun is a classic British trash tabloid, printing lots of gossip and lots of crap. It is close to the National Enquirer in editorial quality.
This kind of article, is in my opinion, simply anti-longhair propaganda. Never has one seen an article about a girl fearing a visit to the beauty parlor...
The Sun is only good to place your winter boots on, or to line your cat's litter box with.
I, myself have a phobia of articles that are condescending towards guys with long hair.
Have a nice day,
Georges
Tu es raison, Georges.
The Sun is for wrapping fish and chips in or for looking at the page 3 girls, not for reading.
If you read their forum pages you see the type of people who do actually read it, and it's rather sad to read forum posts by people whose IQ is that low.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6220000/newsid_6224900/6224953.stm
http://members.aol.com/imagehounds/james/james.htm
Well, if he never got his hair cut at all it would have been about five feet long. From the photo, it's much less than that, and besides, the ends looked evenly trimmed. So he probably wasn't afraid of just getting it cut. Maybe he was afraid of getting it cut SHORT. In any case, too bad, because it looked like great hair.
This boy may be an extreme example, but there are many children who dislike haircuts and who are crying when they are forced to cut their hair.
That is why I say again and again: The time for a child's haircut has come when the child is asking for it, not before! Leave the little children's hair long, as long as they like it! It would be nice to see more children, boys included, with long uncut hair.