new thread
This question recently came up on the LHC (long hair community) I was wondering what most guys define as waist length, and how do you compare it to belt length, do you treat them as one and the same? I have always said that I wanted waist length hair, but over on the LHC, it seems that waist length hair is actually a bit shorter than belt length. (Waist length over there is defined as the narrowest part of the torso) In reality, I probably should be saying that I want belt length hair, that is the hair reaches my belt. I know some guys (Jason) set their goal as belt length, others say they waist length. I have always thought the two terms to be one and the same until reading the thread at the LHC.
David
I consider waist length to be around my navel whereas belt-length is lower than that.
Most men wear their pants at the same place all the time, and wearing them up high is considered dorky. Women's styles vary a lot more with "where the belt is", and they have both low and high waisted fashions that are seen as stylish. Women are also shaped differently - many men don't have a shape that has a clear "narrowest part of the torso". This all leads most men to consider their waist and belt to be at the same place.
Both sexes tend to use the expression "high waisted" in describing where belts are, though. The term "high belted" is relatively rare.
There are other hair-length examples where men are more apt to refer to a body part, instead of avoiding that with a reference to clothing or some other term. Men will refer to hair being down to their nips, down to their butt, or down to their crotch. Women will refer to their bra straps, and they have a term "classic length" for hair down into that neighborhood that polite ladies just don't mention. Few guys would use that term, and most guys would not even know what it meant. Some men would see a guy's use of such a term as overly prudish.
At gaylonghair.com, a site with all male longhairs, members of their users' directory state their hair length. They are offered choices of:
Falling on shoulders (longer than "shoulders", but the shortest length accepted to join)
Shoulderblade length
Mid-back/reaches my nips
Lower back
Waist length
Butt length
Below my butt
Those are the terms the guys use over there, and ALL of them refer to parts of the body.
Much is made of how the Japanese language is used very differently by men and women, but there are actually a lot of cases in English. Most are not hardfast rules in English but just tendencies. Even the word chosen to talk about men and women is affected. Men are more apt to use "sex"; women are more apt to use "gender".
Bill
Actually, gender, in the strictest sense of its meaning, most precisely refers to the category of a word grammatically - masculine, feminine, or neuter. To use "gender" to describe the sex of a person is a misnomer. Since we don't really have a gender and case system anymore in English, the connotation of the word is blurred for us.
That is the traditional distinction between the two words. Besides the tendency of some people, women more than men, to use "gender" for the traditional meaning of "sex", this is complicated further by a usage taken up in recent years by transgender communities, who use "sex" to describe what is in the flesh and "gender" to describe what is in the mind. This usage leaves those who ask for "gender" on a form wide open to not getting the answer they sought when their form is being filled out by a transgender.
Although forms are made with their authors' interpretation in mind, they are filled out with the responders' interpretation in mind, and it is the responder who certifies that it is HIS belief that the response is truthful. He, not the author, signs the form. If one is asking about what is in the flesh, one is best off, therefore, to ask for the person's "sex".
Bill
Your post is a perfect example of how meanings change over time further demonstrating the dynamism of language. Thanks.
Another word caught up in this, actually, is "longhair". Few people outside of women's hair boards and fetish sites would refer to a longhaired woman as a "longhair". It's a term that members of the general public still usually only apply to men.
This has been the case for a long time. I have a dictionary printed in 1962 that defines "longhair" as "a man who wears his hair long".
Bill
i have long thick hair but don't know how to make it look good or unlike a females bobcut-what suggestions may i get from fellow longhairs?
Some of us don't have a "narrowest part of the torso", though I am trying to watch my diet. (Some of the things I've seen are scary!) I'd have to say that right now my narrowest part is under my arms.
Others out there wear belts in the darnedest places. It's funny to watch a seriously bad-ass gangbanger get on a bus. With their belt below their butt, and the pants crotch around their knees, they climb the steps like Jerry Lewis, kicking the feet out to the side. One can only be so scary when those around can't stop laughing!
Hey
David
Im more than happy with my currecnt length as it is now not after any length really but good luck if that is your goal
Axel
Thanks, Axel, I plan to grow as long as my terminal length lets me, if I can get it to my belt, or even beyond, I will. My short term goal is mid-back, hopefully I'll get it to mid-back by the end of this year, belt length perhaps by 2010. (Patience is a virtue!)
David
I thought belt length and waist length were the same length too..
Guys used to wear their trousers around their waists, a gazillion years ago. I haven't worn mine that high up since before my teens, and that was a very long time ago, when the Beatles were still together. I don't think too many still wear them like that in modern times, but the sad part is that the garment industry tends to behave as if we still did, designing trousers with the crotch hanging too low.
You can find your waist if you slide your hands down your sides. It should be just above your navel. It is most pronounced on a slightly thin (but not totally skinny) woman and least obvious on an overweight man (i.e. me - but I can still find mine!). Your body should curve in a second time just above the hips, which is certainly the level at which I wear my trousers, but that is not your waist. As for gangbangers who wear them lower still, it is a mystery to me how they stay up.
Clearly hair that reaches down to your waist, and not where you wear your trousers, is waist length hair, but not too many people would actually recognise it as such. Technically I have waist length hair, but I would hesitate to claim that in RL, because I suspect someone would say that I don't.
Around here most guys wear their belts waaayyy below what would
normally be considered the waist. The difference could be 6" to
8" in some cases.
I just want mid-back length. Belt length would be very difficult for me, however I certainly respect and applaud any individual that strives for such length.
Jeffrey.
Belly-button, while standing up straight. As long as you don't cheat on your posture, it can't be "hiked up" like clothing can. Just draw an imaginary horizontal line at the same level as the navel, and if it crosses that line it's waist length.