new thread
why?
you liked the look?
you wanted to change your style?
your hero's had long hair?
etc...etc.
Ok about myself:
i did it because most of my heroes have or had long hair (Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Moore etc etc)
that why i decided to grow out at first!
then when i was growing out, i got a lot of crap for it from other poeple, and because i got much crap for it, i more and more started to think 'F*CK YOU', i ain't gonna listen to you!
Why not?
Actually, I guess I fall into the category of guys who've always liked long hair. Bill Choisser's comment "I've wanted long hair myself since I was five years old" strikes a definite chord.
Now I'm 57, my wife has reverted to short hair, and I had an epiphany: I can grow it myself! Since I've reached a point in my career that I can pretty much write as much of my own ticket as I like, and long hair has become much more evident in the techie ranks, I screwed up my courage, clicked my heels- and skipped my haircut last November.
I'ts been a blast ever since. I love it! Who knew? My hair's sorta wavy when given a chance. And earrings... Earrings go great with long hair. Right?
ABSOLUTELY!
I grew my hair out for the first time when I was 38, I wanted to see what it looked like, and I was tired of my short hair looking messy. My hair has just enough wave to it to keep it unkempt when short. I also find that the long hair is "in character" for my dance costumes.
So when I turned 40, I started thinking about getting my ears pierced - my wife encouraged it, so I did it (both ears). Now I wear largish studs and various dangles, some of them quite outrageous.
-Zorba
Zorba-
You sound 'young at heart', but I came across an interesting site. Some like-minded guys post there.
Zorba-
You sound 'young at heart', but I came across an interesting site. Some like-minded guys post there. Yahoo's club: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/oldermenwhowearearrings
good question.
i think i originally wanted to grow mine out just to see what i looked like with long hair. the longer my hair got the more i liked it. after giving up the wild fantasy that i would actually be able to find a hair professional in this area who wasn't scissors-happy (in spring '96 after receiving a bad mullet) i've been growing it out almost unabated.
well alot of my heroes had it at one time (David Gilmour especially)
and yes in a way I am also tryin to get back at family for not believing that I had the will power to do this, but I also want to try something new, short hair doesn't fit on me, and it doesn't fit my personality either.
Dustin
this isn't really relevant, but I work for a company called Dustin ;-) (www.dustin.se)
cheers =)
heh I'm famous
;o)
I've got no idols, no heroes, no role models to inspire me to have long hair. It is long hair itself that makes me want to have it. It's my secret love since young :)
This is going to sound strange… but I was in fourth grade and read the book Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes. The book I had was pretty old, perhaps from one of the first printings, and the pictures had an interesting etching/woodcut feel to them. The illustrations struck a chord with me - and gave me the idea that I could have long hair like the main characters. …It also seemed to be the proper and patriotic way to wear one's hair.
I started growing my hair long in the 60s. Had hair down to my
waist. Got it cut in the 70s and always regretted it. In the
90s I finally grew it back. I've alway liked long hair, always
regretted not keeping it long in the 70s.
Well, i saw all the metal bands in the 80's with long hair and just wanted to emulate them. Over the years, i've just become a long hair, and wear it for many reasons. The most important reason is that i like it long. Girls can play with it. I like to wear it some strange ways(braids, pony tails, upsweeps) And i'm used to it for 17 years.
Well, sorta... Some people may think I'm a throwback, but I don't really care... If they do, fine. I also feel that I am a born longhair. I NEVER liked going in to have my hair cut. It annoyed me that I had to go to the barber and get it trimmed to just above the collar.
Yes, got tired of the dweeby short hair look that I had been forced into from the age of 5 until 15. Now am 25 and a half and am finishing what I started doing in 1990. Until Feb 4th, 2001, I had been wearing a mullet (although, a very long one in 1999-Jan 2001, had a 10" long tail that was VERY thick)... Still had it on that day after a sibling layered it for me, when I didn't want it that way... Just looked more like a stereotypical mullet. After I'm done, it'll be all one length and my tail will end at the middle of my back.
Nah... Don't really have any "fashion" role models.
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to pretty not to grow it long, plus, the 5yr old thing.
i always told my parents i would have long hair.
my mom is always trying to grab it and touch it so i guess its ok w/her.
I have always liked long hair. I think it makes you look cool. I'm a big fan of Hard Rock. I like new and old Rock N Roll. But my most favorite bands are Guns N Roses, Kiss, Kid Rock, and many many more. If your a rock n roller you have long hair. Also I love pro wrestling. When I get older I plan on going to wrestling school. I work out regularly and try to eat some what healthy foods. All of the wrestlers that I worship like (especially) Sting, Undertaker, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels all had long hair. Many wrestlers still do now. I'm just a fan of long hair, and the things accociated with long hair.
Yep! Me, too. If I see two newspaper articles, one about a longhair, I'll go for reading the one about the longhair. I have a lot of friends who are longhairs, and I like to go to places where other longhairs are around. I go to movies and watch TV shows that have longhair characters. When I watch them, I identify with the longhair. If the longhair should not remain a character throughout the show, at the point he departs the show has all the excitement of watching a Monopoly game when your piece is no longer on the board.
Gilee, we identify with being longhairs. Not all longhairs do, but quite a few are like us and do have that identity. They're the ones who are strangers but yet apt to greet you and smile on the street as they pass, just because you have long hair.
When I was a kid, they had lots of cowboy and Indian movies. No surprise, I really identified with the Indians. :-) When they pillaged and burned a settlement, something inside me smiled. I was witnessing longhair power. For more recent generations of longhairs, it's been episodes of Renegade or Highlander or the WWF. These have been better portrayals for us, because Indians were portrayed hardly better than wild animals, but to me, they were awesome anyway! We all crave positive role models, and part of a positive image is seeing your clan exercise freedom and power.
As for that bit about being attracted to media with your identity, TV show producers are very well aware of that. We've seen them put women in roles where in real life they seldom appear (so women will identify with the show), and we've seen them put straight female roommates in the homes of gay male couples (so straights and women will identify with a show). They also mostly use young characters, as one producer reported, "because everyone was young once" (and can thus identify).
Because longhairs are such a small part of the population, there is little interest in providing us characters to identify with. More often, longhairs are introduced into a plot to further a stereotype, and often the longhair is a brief character. With him not being a central player, those of us who identify with him may find the plot distant and feel it is a bit irrelevant.
We are not alone in this. It is something about which all minorities complain. It will always be a problem to some degree because ratings (how many people watch the show) drive the industry financially, and minorities are, well, outvoted, because majorities are chasing their identities, too. :-)
i only watchted that tv-seire cause the hero was a longhair (but i bassicaly thought the plots and stories sucked though)
Yeah, but man his mane was gorgeous.... :-)
(And I note you watched it because the hero was a longhair. Yes, we identify with longhair characters and want to see them, and we especially want longhair heroes. All people need heroes like themselves. In that way we are just like everybody else.)
Because I always wanted to have it.
Yes.
Yes.
No. - Reinhart
Pretty much out of curiosity. I'm 38 and just letting it grow from the #2 buzzcut I had the last couple of years, now it's about 5" and feels the way it did when I was in 11th grade in 1979, and looks a little like the TV character Fraser (since it's very thin on top). I *wish* I had the "problem" of long bangs falling in my face, but no such luck. If you've got it, you should enjoy it while you have it! An early mid-life crisis? I don't know, I just want to know, how will it *feel* longer? Shoulder-length? In a pony tail? Braided? What will it look like? It appeals to the romantic in me. I admit I don't like the added time it takes to wash, dry and care for, and since my hair is wavy it gets pretty wild and poofy at times. But my curiosity remains and I hope I can stay patient with it until it gets about shoulder-length, I guess next spring.
I always liked the way the clean long hair looks on most people (men and women). In elementary school, saw a "living history" presentation of a guy portraying John Muir and thought it would be great to have long hair but it might take too hard to take care of it.
Liked the way my older brother looked with shoulder length hair when he was in high school in the 70's. Noticed the attention he got from the gals.
Liked a lot of the music and some of the image of 80's rock.
Was interested in history classes to discover that short hair for men is a recent phenomenon.
Finally got the point in life where the only people who minded didn't matter to my financial situation, so they could just deal with it! I really enjoy the way that I look and feel with my long hair and earrings.
I've received many positive comments from strangers (especially Asian women), friends, fellow musicians and my girlfriend. For example, I got a rice bowl lunch at an Asian food place I hadn't been to before. After she stared for a while, the late 40's-ish proprieter came by with my lunch and said, "Your hair is so beautiful!" Another example, in a previous band where I was one of two long hairs and the other guys had short hairs, one of the short haired guys said, "I'm sure glad *someone* in this band has long hair!"
Got lots of good ideas and encouragement from this message board - thanks a million, Victor!
- Chris
I always liked long hair. I'd feel incomplete without long hair. Maybe my feeling incomplete without long hair compares to how some people feel inadequate about going bald.
Yes.
I didn't want to keep it short. Once my hair grew long enough to tie into a pony tail, I've been keeping it longer because I can tie it up when I don't want it to fall into my face.
I guess you could say I was a born longhair. Back about age 7 or 8 I had a pretty good mop-top, and it was at that point I discovered I preferred it when it was long (you know, when the parents are saying "We really need to get you in for a haircut!". I wasn't trying to rebel, I just liked the look and feel of it.
Throughout grade school and high school I always had hair that was longer-than-average. A couple of my high school yearbooks reveal that I was the guy with the longest hair for awhile. Of course, this was the early- to mid- 80s, and there were lots of guys with long hair, so I wasn't really that different (well, maybe senior year, when ot was nearly down to the middle of my back may have been a little much). I kept it short for awhile, and spent a couple years at a community college. I hated it short and as soon as I got a decent job I started growing it out again. Eight years (and 3 job changes) later it was down to my waist.
Now at age 34 its down to the lower-middle of my back. My mind is made up: I'll never cut it again. I take good care of it, and its still growing, so I'm hoping it will again reach my waist. And from there - who knows? Maybe knee-length? Hell, maybe someday it'll be dragging on the floor...
I must say here that I pretty much agre with you Chaz as I feel to be a born longhair too.
I always wanted long hairs and every time I had the chance to let them go I did it.
If you have read my previous post you know that I need to fight actually in order to keep 18 inches pony tail that I am so proud of.
I must admit also that there is also an other good reason for me to have long hairs on top of simply adore that - it is giving me a more feminine look and I like that a lot.
>>Now at age 34 its down to the lower-middle of my back. My mind is made up: I'll never cut it again. I take good care of it, and its still growing, so I'm hoping it will again reach my waist.<<
I envy you for your determination at your age. I am over 50 now and I have less hairs than I did even though I am lucky enough to stil have a full head.
If I am not forced to cut them I calculate to reast the waist length in less than a year.
>>And from there - who knows? Maybe knee-length? Hell, maybe someday it'll be dragging on the floor...<<
Mmmm! I share that fantasy with you too.
Yours
Jean
Because to my own self, I must be true.
Tough question.
I guess I have been a long hair all my life, but due to social pressures primarily on the jobs, I did have the opportunity. Several years ago I just decided to do something about it and let it grow out with encouragement my stylist (guess I am lucky based on others' experience with stylists). I've been maintaining about 5-6" below shoulder length, but am now going for max length. Guess being a Harley rider made it easier to grow out this time since that's one stereo type people seem to classify us in. Reason to grow? Basically:
I like the look.
I like the versatility, the feel and the ability to change styles around. Usually change my part around daily which changes the look a bit.
I know I'll never wear it short again, simply enjoy it long!
My wife first suggested the idea. I grew my hair long and desided that I liked it that way. I too have both ears pierced. Earrings go better with long hair, and long hair with earrings.
TheLensman
I have grown my hair out about 5 times. This time I am not cutting it. I like having my hair long because it looks pretty when it is long. I like looking feminine, so long hair is a nice touch. Sue me! I understand that most men with long hair are very masculine and don't want to look feminine. So, I am not in the majority.
Balding can be a problem, but I recently started taking women's hormones, so I should not have to worry about it anymore. Don't do this unless you want to be a girl.
Bye!
At first I began growing long hair because there was this really cool guy in a comic book that had the coolest braid with his hair. Then as it got longer, I realized that I loved having long hair, having it being like having your own piece of silk, running your fingers through it. It became a part of my identity. Oh sure, there are people who grate on me to cut my hair, especially at school, but I always ignore them, but it's kind of funny listening to their excuses for why I need to cut my hair, but as I sometimes say, why should girls be the only ones to enjoy having long hair?