new thread
What percentage of the Male population currently would you say has long hair?
and if you feel the percentage is too low, what do you think the reasons for this is and what changes would have to be implemented to make the percentage higher?
I've heard about 2-3% of males are longhairs. Of course, there are always variables in what people consider long haired, and also geographical location. In Chicago (my location) I am noticing more and more longhairs in public. I'd probably say at least 5% of males here have at least shoulder length hair.
And to answer your question, yes I do believe the percentage is too low. I think this is mostly due to the fact that most men are accustomed to having short hair throughout their lives, and a majority of men wear their hair short. I'm sure if they let loose their feelings (and their hair) there would be a much greater longhair percentage :)
Jack, what an excellent query! Mark (below) sez 2% - 3% with
a rising average of 5% in his hometown, the Windy City, Chicago.
I opine that we're livin' in a worldwide feudal society that is stratified with the slave-drone-worker classes at the bottom, whose coiffures have been shorter-length'd all throughout history, to the top o/t societal heap Royalists, whose hair lengths have traditionally allow'd for longer tresses,
oft times denoting a lineage fr. some "mythical" diety or god-king. THAT, my friend, is why there're so many more shorthair'd styles on men; it's a slave planet and gettin' slavier.
For more men to cultivate and maintain longer-hair'd hair styles would necessitate more men becoming self-sufficient outside of the clock-punching treadmill existence of the wage slave. Ta-daaa!
Interesting thread that you've start'd, Jack. I'd like to see continued responses to it. C'mon people. What say ye?
Yours for life-long longer-hair'd camaraderie,
Quenyan
Hi Quenyan,
I bet you'd LOVE reading Thoreau's Walden if you've never done so. For a start, if you have little time, his essays are much shorter and carry a great impact as well...
Yours in longhaired happy hippie reading of the masterworks of antiquity form a modern day standpoind in a mired up world who needs to honor Tellus, Virtus, & Honos,
Bragi
supposed to be 2% overall of the male population but some areas have more and some have less. like here in California there alot more than normal.
I know lots of IT professionals in California probably have long hair. I've talked to a few online, but in Florida? you won't find too many. :-(
I would say about 10 to 15 percent in my area, maybe 20.
I may relocate there. ;-D
A hippie sanctuary outside of SF. real liberal atmosphere
The percentage of long hair has not changed much around here in the last ten years; it remains at around 2 to 3 percent. The percent of LONGISH hair seems to have gone way up though. The prevalence of this "flirting with the awkward stage" length has probably trippled from having been about the same as that for long hair.
The awkward stage is a pain, as we all know. To get that crowd to charge through it will require a stronger motive than the current sense that long hair is "kinda cool". If among enough groups long hair is a "must-have to be cool", we'll in two years see lots of longhairs. Remember, it does take time to grow it!
The Beatles became the rage in 1964 and the hippies in 1967, but the really long hair did not show up until 1968 to 1970. Yep. Had to grow it. Guys before then mostly had very short hair, while today quite a few have about an 8-month head start - should long hair become the rage again we may not have to wait so long to see it.
Bill
Great time-line description, Bill, --- that's how I remember the '60s, too!! I graduated from High School in June of '71. I remember that last year in HS how it seemed like practically EVERY guy had grown their hair out in-time for having shoulder-length hair, or at least close to it, for graduation (every guy except me, unfortunately, due to my dad not allowing long hair in his house)... I clearly remember the waves of shocked gasps from parents during the ceremonies everytime some shaggy guy walked up on-stage to get his diploma, --- and one of my classmates had even grown his mane half-way down his back (GASP! SHOCK!! HORRORS!!! - lol)!! By Sept. of '71 - June of '72, the one year I was away at college, that trend continued and even flourished moreso; but, it wasn't until 1973 that I remember seeing a guy with hair so long that it touched his belt...
1974 seemed to me to be the peak of seeing the most longhairs around (and out of those, the looooooongest hair in general). By '75 & definitely by '76, it seemed that, one by one, --- and only gradually at first --- a lot of guys cut back to shorter (at least to "medium lengths")...
1977 was the year I moved out to CA, --- and coincidentally, as I recall, also the year the movie, "Saturday Night Fever" came out. John Travolta starred in it, and his new look of super-short hair and slick, fancy clothes to hit the Disco dance floor with ended up being the death of the hippie look. I remember by then feeling depressed because long hair was no longer considered "IN", --- and society's pressure to encourage guys to cut had returned full-force (although in this case, it was now PEER pressure).
Just curious, Bill, if your experience matches up with mine re. longhairs in the '70s. My guess is that during the early '70s, the percentage of the male population who had around shoulder-length or longer could have been as high as 30%, --- with an additional 30% having at least "longISH" (what we call "awkward stage" length) hair. But, by the end of the late 1970s, the percentage of the longhaired male population had returned to under 5%... Does that sound about right to you?
- Ken
Yes, my memory is consistent with yours. Communications and thus fads were not as instantaneous back then, so what started on the coasts took longer to reach the big cities of the heartland, and even longer to reach the backwoods areas. Long hair was definitely seen everywhere in large numbers in the first half of the 1970s, and near the end of that period it lingered in areas like Appalachia, which we usually think of as "redneck", after it was beginning to wane in more populated areas.
I moved to California from Illinois as you did, but in 1979, and I noticed the same thing you did - a sudden change in styles of hair and clothing not at all to my liking. I saw it as a difference between the West Coast and the Midwest, but it was actually just that the Midwest was slow to catch on to new trends.
As the eighties wore on, hair length slowly shortened, and the nadir was 1996 to 1998. By then, we even saw lots of shaved heads. We never saw long or even longish hair in advertisements for clothing stores at this time. Then as the century turned, we began to see longish hair and it showed up in ads by 2002. And in the last few years we've even seen long hair in ads.
During the late 1990s, longhairs would often acknowledge each other on the street although complete strangers, someting that happens far less often now. There are enough more of us that we no longer feel so nearly unique.
I would not characterize today's situation as like anything that went on in the 60s and 70s. There was just too much fast movement then, and hair length had a deeper meaning to most than it does today. I see today's situation as being more like that of the early 80s, when guys just chose whatever hair length they liked and their choices did not carry an overabundance of significance.
Like you, I feel that although the sixties are associated with long hair because it carried shock value then, the largest mass of male hair probably peaked in the early seventies. People who did not live through that period or did not pay much attention to hair length, though, associate longhairs with the sixties. I get "Wow, sixties!" comments all the time. No one ever tells me I take them back to the seventies.
Bill
This is true, of course. I think in the sixties long hair had much greater shock value, but most of those who were thought of as having long hair didn't have hair that we would consider long today. This is partly because it takes years to grow really long hair, but I think also partly because guys were gradually pushing the envelope and starting from a situation where anything over the collar was considered long!
What you saw in the 70s was apparent acceptance of long hair, I say apparent because it only seemed to last upto about 1975, and I would actually say it was the punks who killed it off, not the disco fans, but that might be a UK perspective. At least in the early 70s people considered almost every guy to have long hair, but all this really meant was that most guys hair covered their ears as well as just their collar! At the same time of course there were more guys with really long hair, having had time to grow it and less resistance against it, and they were more apt to get a break from the 80-90% who only thought they had long hair, LOL!
I began to grow my hair out around 1970 or 1971, but it really stayed mid length until around 1980 (I was actually one of those guys who thought I had long hair in the 70s but didn't really, but I didn't cut mine short around 1976 like everybody else seemed to, instead I grew it out more), and throughout the 80s and 90s I kept getting too much taken off in trims, so that even though it was getting to be genuinely long my progress was very slow. With the new millenium I pretty much phased out getting trims, getting less frequent and pretty much stopping getting my hair cut for the last few years, but it's still not as long as I'd like.
I would guess about 2% of guys here in DC have long hair right now.
I don't blame the punks at all since they were nonconformists and rebelling against the establishment at the time. the disco crowd led to the short haired transition. most disco folks evolved into yuppies by the end of the decadce and punks were antidisco as much as they were antiarena rock and antiyuppie and if you look back at the first wave of punks you'll find that many of them such as the Ramones had long hair at the time.
I had many punk friends in the eighties when my hair was mid back length and we used to hang out together. never had a problem. got more dirty looks from yuppies and preps then anyone. Incidentally, many of the first wave punks evolved into goths who started that musical trend and as you know many goths have long hair so with the punks I think it was more of a stylistic change and to shock the conventional crowd. afterall long hair had gained acceptence among the mainstream by the 1970s and they wanted something to shock people with and spiked mohawks and piercings seemed to work.
the disco crowd as I recall started getting John Travolta haircuts in the second half of the seventies and trying to use peer pressure to coerce their friends into getting their long tresses cut off and many did. these evolved into the first wave yuppies who even went shorter with their haircuts eventually evolving into the G.I. joe buzzcut trends of the 1990's.
so if anyone is to blame it's the Disco/Yuppie crowd, at least in the U.S.
Here in Florida, specifically Tampa Bay I see some guys, usually young with what you describe as "longish hair" and even fewer with shoulder length or longer. the majority of Men and Boys wear short(yuppie length) to military cuts. lots of buzzcuts, crewcuts, and fades as well as flattops.
there seems to be a prevalent anti-longhair sentiment in the air here. many employers will stipulate that you have very short hair, above the ears and collar, especially the resorts while others may not stipulate it, but may not call you in for an interview. most of the long haired guys do not work in air-conditioned environments, but usually do day type labor or construction type work. it's very rare that I see any guys with "longish hair" in a customer service type job around here.
which things were different.
I've thought of relocating to an area more conducive for long hair growth and opportunities. we have limited opportunities here as well so even those competing in lower-sector jobs have to "yuppify" themselves.
We need to get the ACLU to sue some of these S.O.B.s.
I mean I could compromise if they wanted me to put it in a pony tail or a bun. But you can't take of a haircut at the end of the day like a work uniform.
To your first question, I really don't know.
As for the second, it is what it is. I don't think something as opinionated as the way you look can have a percentage - too high or too low.