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I've been letting my hair grow for 18 months now. In this process, I got a number of comments from friends & family about letting it grow (mostly negative). They usually revolve around the fact that males in their mid-30s should have gotten over this rebellious phase of life at this point.
Now that it is long enough, I pull it back in a pony tail. Most of the comments have stopped. Either people accept it or the fact it looks much neater.
I'm curious what other guys, who started letting their hair grow later in life, have expierenced.
Good for you Ed! Don't be discouraged. I am also growing my hair out.I tie mine back in a ponytail too. I have been doing this for about a year now. This is much to the amazement of friends, relatives, co-workers etc. I just tell 'em "Its my Mid-life thing and no one is going to take that away" I have always had shorter hair styles. I just wanted to do something different. Besides I was just bored with the same hair style.
As for the reactions of others. Especially those that know you "pre-longhair", it is fun to upset their concieved notions of you. Its the people that know you who are most taken aback by your outward change. Why? its their image of you that is being challanged. Epicially disconcerting, is the fact that YOU are doing it! Thats troubling to them.I guess in a sense, it proves how much image is a part of our lives. I am sure advertisers or Public relations gurus would agree. Oh did I say my age? 44. Yep! Age 44 and I am also growing a ponytail. I enjoying it and the reactions thoroughly!
Good luck with your long hair and do not be discouraged
I've been lettin my hair grow for about 3 months. I'm 16 it's not exactly 44 but I know what u mean about the negative comments. I've had long hair down to my shoulders when I wasw 13 but I started growin it at 11. Every1 laughed at me when i was growin it cause it looked a mess and nobody seriously thought I was growin it. When it was long on my shoulders though it looked seriously cool. All the negative comments turned into cool comments and my hair =respect. Then for some strange reason I missed short hair so I went and got it cut. I have felt bald ever since so I'm growin it again. It's not that long at the moment the fringe just passes my eyes.
Good for you Ed! Don't be discouraged. I am also growing my hair out.I tie mine back in a ponytail too. I have been doing this for about a year now. This is much to the amazement of friends, relatives, co-workers etc. I just tell 'em "Its my Mid-life thing and no one is going to take that away" I have always had shorter hair styles. I just wanted to do something different. Besides I was just bored with the same hair style.
As for the reactions of others. Especially those that know you "pre-longhair", it is fun to upset their concieved notions of you. Its the people that know you who are most taken aback by your outward change. Why? its their image of you that is being challanged. Epicially disconcerting, is the fact that YOU are doing it! Thats troubling to them.I guess in a sense, it proves how much image is a part of our lives. I am sure advertisers or Public relations gurus would agree. Oh did I say my age? 44. Yep! Age 44 and I am also growing a ponytail. I enjoying it and the reactions thoroughly!
Good luck with your long hair and do not be discouraged
Ed, I am 51, and though my hair has been creeping longer for years, I really let it go just a year and a half ago. My experience with it, and that of some other guys I've talked to, has been that two things tend to stop complaints more than anything: (1) hair that is long enough that they know you are a committed longhair, and (2) gray hair!
Once your hair is long enough that you are a sheep obviously long gone from the fold, they will tend to stop trying to run you back into the flock. I have a longhaired friend who has two shorthaired men in
his three-man department, and some impending visit by a big shot prompted their boss to tell the two shorthaired men to get haircuts,
and then he turned to my friend and said, "Of course, this does not
apply to you!"
And I feel the gray hair thing is very real. The year I got lots of gray, all the comments quit. I suspect badmouthing hair is sort of a father to son thing, and people must feel out of place telling an old man what they think of his hair!
So Ed, let it grow! The social climate will only get better!
I am 42 and my hair is almost waistlong; I use to let it loose - I tie it in a ponytail during the summer only - and I have a wildly grown beard too. I have had long hair for most of the last 25 years, so most people who know me have never seen me with hair shorter than it is now. There have been some comments when I let my beard grow 5 - 6 years ago.
I get comments during the winter - not for my hair but because I go barefoot or in sandals and with bare arms all year round...
Nick
My bosses did not like it.
Several of my co-workers make comments on a regular basis, but they are follically challenged.
My wife loves it.
My thirty-something nephews like it.
Mom did not but has accepted it, and has told me about she and her sister braiding her grandfather's hair in about 1920 when he was in his 60's.
You don't happen to have any pictures do you?
This sounds familier. I started growing my hair long six years ago when I was thirty-six. I too recieved all kinds of negative comments about my hair. As my hair grew longer and I learned more about taking care of it, the negative comments ended. I have not heard a negative comment in over 4 years. In fact, I recently changed jobs and people were concerned that I might cut my hair short. My hair is all one length, to the middle of my back, I wear it both in a pony tail or long and free.
I moved back to my (southern, medium-sized, conservative)hometown at the age of 32, to take a job with a certain amount of public visibility, and immediately started growing my hair out (again). Soon enough it was shoulder-length, all one length, and I usually wore it to work in a ponytail. In the evenings I wore it down, often in curls (from hot rollers). I got the usual comments, but the most amazing thing was the reaction I got from women, many of them 35- and above. Strangers literally stopped me on the street to tell me how much they liked my hair. It really demonstrated how much women love long hair on guys, of any age, and how starved they are for some visual variety. After a couple of years I cut it short again. Within days I had no fewer than 3 women stop me--downtown at my usual lunch hangouts, at the gym, etc.--to tell me how much they missed my long hair and how sorry they were I cut it. Go figure.
I am thirty nine.. My hair is about mid-back and very thick.. Several people who know me personally have commented that the hair has made me look younger.. I have recently grown a 'Fumanchu' mustache which I have heard enhances this.. Any one else have this experience?????????