new thread
I would guess that most of you saw the video of Prince Harry's return to Britain after his ten week military deployment to Afghanistan...I was surprised that he wasn't sporting a more typical military haircut...even his chum walking next to him as they got of the plane had longish hair. What did you think when seeing the video?
Yes, I did notice that too. He has curly hair too. Curly hair
is longer than it appears. When stretched out it could be 6
inches long.
Scott
The whole thing is nuts. Every middle school kid who plays chess knows you don't put your king out in front.
So there's far more to try to make sense of than his hair length.
Bill
I really don't want to sending this discussion too off topic, but I have a rather strong opinion about this. I think Prince Harry's serving in a combat zone was good for him and good for the country. In the grand scheme of things, he's "only" third in line to the throne. So, he's not really in line to do alot of remarkable things. I believe serving like this does alot to raise his image in the eyes of the British public, to fulfill his own needs and desires to do something meaningful, and to mature him. It places his youthful "misdoings" in a different like. Prince Albert (later King George VI, but then second in line to the throne) served in the Royal Navy and saw distinguished service in combat at the Battle of Jutland. That did alot for him and the country at the time. So much for the opinion of an American Anglophile.
Ken
Whilst I appreciate the pun Bill, Harry is 3rd in line for the throne and as soon as his older brother Wills has kids, will get progressively more distant. The analogy would be better served by risking a Knight.
Harry is a soldier, its his chosen career. He wants to do it and the public are far happier with him being a soldier than they are reading about his binge drinking and ill-thought Nazi-fancy dress costumes.
Personally as a fellow Brit, I'm pleased to see him getting to do what he wants to do in life and I'm glad the MOD and the media conspired to make it happen.
Ah, yes, a knight. Send in Elton John!
Bill
.
Now that's an interesting image in my head...
.
Lol - yeah: A singing extrovert, who dresses outlandishly and is married to his Gay Partner. That'll really irk the Taleban. Send him in!!!
And they called Harry the "bullet magnet".
And to bring this sub-thread back on topic - why is it that all wig wearers (Elton John included) think no-one will notice?
I think it's a reality of combat situations that one does not always observe the most perfect military uniform discipline. There are bigger worries.
Ken
I would probably say that perhaps there might not be a barber out in the field and I'm sure that's the last thing when your dodging bullets!
Cheers,
John.B
The UK military does not share the abysmal fetish of the various branches of the US Army so as hair is concerned. During training it tends to be short but officers thereafter will almost universally have a standard 'business' style whilst the rank and file can also be pretty free.
In combat it would entirely be their choice.
Harry' has had longer hair in the past and I see little change here - good luck to the man. If he does nothing he is condemned as an idle Royal, if he does go with men he is deemed in some quarters to be endangering them.
I haven't seen the video, but the UK military generally just require hair to be above the collar and above the ears, which, although too short by MLHH standards, is a far cry from what most Americans think of as a 'military haircut'.
As I've said before on this board, in the UK prior to the '90s a crewcut meant you were a skinhead, not 'clean cut' or a member of the military. After 1990 it did become a mainstream fashion, but I left before that. Different culture, different norms.
As a teenager, a million years ago, I was in the ATC, which is a youth organisation something like the CAP that you have in the US, but the ATC is a part of the RAF (I don't think the CAP is part of the USAF?). We had RAF posters displayed in our squadron HQ showing a guy with a 'short back and sides' haircut and quoting the RAF regulation, which says only that "the hair of the head shall be neatly cut and trimmed", whatever that may mean.
I was passed over for every promotion for not getting my hair cut, and given extra turns sweeping the floor after meetings, but the only thing they could have done beyond that would have been to throw me out. Nobody had crewcuts, though, not even real RAF personnel on bases that we visited. The army may have had shorter hair than the air force, but not so short as in the US.