new thread
Just really want to find out what inspired people to grow their hair.....?
For me i think it was a mixture of heritage and music. I love being Irish and a Celt and fully embrace my culture, and i am a rocker sooooo.... It was kind of a given my mane would grow. I also really feel a power from having my hair long. Like a warrior of old. I do also love my fantasy stories too, Lord of the rings and was a Dungeons and dragons player. :)
So step up lets hear them stories....
hell yea im a Celtic too & I couldn't say it better myself bro except im Scottishm but all the rest you said is the same for me! \m/
oops a typo lol meant to say Scottish :)
"I love being Irish and a Celt and fully embrace my culture, and i am a rocker sooooo.... It was kind of a given my mane would grow."
* * *
My ancestors (I am a Serb) are the Southern Slavs, who descended from the Old Slavs, a great tribe who roamed south-eastern Europe ever since BC. As a francophile, I am glad to notice the Old Slavs had much in common with the Gauls: both had long, blond hair, lived in woods, believed in animism, bickered around with Romans (the Slavs had a pick with Eastern Roman Empire, aka Byzantium, not with Caesar, lol).
Which kinda indicates me that, all of the ancient European "tribes" (Slavs, Gauls, Saxonians, Germanic tribes, Jutes, etc.) being similar in physical appearance, customs, way of living, and problems they dealed in history, the Europeans (or at least the majority) have descended from one common civilization.
My hair, however, isn't blond and straight but dark-brown and wavy. My father, before his hair went totally grey as it is today, had light-brown hair, and my mother's hair is as black as coal. The dark-haired Serbs are presumed to have Turks as some of their ancestors, as Serbia had been under Turkish rule for very long.
Some vast story my first reason was, eh? ;-)
As for the second, yeah, like the majority of MLHH-ers, I cherish my individuality and the right to be what I want, at least in those fields where I do have power. I can't marry some ultra-hot Italian model, but, oh well, I CAN make sure that I have long hair, lol !
Wow what a story..
Its Great hearing someone who's so into their ancestry. Sometimes I'd love nothing more then to able to live like they did in the days gone by. But then, theirs always camping. Nothing like a fold up stool and a plastic spoon to make you feel like a warrior. :)
You can draw the same conclusion from language theory too. All the languages of Europe except Basque and Etruscan (now extinct) come from a common root language that linguists call Proto-Indo European, and the common place of origin for this language (5000 years ago) is thought to have been somewhere on the steppes of what's now Russia between the Caspian and Black Seas. It suggests that a common people migrated and either filled the lands or displaced earlier peoples linguistically. Either way, there is a pan-European commonality in language, for the most part. The other side of the coin is the "Indo" part of the equation. The languages of Persia and Northern India are of the same family too. Now, this is wht indicates common ancestry to me: blue eye color is a relatively new phenomenon that supposedly has been around only about 10,000 years. Where do blue eyes occur? Only in the peoples descended from Europe and in parts of Asia: Persia, Afghanistan, and Northern India to some extent.
It's all kind of sketchy though since the archeological record from the Paleolithic and even Neolithic are so vague and the stuff of legend. Honestly though, the peoples of all of prehistoric Europe were thought to be "Celts," but we have no way of knowing what language they spoke. It wasn't the Celtic of today, Gaelic, Breton, etc. because it's Indo-European too, so most likely the peoples who spoke Proto-Indo European effectively superceded whatever languages were extant as they migrated. "Gaul" was kind of catch-all term too, so this gets really sticky quickly whenever anyone claims to be this or that nationality.
You've got a lot of reasons to grow your hair!
I'm sure you will succeed because of them.
I posted about a month ago in a simmilair thread, you can also read a lot of other members reasons in there.
http://www.mlhh.org/archive/?251589
Guess my story is the least exciting of any that may post to this. I just knew that I myself liked long hair and grew it. Haven't gotten tired of it yet either.
In 2002 I fell for a "Buzz Cut" thinking it would help make me look younger. YUK! It aged me by 50 years! Never ever again.
Justin with a buzzcut. Hehe now that i'd like to see. Photo that is not in real life.... O_O
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Justin, if the buzz cut aged you 50 years, what would that make you look like? 30? :) I'm still stunned that you're 60.
I agree with the poster below me, it would be interesting to see you with a buzz cut!
Peter
Well, I suppose I'm a Scottish Celt, but I don't know if that's why I grew my hair. Maybe Braveheart implanted a subliminal message in my mind! Maybe it's a genetic desire to have long hair that we share -- who can say. I'm all about LOTR too. Besides that, everything medieval and to do with dragons, knights, etc. I love Spenser's Faerie Queene so much so that I'm writing a thesis about it. Sir Guyon, Sir Calidore, Prince Arthur, etc. I like to imagine them having long hair for some reason, though Spenser never described the knights' hair either way.
Well for sure here in Dublin Irish folk who are into there culture definitely have a big beard with locks. I love to see the real old Irishmen with a grey mane with a grey beard. Then they've got a brown stain round the mouth from their pipe and Guinness. I here ya both the medieval. It was a great age. Dark but great.
I too am Irish, (can you tell?) but believe it or not I have some Native American blood. A lot of people in the south do.
That isn't why I grew it though.
I always wanted to wear it long even as a child. Later I read a lot of fantasy novels and was into Conan, Lord of the Rings and D&D. I do love Medieval things.
The artist Frank Frazetta and his unbelievably awesome paintings inspired me. Many of his "barbarians" have very long hair.
Another thing was, in the 70's a lot of my friends wore their hair long. Of them, I am the only one who still wears does. On occasion I see one of 'em and I usually say something like, "Man, WTF?" lol
Paul
Hell yeah! Just checked out that artist. Never seen or heard of him before. I'm going to look into em today. Looks right up my street.
A similar artist is Boris Vallejo as well. Names from my past I am not so familiar with more current fantasy artists except for a few who worked on LOTR stuff.
Paul, you and I have gained inspiration from similar sources. If you're a Frazetta fan, you should really try to get your hands on the 2-disc DVD of the film "Fire and Ice" (a Ralph Bakshi/ Frank Frazetta classic). The second disc contains an absolutely INCREDIBLE documentary about Frazetta. He was not only an outstanding visual artist, but a true "artist of life," as well... an athlete, a family man, a loyal friend... very inspirational in many ways. You'd dig it, bro.
Chris, very true regarding Boris, as well.
Fire and Ice
I have Fire and Ice on VHS but thanks for the info about the 2 disc DVD, that's one I'll have to add to my collection as soon as I can! I'd love to see the documentary about Frazetta.
I'm sure you know about his art museum. It's something I have to check out if I ever get up that way.
I like Boris as well and have many of his books but Frazetta has always been my favorite.
Boris's first fantasy art was on the cover of Warren mag Eerie #32, if I'm not mistaken. I do have it in my comic collection.
Paul
Just me...sorry trimmers!
hello everybody!
I've been curious about it sinse I was a little kid. I recently became a huge fan of Grunge Rock/Kurt Cobain, and said it's time to do it! I'm already 25 and only getting older. I need to do it now. I started from a smooth shaved head last October to where I am now. It's just now getting to my eyes. I think it grows fast. I wish it was faster. haha
(btw..i've been lurking this forum for weeks now..nice site..friendly people)
I'll probably post here again on a very rare occasion. I just like to lurk. I want to post a picture once I get the shoulder length I'm going for.
Conan and other warriors were a big inspiration for me. Also being into heavy metal, long hair is a must-have to be true and not a poseur. I also watched a lot of wrestling when I was younger, and liked the way that the wrestlers looked with their long hair.
I was contractually obligated to grow my hair and beard for the HBO series "Deadwood". After the first season I was ready for a
haircut but was hired to do a film where I was asked to grow my locks longer. Filming lasted 4 years and thus my hair grew long.
Once the film wrapped I started getting more roles that required long hair. For me long hair has become a way to make a living.
My hair was full of keys.
ROFL!! Good one! :-)
--Rick
Oh, this question again! Well, for me it was a deep-seeded fascination with the Middle Ages and just the feeling of not fitting in. So, I decided on an old-school hairstyle, really old school. Also, I do like my classic rock, so that definately had an effect, as well as absolutely loving how it feels! After I felt it (past awkward stage), I couldn't imagine not having it!
(n/t)
What inspires me to grow out my hair is my "attraction stimulation system", and my stimulation level on men with long(ish) hair is quite high pretty much all my life, since so many men are short hair and those with long hair stand out quite a way. I attempted to grow out my hair during my high school, and I did not make any progress at all. This is my second attempt at growing out my hair.
An attraction stimulation is my term of a person of my interest (which I get excited about when I think of that person). To my experience, it ranged from cartoon characters to people in real life.
By the way, I am part Scottish and part Irish. That is how I have wavy hair that end in curls, although that was not the reason that I am growing out my hair.
Matthew
It came to me in a vision.
What like in the proportion of scale of a certain best selling work of fiction!
Possibly, or else it was those mushrooms.
I grew up in the 70's, the A&E show "Dog the Bounty Hunter", and tne Geico Cavemen.
Frank
Advertising does pay after all, good thing your role model wasn't the other Geico spokesman or you'd be chasing bugs and talking in an Aussie accent :)
It was a rather simple decision for me: I saw a portrait of Shakespeare.
....the barber who gave me my last really lousy haircut and charged way too much !
Thanks Guido !! HA!
Another mostly Irishman here, 3 of my grandparents were from Ireland. I have always thought long hair on rock musicians looked cool when I was younger in the late 70s early 80s too.
But as for what actually caused me to make the leap of deciding to grow my hair out and as a result to start noticing long hair on regular people when I was out and about and enjoying that (which reinforces the desire to continue growing it), I think the LOTR movies were the last straw for me. I remember watching the third one and seeing the Elves in it and thinking "thats what I want to look like". Didn't quite work out that way but it did start me on the path.
Pointed ears would help a lot!!! :D
That is one of the things that annoyed me about the LOTR movies (there used to be many but I have grown used to them now!).
Tolkien never described the Elves of the Hobbits with pointed ears if I remember correctly. He always was trying to get away from the stereotype of elfs from lore as tiny and fairylike to be quite the opposite. It seemed he made them almost angelic as in human form but impossibly beautiful. (he even changed the plural of elf to be more stately)