new thread
Today I had a very interesting conversation with this guy who is an advocate for long hair on both Men and women who believes that when a persons hair grows longer it increases their intellect.
Now, I am not quite sold on this theory, but he suggested that because people like Albert Einstein and Steve Jobbs had longer hair at the time they were at their creative and intellectual peak it is proof that longer hair makes a person more intelligent!
now, as I recall Jobbs had closely cropped hair before he passed away this year so I am not quite sold on this theory, but would like some others opinions on this theory including Roger, who has probably done the most research of any member on this site to my knowledge.
Hello Paul,
Growing long hair in itself doesn't make a person more intelligent.
However the experiences of having long hair as a guy may alter your consciousness to some degree. Being treated differently and seeing things from a different perspective. A characteristic of a lot of long haired men is that the act of growing out hair and being a bit different from the norm I think your more inclined to be a free thinker and question things more and not be conned into some of the beliefs of the dominant mainstream society. A sign of intelligence is an ability to perceive things on different levels. Also people grow long hair for different reasons, either to be part of a social group, their own long hair identity, or another more mundane reason is because they are just too damn lazy or poor to bother cutting their hair and do not take too much notice of it. What about the opposite sex the women? Longer hair is more prevalent on women and I honestly cannot find any link between intelligence and hair length. Many intelligent women wear their hair short and many conservative minded ones wear long hair. A theory is just that a theory without anything concrete to back it. cheers, duncan
I have to agree with Duncan, especially his insight into hair length and women.
Some men who grow their hair long do it because they don't want to be part of the dominant mainstream society, they can see they don't have to be like everyone else and decide to grow their hair long. But of course that's just one of the many reasons why they'd do that. And as for women, if they're liberal and radical and don't want to be like anyone else, they may decide to cut their hair short.
It's a little narrow minded to say that long hair means you're more intelligent. But I think that a lot of men who are intelligent or just free thinkers will grow their hair out because they know they don't have to be just like everyone else to get by in the world.
Terry
There is absolutely no truth to that theory.
To claim that because Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs at one point in their life had long hair is the reason that they were so smart is absolutely ludicrous.
That makes as much sense as saying that the reason they were so intelligent is that they both wore blue cardigans.
Hair is just dead protein growing out of your head, it has absolutely no impact on a person's intellect.
One of the smartest people who have ever lived Dr. Stephen Hawking has short hair and Charlie Manson had long hair.
There have also been discussions on this board about Male Pattern Baldness and long hair.
I respect everyone's opinion, but I don't think there is any truth behind the theory that long hair protects you from hairloss.
MPB is in your genes.
Now whether hairloss has increased in recent decades or not is debatable. But the fact is that if you are bound to lose your hair due to MPB it's going to happen no matter how long or short your hair is.
Of course good hair care will protect your hair from some hairloss, like traction alopecia or hairloss due to harsh chemicals etc.
I have found that many long haired people and advocates of long hair tend to cling on to any pseudo scientific theory about how long hair somehow has "magic powers" as to somehow prove to other people why their choice to have long hair is the right one.
Like affecting your intelligence, protecting from MPB or a recent one about native american trackers who apparently according to this one theory were so good trackers was because of their long hair.
Again, I don't want to be rude to anyone.
But I think that it is important to remember that hair is just dead protein, some like to wear it short, some like to wear it long and we should respect anyone's choice to wear their hair as they wish to, be it a crew cut or butt-length or anything in between.
For the record Jobbs had shoulder length hair in the founding days of Apple.
However I regard this as absolute rubbish. One could trawl society over many years and find examples of both long and short haired people achieving much.
...so following that logic one step further.....
As I age and my hair thins, I grow dumber !!
THAT explains SO much !! giggle
Correlation is not necessarily indicative of causation. But that doesn't even apply in this case, considering there are countless "thinkers" that have had short hair.
... though Duncan makes some excellent tangential observations, below.
--Val