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In an electronics store today and received various stares and gauking looks as my hair was down and not braided.
Two adults I noticed would try to position themselves at angles on other side of tv row so they could take a picture, or just look at my hair.
Two little kids say very loud to their parents what they see of the hair. One little girl asked if I was locked in a tower for a couple years. Another said my hair looked like a comic character's.
I appriciate the two little ones for the honesty.
I wonder sometimes if having hair this long can really confuse kids, what kind of message they take from it?
Hi jp,
Ha ha, gotta love that comment by that kid asking if you were locked in a tower since you have such long hair.Have to wonder where they come up with these ideas.Seriously you have amazing hair at an amazing length.You have to be really happy with it I'm sure.Thanks for the cool picture but just a suggestion for future reference.When posting there is a utility, near where you insert your picture, to rotate it upright to avoid making it look like your defying gravity;)lol.Anyway love it my friend!Cheers
Mârk
That's amazing hair, and worth the stare(s)! I think the kids must have seen the movie, "Tangled."
here's the image rotated.
Or heard the old fairy tale about Rapunzel!
peace,
jonalbear
Should have said that a gallant princess came and freed you from the tower, LOL! Equal opportunity chivalry.
Or are aware that in the old illustrations to the story the prince had long hair too!
Damon
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WOW !!! = astonishing length & texture = great story too !!! - yes I'm getting stares now = but no negative comments yet ... cheers CEM. :))
i hope you took the comments as a compliment. you sure deserve compliments.
Living in a society that "normalizes" short hair on human males is what confuses kids. Children who are raised with the understanding that long hair is a natural, beautiful, and quite unique human trait--common to both males and females--don't seem troubled by it. My 11- and 4-year-old sons both have long hair. My 7-year-old daughter is my biggest cheerleader in regrowing my own. It remains to be seen what my now-6-week-old son will think, but I anticipate that he'll be either long-haired himself, or at least open-minded to males who are.
Thanks for sharing your experience and the inspirational photo!
Cheers,
Val
Hey Val,
I didn't realize you have a newborn. Congrats to you and your wife!! I am so happy for you and your family.
Jason
Our son, Gaelen, was born at home on August 25th, weighing in at 10 pounds, 7 ounces. Mom, baby, and the rest of the crew are all doing great. :)
--Val
Hi Val,
Congratulations to you and your family on the new addition. I really like the name Gaelen. That's cool he was born at home-my brother was also born at home. In fact, my father helped deliver him. Glad to hear everyone is doing fine and well.:)
Take care, Ted
Yes congratulations.
As a former EMT I would point out that 95% of births go normally,
it's the remaining 5% that have complications.
[In the 70s I became an EMT only to find out how crappy they
are paid compared to what I could make in my major in college.)
Thanks for the congrats :)
Statistically, midwife-attended home births are safer than physician-attended hospital births. This is largely due to doctors' proclivity to treat birth as an "illness" that needs to be fixed, and to push a cascade of pharmaceutical and surgical interventions, in addition to the risk of hospital-acquired infections.
--Val
I would tend to agree with this Val. Excellent point and thanks for posting it.
Take care, Ted
Thank you for the congratulations and well-wishes, Ted... it was a great experience for our entire family :)
--Val
Thank you for the congratulations, Duncan... it's cool to have these good vibes coming from all around the globe :)
Take care,
Val
Kids are very honest and curious. Your hair is really nice. I don't know, if I could get used to mine being that long. The longest mine has ever been is waist length. It is currently at my lower back.
Darrin
No it doesn't confuse them, it tells them men and women are
free to their as long (or short) ss they want.
Wow!!! Your hair is looking great.
I haven't gotten any comments from kids around here,
but then here it is common for guys to have long hair and women
to have short hair.
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as well. They have asked if it is real. I nearly always keep it in multiple hair ties to stop it from tangling. As you can see, it is very similar to yours. This photo is from a few years back, but my hair is the same length today. People do sometimes stare, especially children. Long hair is quite common in the San Francisco area where I live. What region of the country do you live in? Where you live can make a difference for sure.
Gosh, I almost forgot: Welcome to MLHH. Your hair looks absolutely gorgeous.
Scott
Living where I do, kids are definitely not as indoctrinated to make assumptions about sex roles and indicators, however, they certainly are honest about what they say and how they might be confused.
Ewww. Creepy streetshots...if you want a picture, at least have the balls to come up and ask.
I've gotten pretty much the full gamut of kids' comments, from the ones that horrify the parents/crack me up (Is he a Fairy?) to the confusion ones, to Rapunzel, etc. I take them as compliments or at most give gentle correction.
First off, that is absolutely gorgeous long hair the likes of which is rarely seen. Congratulations! :-)
Sure, little kids can easily be taken off guard when all they have known and seen is the "usual" length they see on men. As for message, I can relate what happened to myself in a grocery store a number of years ago when my own hair was at its longest ever.
I entered the store and a kid was in his Moms shopping cart. As I walked by, I heard him say: "Mommy, is that Jesus?" (His Mom must have been embarassed and I could hear her trying to hush him up.) I turned around and walked back past the cart and as I past by him I gave him a pat on the head and said "Bless you my son" as I gave his mother a wink. You should have seen the size of his eyes almost popping out of his head as I said this and smiled at him. What a reaction and how I was laughing inside.
For all I know, this little guy still remembers this encounter with the "Faux Jesu" from the Pacific Northwest. LOL
All the best-
Justin~
lol that's hilarious!
That is awesome. Good that you had a since of humor there. That will give the boy a positive memory about long hair as he grows.
Thanks for the compliment. Best wishes with your journey.
You have amazing hair, so beautiful ^^
I must say my hair's never gotten that long, kudos to you for being able to manage it! I can imagine you'd have to keep it braided and/or up for day-to-day life. Incredible hair like that comes with a price!
As for confusion, I think it's good for kids to be exposed to the idea that men can have long hair. I grew up with my dad being the way he is (relatively traditional in terms of gender roles) so males having long hair was out of the question. My brother's hair is kept very short, he wanted to grow it out but Dad made him get it cut. My dad's message was that any male with long hair was dirty, lazy, and not worth anything. For the longest time I unfortunately bought into that, but thankfully I realized how ridiculous that is. Now I'm a strong advocate of long-haired guys :) I plan on raising my children in the future to be open-minded about it (especially because hopefully my future husband will have long hair!)
As for the people trying to get pictures of you, that's just rude. I know it's considered rude to ask but it's even ruder to gawk and hide behind objects to sneak a photo. I would have posed or something as a joke, but since it's normal for females to have long hair no one's going to be taking surreptitious pictures of me. Well, you've got tons of support here, and once again you have lovely hair :)
Thanks for the encouragement. I agree that the world needs more of us to have long hair.
I know how you feel about parents.. mine were so rapped into traditional thinking, it was impossible to get their opinions about the hair that didn't sound like what their parents told them.
I'm sure your hair is beautiful and your future hubby will have it too..
God bless
Hi jp,
The only thing I can say is wow! I really like the length and color of your hair! There is a guy at my dialysis clinic with hair about your length. He gives me inspiration everytime I go to dialysis. He said he has been growing his hair over 10 years. Anyway, cool post and keep growing your wonderful hair.
Take care, Ted
It's a great introduction to children that there is a much larger world out there than they realize...one which they will need to learn to function in for the rest of their lives with a great many different people.
But children will react similarly to anybody who seems even a little different from the family in which they are being brought up in.