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Have you ever been told by any family members including parents, Aunts, Uncles, older siblings, cousins(or anyone else) while growing your hair long any of the following?
"You should cut your hair. it will make you look more mature"
"you should cut your hair, for it will make you look more intelligent"
"you should cut your hair, for it will make you look younger/older"
or
"you should cut your hair, for it will make you look more stylish"
I have been told that I would look younger if I cut my hair.
I don't want to look younger, so my long hair will remain long
until the day I die.
Also at the age of 58 I get more respect than I would get at a younger age.
Hi LHIA,
Sometimes people just don't get it when their statements come across as a non-compliment. Since when do people think they can dictate what we do? I respect your position my friend!
Ted
Thank you.
I could cut my hair any way I want, I'd still look as thick as s**t!
I'm a lost cause. My family members, including parents, Aunts, Uncles, older siblings, cousins, etc., have long since given up on trying to improve my looks! :)
Damon
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Hi Damon,
First of all, I am happy to hear your relatives have given up trying to improve your looks! You just can't improve on perfection my friend! And you are far from a lost cause!
As for the remark about intelligence, I have met far too many guys who were very intelligent-and had long hair. So that argument is shot out of the water! I not listen to such rubbish!
Please keep growing your hair and looking good my friend!
Ted
Now that i'm 58 years old i've met lots of people who have short hair who are as dumb as a door know.
As far as "My family members, including parents, Aunts, Uncles, older siblings, cousins, etc., have long since given up on trying to improve my looks!" goes I've found over the years it goes alot furher than just hair. "You should get a nose job." "You should get a face lift." etc. No i'm not going to get a nose job, i'm not going to going to get a face lift, etc. And i'm not going to cut my hair. I got lots of complaints about my hair in earlier years. When I reached the age of 45 the complaints stopped and now that i'm 58 years old I get no
compalints, i'm now one of the oldest in the family,
i'm the eccentric uncle that has long hair, always wears cut
off shorts, and does what he wants to do instead of following the sheep in this world.
Haha! I'll remember to tell my relatives that if they criticise my appearance again! :D
Tnx, Ted!
Damon
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I love that. I'll have to remember that one.
Back in 1976 when I was growing my hair close to my shoulders for the first time my grandmother approached me, handed me a $20 and said, get a haircut.
Hi Runningball,
I would have handed that bill back to her and told her to save her money. It wasn't going to happen. I have probably saved about $200.00 on haircuts so far. Some of these "stylish" guys get their hair cut every damn week to maintain their "style". To heck with that! Please keep your hair growing!
Ted
Hi Jake,
I am very fortunate that most of my family likes me growing my hair. The only person who doesn't is my Mother-in-law. She still has a photo of me with short hair that she likes. She tells me she wishes I still looked like that. She has only known me with short hair.
What I find very interesting about her are a few things. The first thing is that she likes certain soap stars or actors and singers with long hair. Also, she goes to the salon every month to get her gray covered up and have her hair cut and styled(?). She has what I would call a "standard old lady's hairstyle".
I simply told her I would have my hair the way I want it and that's that. I told her that I didn't understand why she covered her gray hair. She said she liked it the color she had and let me know she didn't want to talk about it. I returned the same statement to her and told her that was the end of discussion. She doesn't bring it up anymore.
The bottom line here for me is that it is my life and my hair. My wife likes me growing my hair and that is really all that matters. I am having a lot of fun letting my hair grow and can't wait to get to waist length. Of course, that is if my hair genes can do it!
As a side note, I was visiting a local food bank. The lady that runs it is about 60-70 years old. She saw me and touched my hair. She said "look at that hair!". She said she thought it looked great. I was so happy and thanked her for the kind comment. Not everybody in this world is anti-long hair.
As another side note, I am a dialysis patient with a life threatening disease. When I was advised I needed a kidney transplant, some things changed in my life. One of those was growing my hair. So the journey began. And I am having a blast! I think many people secretly like long hair on men, but are afraid to admit it because of society. My hair will keep growing and remain long until I decide to cut it. More than likely, that day will never come. My life is much too short for intolerant imbeciles. I sure hope I got my point across.
/end rant
Ted
Not in many many years. Got a bit of that when I started growing it longer in the mid and latter 60s. Soon stopped when they realized I was just gong to "Mule up". My parents even decided it was alright so long as I kept it neat and clean.. which i would be doing, anyway. so that was the end of it.
Or just the plain old "You should cut your hair, you will look better.
And you know what's funny? When people say "logn hair just doesn't fit you/you can't pull it off". Yeah, as if they are to detertime what fits on someone and what doesn't. It's totally not a matter of opinion.......
Hi Michail,
And many of these people(idiots?) have hairstyles and/or clothing which doesn't flatter them. And you are correct, what they think does not matter in a hundred years! Please keep your hair growing!
Ted
Hey Ted.
In most of the cases that is true. To me, they are nothing but hypocrites.
When I was in the ninth grade, I had a conversation with a girl around the time I started growing my hair out. She told me that long hair is girly and I shouldn't proceed to do grow it out. So according to hair long hair is feminine and short hair is masculine. This same girl cut her hair into a short pixie. Now this is what I call hypocrisy.
funny thing is some dude with a buzzcut with big ears that stick way out suggested I get a cut similar to his.
I didn't take him seriously(or would anyone else for that matter).
big ears that stick out should be one of many incentives to wear your hair longer! you would think, right?
Absolutely right. I mean, he can wear his hair however he wants to, but I don't understand how he could not notice that.
One thing i've noticed lately with those who get buzz cuts is many of them have gouges missing (Like the person doing the buzzz cut slipped and took out a chunk of hair). Anyone else notice this?
Continually! The most popular one is "you will look younger". However, the younger members of the family are most supportive bar a couple of bigots. My sibligs, who are all older and female do not say much or comment much. Secretly I think, they envy my hair!!
Was at a wedding reception last Tuesday,(A little bit of background - I am Asian Indian and from a quite conservative/traditional part of the community.) and the stares I got was very unsettling.
I suppose, that's life!
please see my post about hair as a style choice.
Alot of that comes with age. I'm 58 years old now and have long hair and when I went to a wedding about three months ago I had my
long hair loose and there were no stares, no complaints, etc.
Once I reacehd the age of 45 the complaints stopped. Friends/relatives/etc. finally got the idea my hair was long
and it was staying long. So they finally just shut up about it.
I think there are no anti-long hair people.
People just talk and give their opinions -without someone asking for them- just because talking is for free. If we would be charged for talking , they would not open their mouths to say things nobody cares about.
Actually there are. In my 49 years as a long hair i've encountered many of those anti long hair people.
Btu then i've also said to screw them and kept my long hair
long.
Probably one story that sticks out in my head the most:
After I had to cut my hair for school (story somewhere in the archives), I've gotten a remark from my crush that I "looked better with the haircut". Given that she does have a pretty high profile in my area and has some pretty powerful sponsors (and that she's nicer to me than my other classmates), I decided not to blow her off. On the other hand, I am flirting with other girls...
The others:
I've gotten a good friend saying that I look more mature with long hair. (Granted, I never had anyone say anything about my intelligence, but then again I'm known for being smart... and if people still look at IQs I can kick most people to the curb)
Living in Silicon Valley hair length is a non issue.
Despite being a very conservative Christian I've only had a single confrontation with the pastor's wife. I've always been sitting in the front pew in a plain t shirt and jeans, and despite sticking out like a sore thumb nobody said anything about it.
And then there's my mom. On the other hand, my dad has the final word, and he couldn't care less. (If I had been listening to my mom, I would be going to UC Berkeley... and then growing my hair out long, making this a Morton's fork.)
I'm back at the two month mark (got caught... again. Oops), now that I'm out of high school, there are no more haircuts.
I have been told my hair is "extreme"and I have had Many many compliments about my hair and some disparaging remarks as well. For the most part, I am told my hair makes me look Younger not older. I tend to agree with that. For those who have really strong negative things to say, I have learned to chalk those up as people who are bigots or just afraid to be anything but a conformist clone and are easily threatened by anyone who dares to be an individual just being themselves. I have realized over time that as I AM a longhair Inside and out, appearing authentically gives me confidence and Diffuses most people's objections to long hair on a guy, at least me in particular. You can't get rid of all bigots, but you Can learn that life is short and living it authentically and truthfully as it makes You happy and content is the only basis for success and peace.So, just let anyone who criticizes your hair know it is about You being you and happy, not about them,and don't sweat the occasional ridicule by ignorant folks, as you will get some. No matter how you act,appear, speak, think, you will Never please everyone, so, without bitterness, just be yourself.
I would mention that alot of it has to do with age. I got lots of
complaints when I was younger. But when I turned 45 the complaints stopped and I haven't had any since. So alot of it the older generation dumping on the younger generation.
Whenever that happened I took it as incentive to grow my hair longer. When I started growing my hair long in 1964 the more complaints I got the more I took it as an incentive to grow my
hair long. And the rest is history as they for this original
hippie from the 1960s.
I usually don't get complaints very often, but if I ever do, it's usually that the person thinks that age 61 is "too old" to be wearing my hair like I do. On the other hand, I know people who have seen pictures of me with short hair and they are the first ones to say that I look a lot younger with it long. It's just people and their own taste.
At the age of 58 i've never gotten that complaint. Once I reached the age of 45 the complaints about my hair stopped.
Yeah, my mother used to tell me cutting my hair would make me look both older and younger at different times. She also said both that it would look more stylish short and that I was following the crowd by having it long(which would have meant that long hair was in style!). Bottom line, contradicting herself didn't matter as long as I cut my hair, LOL!
I realised eventually that she doesn't like long hair on anyone, male or female. She said that when she was young, girls used to tease other GIRLS who had long hair, saying that they had nits in their hair! Of course, at the time they would have meant longer than shoulder length, which coincidentally (?) is the only length I remember hers ever having been. I suppose everyone is a product of their upbringing, to some extent, by which I include the nasty taunts of other children in school.
On reflection, my grandmother had long hair, and I wonder if my mother ever had long hair and might have been on the receiving end of schoolyard taunts for it?
My wife tried to motive me to cut my hair by opining that people will take me 'more seriously' if I did so. I'm in a 'serious' profession, but I don't detect that people DON'T take me seriously.
All the best and keep it growing...
Don