new thread
Michail's thread got me thinking. I don't really know that much about everyone's original inspiration, the person or thing that first inspired them to grow their hair. I know a few, like Albany and the Beatles, but I'm not so sure about everyone else. Plus, we've got a few new members who I'm sure would love to hear about it.
My original inspiration is Tommy Oliver, the original Green Power Ranger. Even though the actor who portrays him, Jason David Frank, has since cut his hair, the young Tommy Oliver will forever live in my mind as the longhaired badass of legend. He is, and always shall be, the greatest hero the Earth has ever had.
Who is your inspiration, and why are they awesome? We want to know!
Hi Septet,
Very cool thread you started as it will be interesting what the responses are.As for me its a tough call being I first started growing my hair long in the mid 1980s.I can say back then the birth of cable TV had something to do with it as I remember having to visit a friend in another town to watch cable TV since my town had yet to be wired for it.Yes, back then it was like the line in the Pink Floyd song..thirteen channels of s**t on the TV to choose from.LOL.So I would visit my friend and watch....you may have guessed it MTV! lol.Well back them MTV was a very cool channel unlike today as I could care less about it.Ah yes those music videos with longhaired guys were a true inspiration:)Can't recall a specific individual but overall I was mesmerized!On top of that metal was becoming more mainstream as that was a great time to be a longhair in the USA :)So I have to say that was my springboard into longhairdome and even after the metal rage died down it lived on forever for me.Since then, and to this very day my hair has always been long!I became a longhair and never looked back:)Attached is a pic of me in the late 80s with my first and only perm! LOL Cheers
Mârk
I think the perm looks great. It makes you look even more like a rock star.
Hi Septet,
This is a cool idea for a thread. I would tend to agree with Mark on the MTV stuff. I was glued to MTV back in the good old days. However, my inspiration for hair growth was the one and only Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. I believe he has similar hair to me so that appealed to me. Also, he has an operatic voice range which really sounds good in rock music. Too bad he has since cut his badass hair because he flies for a commercial airline now. Here is a pic of him with long hair.
Ted
you'll have to have your bangs and hair trimmed at a salon and flat iron that baby! ;-)
excellent pic btw!
Hi Jake,
Yes, that hairstyle he has is almost a long mullet. Back then the rock stars wore their hair like that. I think I am going to grow my hair all one length though. But no flat irons for me! I am much too lazy for that! I will leave that to you experts! Thanks for the comment on the pic.
I would like to have hair like the young Timothy B. Schmit. He is the bass player for the Eagles and still has long hair today.
Ted
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Here is Timothy nowadays. Looks like his hair type changed and went more wavy. Still looks awesome!
Ted
Yes my original inspiration was the Beatles in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan show. After many years a number of rock singers had
even longer hair than the Beatles so they became my newer inspiration.
LHIA,
Yeah, longhair on men didn't become prevailant until 1968 or'69. The Beatles "Mop Top" look was quite short in comparison.
peace,
jonalbear
People were SHOCKED at how "Long" their hair was at the time comparative to how most young men had been wearing their hair for decades and I am sure Long hair in Albany will attest to the fact that many were shocked at that much hair on a guys head then.
during the 1970s that would have been considered short hair.
today with the return of the barber shop and buzzed styles many consider it "long hair" again.
Yes in 1964 that much long hair was very controversial. But it was very short compared to what long hair would look like in the
later years.
The Beatles were to long hair what Hip Hop is to the buzzcut
the Beatles popularized the idea of Men growing their hair out. they were not the first(beatniks were already around)but they initiated the change which needed to happen.
unfortunately with the emergence of Hip Hop music and buzzed "styles" like the Fade starting in the 1990s the number of buzzed heads now out number guys with longer styles including medium length styles.
The Beatles were the first ones to grow their hair long that
I had heard of. I found out in later years there were others
before the Beatles but I had never heard of them. I was exposed to the Beatles because they were on national tv on the
Ed Sullivan show.
It's unfortunate that some associate men with Long hair with drugs and much of this stems from the 1960s hippie culture which is something that I definitely don't identify with since I don't use drugs at all.
we need something new for inspiration.we *need* new role models and ones that are NOT stereotypical!
I will always associate long hair with hippies since in the 1960s
I was one of those original hippies. I never did drugs (except Marijuana in the 70s at college), but I had the long hair,
wore bell bottoms, etc.
But I never did drugs, didn't protest the war (too busy working
on othrr things.)
Of course if you had told this 1960s hippie i'd be active in
civil war groups i'd asked what you were smoking. Yet here I am in 2013.
I'll always look very fondly on the 1960s. Alot of it was the
absolute thrill of bucking the system and wearing my hair the way I wanted to and wearing the clothes i wanted too despite how
much the school dictators protested.
I was not putting down the 1960s youth movement, but the fact that many people associate long haired men with drugs.
the whole peace and love thing I'm 100% for. it's the negative aspects that are often remembered by *some* who seem to forget the more positive aspects of that youth counterculture and some were not even born yet and have been misinformed.
to be quite honest if given the choice between being a 1960s hippie with all the baggage vs a neo nazi skinhead I would take the hippie any day.
what I was suggesting is that we need some sort of new movement which is different than those of the past which promotes long hair as part of it's culture much like the 1960s counterculture did, but in a different way.
I'm ready for something new. tired of the same old thing and I think long hair should definitely be part of it!
Great thread there, Benjamin! And I LOVE the green power rangen reference! You and I are definitely late 80's, early 90's kids! Loved that show, and always loved the Red/Green power ranger, me and my need for rolemodels back in the day, hehehe.
Anywhoo... as for my original inspiration, I have to pick two, since while it started with the one, the other came right after and even in my opening post here back in November, I used them both as my reason for wanting to grow my hair out :)
So, first is Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai... one of my fave films of all time. Not only does it have a great storyline and Tom is playing his role flawlessly, but also the fact that I absolutely love the japanese culture and on top of it all, I LOVED Tom's hair in the movie! Shoulder length, split on the side and perfect for an "american samurai". That definitely made me want shoulder length EVEN hair, back when I was sporting an asymmertrical hairdo.
Inspiration number two is the one and only, Malcolm Freberg from Survivor! Eventhough he dissapointed dearly in his 2nd season, me being the longhair & survivor fan that I am, had to cheer for him the entire time! Love the locks, eventhough the more the days on the island went, the greasier and more dreadlock looking they got! hehe ...
It should be noted that noe of them have really my hairtype, as while both have rather wavy hair, both have also very fine hair, so god knows if I'll ever be ble to achieve something that looks like either of them, but for the purpose of this thread, they ARE my original inspiration :)
I'm not sure that I had a person type inspiration. It was just
that ever since I was old enough to really care and think about
my hair style I wanted it as long as I could get it. Due to
parental control I had to wait until I was out on my own to really
go for terminal length, which unfortunately for me was only about
nipple length. I've only been able to dream about waist length
hair.
Septet,
Always love when this thread question comes around. my initial influences for growing my hair long were late 60s rock starts like George Harrison, John Lennon and Shawn Phillips. Since I was in the Army in the early 70s I didn't get a chance to grow my hair out until about 1975.
peace,
jonalbear
Oops, this is really John!
It's Johnny Depp! I've always loved his hair@
N/T
Hi Mark,
Great pic of Brandon and awesome inspiration! May he Rest in Peace!
Ted
Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad
Not only great hair, but fine taste in pants.
I would say the latest would have to be
Brad Pitt
I want to thank everyone for posting their inspiration! I just want to say that while you may not have been my first inspiration, you are certainly a great inspiration!
Thank you, very much.
... there was Adrian Paul, playing the character of Duncan MacLeod on "Highlander: The Series."
... there was the late, Great Man, Peter Steele (bassist and lead vocalist of Type-O Negative).
Many other great heads of hair from the world of heavy metal have also been inspirational, but Peter will always be at the top of the list for me.
--Val
Oddly enough, Val... I actually LOVE that shot and that head of hair, even if it's not straight ;)
Maybe it's time to find myself some new inspiration, which better works with my own type of hair! Awesome hair there on Peter!
Hi Val,
Now that is a big inspiration for me! Beautiful hair!
Ted
Rust In Peace, Peter. Another god of Metal that was taken from us.
His other band Carnivore is also worth mentioning. I wish I was as badass as him and about as big.
For me it was my uncle who grew his hair long when I was about 12. Around the same time I was playing lots of video games and always loved the hair styles in many of the Final Fantasy series games, most of which were long. My favorite was "Laguna" from FF8.
How do I say this in the most heterosexual way possible, Tommy?
Fucking AWESOME hair! Hehehe..... and with some hot ironing magic, I can and will achieve the same look as well in another 5-6 months! ;)
Hahah well put. I tried combing my hair over to one side like this a few months ago but it just wouldn't stay. I may give it a shot again this weekend and see how it ends up.
Yup, I too craved to be like the characters in FF and anime. I just could never properly empathise with characters having short hair. I didn't want to look like them, only like those with awesome long hair.
Damon
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Hey Septet.
Here are a bunch of pictures of my major influences:
First picture: I don't need an explanation to this one......
I also have real life inspirations.
Second picture: Many of us are influenced by Metal artists, like myself, but Joseph Vargo is not a Metal artist, yet still an influence.
Third picture: Peter Tägtgren, my favorite musician of all time. I love this man. (I still consider myself heterosexual)
Fourth picture. Some of you may have seen The Hobbit. I thought Thorin, Kili and Fili are some handsome dwarfs and they had beautiful hair.
Fifth and sixth picture: War from Darksiders and Death from Darsksiders 2.
And finally the seventh and eigth picture: Alucard (Castlevania) and Sephiroth. This too will influence the actual look of my hair. My hair will be as long as Alucards, (the back part of his hair reaches down to his hips and as you can see, his front is to his chest) but it will look more like Sephiroth's hair.
I play RPGs and other video games a LOT, and I have always wanted to grow my hair long. I made the mistake of letting some buttholes at work harass me until I gave up.
Then about a year later, played a PlayStation 2 game called Suikoden 3 and saw this dude.
His long hair mesmorized me, and ever since then I said NO MORE to cutting my hair. And I insist to myself to never cut it again until I reach my goal.
This is Yuber from Suikoden 3.