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Is it just my imagination, or is long hair more common among shorter-than-average men than among taller-than-average men? I'm 6' and have been growing my hair for 1.5 years, and suddenly a few days ago I realized that most long-haired men I know and see are of average height and shorter. Coincidence?
I guess the reason I hadn't noticed is because there certainly are tall longhairs. But it seems longhairs are disproportionately represented among shorter men, less well represented among taller men. Am I wrong? Or maybe this situation is peculiar to my area (Seattle)?
Thanks,
8-)
Greg
i suspect your observation may well hold water. there might be a psychological link involved- where a tall person is more self-conscious of his looks and less likely to do something that makes him stand out even more- height already accomplishes this. long hair draws attention to a guy; conversely a shorter male may feel as though he gets lost in the crowd and would be more likely to do something to draw attention to himself- like grow his hair out.
then again, it may be that hair length is simply more apparent on shorter men as they grow it out. i live in connecticut and have observed a similar mix... most longhairs are about my height (5'10") or shorter.
you in seattle? judging by the time of your msg you're either pulling an overnighter or hold strange hours! :)
I think this is the key thing. If you assume that hair grows at a rate independent of the person's height, and further assume that most people's bodies are in roughly the same proportion, at least vertically, then a short person with the same physical length of hair will appear to have longer hair than a tall person with the same physical hair length. Applying some numbers and extrapollating my body ratios, someone with 30cm hair who is 1.5m tall will have hair about 5cm below his shoulders; the same (different?) person with 30cm hair who is 2m tall will have hiar which does not quite reach his shoulders.
I'll have to start paying attention. However, the first few people who come to mind are all tall. In fact, they guy with the longest hair that I've personally seen (I saw him again on Thursday), with hair not quite to his knees is over 6' tall. At work, most of the longhaired guys I know of are taller than me (I'm 9'9").
Make that 5'9".
Thankfully, there are many longhairs in the Albuquerque region.
=)
All of the ones that come to mind are average to above average
height. (6' or more)
There are relatively few really tall guys and since a minority of all guys are longhaired, so are a minority of tall guys. I bet if you counted tall guys and then counted the proportion who were longhaired, it wouldn't be much different from the proportion of smaller guys who are longhaired.
Of course, you're only seeing guys out in public. Maybe a greater proportion of tall longhaired guys are shy or stay-at-home dads, or work odd hours!
Hi Jim,
That's true, but I said taller than average, which by definition would include half of all guys. :-)
A correlation between height and tendency to be seen in public? Of course; why didn't I think of that? But wait -- here's a better one: a correlation between height and tendency to walk around the corner before I see them! :-)
8-)
Greg
Hi Greg
I'm just glad we're finally getting scientific about this!
Jim
No, guys who have long hair may very well be disposed to getting jobs on off-hours where their significant feature might not be as important. For instance, 3rd shift workers are harder to find than 1st shift workers, so the pool is already smaller and long hair may not be such a big deal to an employer who has a smaller base from which to hire. Of course this is simply hypothetical, but I think the original correlation may have some validity.
Greg- I don't know if this is true or not, but shouldn't matter, anyway. I've always thought that the taller a person was-- male or female, the better they looked with long hair. If you beat the statistics, so be it!
An interesting observation..
I am 6'5" and have mid-back length hair.. Although men over 6' are taller than the average, I have several tall friends and NONE of them are longhairs.. Now that you have mentioned this, I will keep an eye out to see statistics..
Hmmm... I guess that it varies from area to area. Most of the tall guys that I know have long hair. The longest-haired man that I know is also one of the tallest. He is 6'8", and his hair is a couple of inches above his waist.