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I have had long hair most of my adult life... I have worn it in a variety of styles.. Not long ago I had it all one length to the middle of my back, but the most successful style with me is butch in front and long in the back and on the sides..
I am six foot five and just a shade under 200 pounds.. I am Anglo-Cherokee mix, the hair is jet-black and very thick... Personally, the drive for long hair with me is the desire to be a bit different, to stand out--but not necessarily a rebel.. And I have always been, even when I was very young, strongly attracted to men and women with long hair...
I have had every comment imaginable, from the discript profane to the most sensuous.. And, too, these comments are another reason I wear it long...
Well Midnight, I think the personal reasons you provided are sensible and very well accounted for. Although I consider myself very capable of thinking beyond trivial levels of thought, I've always felt that I looked terribly dorky with short hair. I've had it for over twenty years of my life, and it never really did anything for me. I think short hair looks silly on me in particular because of my facial structure and because I inhereted something of a large nose compared to most people I see. Anyway, I decided that I might as well experience what its like to have long hair before I go bald like my elders have. Call it a frivilous desire, but I wanted the look of having long hair. Not only did I want it on some primal, selfish level, but I thought it'd make me noticably distinguished to others. The latter implication seemed especially important to me since I've always been bullied by my father into thinking and acting as he thought fit. I hardly felt as though I had a life of my own, since he had always been the one maintaining control over it with an iron fist; now that I've tried to isolate myself from that oppression, growing my hair out seemed like a great symbolic means of confirming my newfound assertiveness and independence. It wasn't as much as a rebellious choice as the nature of my upbringing might have you suspect.
I think my desire for long hair might also stem from a childhood facination I've had with attributes typically associated with the fairer sex. I remember the disappointment I experienced in being reprimanded for instinctively inquiring as to why I was expected to wear attire for special occasions that differed from my earliest of childhood acquaintences (most of whom were girls).
It`s natural to have long hair. If not, why does God make it grow ?
I mean it`s not like nails, which can be a problem when they`re too long.
But long hair, when kept properly is a good thing. unfortunately society has been brainwashed to believe the opposite.
Indeed yes, it's natural and a well groomed and maintained head of hair is a joy to behold.
Thinking about current Asian prejudices against longhair, it's rather ironic from many Chinese and Japanese films from an ancient era that almost all the heroes, warriors, princes and kings had long hair and I've read somewhere that according to Confucian belief, the offspring belong to their parents and they therefore can't cut their hair without their parents permission.
According to an account about long hair on Vietnamese men, the father of a government official who cut his hair ordered his som to lie on the ground before the whole family and the father then whipped his son on his back with a cane for cutting his (the son's) hair without the father's prior permission.
It's perhaps because long hair on men had a relationship to royalty and aristocracy (like England's long haired cavaliers were loyal to King Charles and opposed the republican Oliver Crowell and his short haired roundheads), that the emergent capitalist class represented by Cromwell or Sun Yat Sen/Chiang Kai Shek dislikes long hair.
Good story!
Hmmmm... I'd have to say that I DO NOT know exactly why I started growing.
Seems like a million years ago now, but I do remember having a sort of...
'persecuted martyr' complex at the time, and growing my hair suddenly seemed like
the thing I SHOULD be doing!
At first, I told myself that I'd like to grow it 'several inches longer'...
not realizing at the time that this 'several inches' would never be enough for me.
I was following some 'inner call' to grow it long and cutting it was
as impossible as taking a knife and stabbing myself would be!
The various 'awkward phases' were hell, of course...and than GoD I didn't know about any of it..
before I went through those phases.
As time passed, I changed on the outside, of course...
but *strange things* were also happening to me INside as well!
So much so, that now when I see a picture of myself with short hair,
I begin to wonder: "Who was that guy?" And I must confess that
I do not know 'him' anymore...
It's sad, in a way...sort of like your 'former self' dying...
and some of you will have to fave that fact someday.
But becoming a Longhair can also be like being 'reborn'in a way...changing...
from the 'caterpillar' you into the butterfly that will face totally new challenges in this Life.
I'm GLAD you choose to use the word 'DRIVEs' in your question...
as that is EXACTLY how it felt to me in the begiining...
and now, as well...
It was a long 'trip' but well worth it...
especially since I really did not have a choice!
Thanx for your Story and...
Good Luck!
I think this is a very good summery as to "why." You just "do it" because the urge is so strong and you don't seem to have a choice to do otherwise. It is very possible that this is a natural instinct for many, as Nature intended both Male and Female to have Long Hair. There must have been a reason for it.............and to go against Mother Nature is most usually a dissaster. Nature is just too perfect. Could it be that the "longhair" is somehow in-tune with a primative natural instinct?
Constant cutting, it's so much more vain don't you think?
Tell me about it! About every 2 to 3 weeks to keep a certain style looking sharp.