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What I have noticed is that the older you are, the less people bug you about having long hair. It's almost like the decision is more accepted. I guess people think that young people grow their hair out because thay are too lazy to cut it or somthing(sometimes the case). It also could be that younger people change thier styles so often, to fit in, that people don't respect the decision as much. When you are older you apper to have a permenant style(as most do) so people are not as judgemental about it. is this true or is there different pressures as you become older? -sean
With age for most comes an acquired wisdom that can only be "lived-through." Many feel more free to just be themselves and are past this "I have to please this one or that one" stage. Peer-pressure is no more.
Who knows?
For the past many years most all of the younger have had very short hair.......peer pressure, the "in" thing, and what they see in the ads and movies that is pushed at them. I haven't noticed that younger people change their "styles" so often, but do know that when the masses of their own age change they tend to follow as Sheep. About "people don't respect the decision," I have no idea.
The pressures of someone older are a whole different story. Survival, Bills to pay, raising a family. The "older" have grown past the trivial stage of caring what other kids are saying about them. The "younger" are still free of the pressures of "Real Life" survival conditions with which the "older" finds of the utmost importance. As far as having a "fixed-style" for your hair when older, this seems to hold mostly true for Men more than Women. (Only my own observations which is limited because it is not my main line of work.)
This is an image of the eminent cognitive scientist Steven Pinker and this is the style I am going to settle on for the rest of my life. Note how the graying actually enhance the texture of the curls. Mine at the moment is a little shorter (but I am growing it longer, longer than the image) and has not got anywhere near as much gray. Now after looking at images of him and some of the other curly gray heads I have seen, I cannot not wait to get let mine turn gray quickly enough.
As you get older, you care less about others' opinions. Also, people feel less inclined to say what they really think - unless they know you really well. After all, they have no right to impose their opinions on others, do they?
I'm "young" and I regularly get funny looks, because of my hair I guess. Usually I don't know whether to take it as a compliment or an insult. I don't really worry about it though, I like how I look and that's the important thing. If I had a haircut that everyone loved but I hated, I would be miserable. Maybe it's arrogant but my opinion is all that matters to me. I think most people have that attitude, whether they admit it or not.
"I'm "young" and I regularly get funny looks, because of my hair I guess."
Well, you actually won't ever know why you get "funny looks" its most likely not becaus eof your hair, maybe because of something else, or its just your imagination that the only reason why people look at you like that is your hair because you think its so unusual. I also often think why actually is that one looking at me like that and I have my own reason why...because I'm so pale or because I'm so ugly, who knows....
This could be because it is human nature (goes back to our earliest days, our tribal days) to respect the wisdom of the old - the old are seen as the teachers, not the other way around. The young are seen by everyone in the village to be in need of educating; the old are not. I noticed the minute I got some gray hairs, the hassles vanished. Gray hair may well be a marker for "an elder" in the human psyche.
I think there's something in that, Bill.
However, I think us guys maybe assume wrongly that women are never hassled for having long hair. It does happen. One type of hassle that both sexes experience is the pressure to get a trendy hairstyle. Another is the pressure to have short hair in business, beleive it or not, albeit probably not what a guy would consider to be really short. Women maybe tend to escape the latter by not being taken seriously or by going for low status jobs, but it's hard to see that as completely a good thing.
If you look over on the Long Haired Community you will find some women have had intolerable pressure to cut their hair (although again, no-one is telling them to get a 'short back and sides' or a crewcut!), and others have never had a negative comment about it in their lives. Perhaps that's the real difference, as I doubt that there are many (any?) men who could say the latter.
I was thinking about this just the other day. I generally don't get any hassle about my sholder length (lower chest is my goal) thick as wood hair.
My theory is that younger people (younger teenagers) get more hassle because older people generally think that they know more than them, and are more wise in the ways of the world. Older people (20s, 30s, 40s and older( with long hair don'tget as much hassle because the people that would give it feel unconciously wrong about criticising someone of the same generation.
This COULD be completely wrong, though.
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JoNty
I don't think you are. Try telling an older person how they should look, what clothes they should wear and you can expect a short acid response - deservedly so, 'cos it would be none of your business.
The older one gets, the wiser (hopefully) one becomes and part of that is learning to keep one's opinions to oneself.... ;-)
You probably get just as many comments when older but I think you take criticism, umm, more maturely as you grow older. Suppose you are 40 with kids, and decide to grow it long your parents are still not going to like it. People you know are still going to offer you a hundred bucks for a haircut. But slowly it becomes less and less important what they think.
-Brian.
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