h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's your point. We're discussing fashion. It's not supposed to make sense.

Fashion does make sense, if you look at the underlying factors. And that`s what I thought we were trying to do, find the reason for the liking of long hair.

The underlying factors are dependent on humans, especially their psychology, and those never make sense.

Sure they do, it`s all about social structure. The chimps have the exact same things.

Do go on.

Well, it seems to me that human fashion trends is the same as what chimps have where they will try and copy the alpha male. Some human high in the social hierarchy does something that would get anyone else laughed out of town, and it becomes fashionable suddenly. An attempt at gaining the same status as the alpha male by mimicking them.

Who is the alpha male? And what does that have to do with how women do their hair?

I am the alpha male

Anyway, I'm with Blatherskite on this one. It may be circular, but I still think its right, it just makes it a fashion. Used to be that men wore long hair and women short in Europe. I bet long hair would've been considered manly then.

And at the moment long hair would get in the way of many tals which are currently male-dominated.

One Alpha Male is David Beckham. Sarong, alice band, plaits... who else coudl get away with it?

One of my alpha males is Gabriel Byrne. He's Irish. Mmmm.

Yeah, David Beckham being a good example. By alpha male in human society I mean someone like an actor or singer, somebody fairly famous. People then try and copy them.

Gilgamesh, Samson, Jerohnimo, William Wallace, Oliver Cromwell and Ghengis Khan all had long hair. How how masculine were they? And dont forget the Vikings.

There is a current trend amongst black men to have long plaited hair, back in the late seventies and early eighties the popular looks were big afros or plaits AND beads. People on this thread seem to equate long hair as exclisively feminine.

In Africa the length of womens hair varies in different ethnic groups.

The Goth warriors had long hair while the roman troops had shorter hair. Can any one here think of a more sexually ambivilant culture than the Romans? I'll tell you one the Greeks where the hair style of the day for men was short hair.

Mens hair length has always been subject to the whims of fashion and cultural trends in general. The major exception being the military rules and Health and Safety or practicality at work. Shorter hair was found to be best and less of a fuss in war and in the factory. As until recently the armed forces and factories were the exclusive prserves of men these styles were understandbly translated to the general population who saw them exclusively on men.

In terms of hair on men practicality is the key factor not masculinty. The most masculine male hair the beard was finally banned by the Navy becuase it prevented a proper seal when wearing gas masks etc...Interestingly in the UK armed forces women are allowed to have long hair but this must be kept in a hairnet at most times. Whether this is seen as necessary to recruit women who cant do without their flowing locks or because the MEN who decide these rules can only think in traditonal ways about womens hair lenght is hard to say.

“And don’t forget the Vikings.”

Or other native groups. Didn’t the Celts use a lime and clay mixture to spike their hair up into crests before going into battle? Combined with woad and a battle charge I don’t think they could be described as feminine!

Personally I think it’s a shame there aren’t a lot more ponytailed men around out there.

The peacock's tail ladies and gentleman, think of the peacock's tail.

Most men have told me that they like long hair on women whether it is shoulder-length or until the back. The reason they like it long is because they enjoy playing with hair and if they are going out with someone, it's hard to play and stroke the hair when it's short. Also, the other reason is because they want a woman to look like a *woman* when it comes to hair if you know what I mean. They believe that women should look feminine and by having long hair, then they do (in their eyes)

Hope I have answered your question. I'm a girl myself but I have talked to enough guys to know what they prefer

we dont ALL prefer long hair choking us while we are sleeping or getting inthe way when ws are in be but not sleeping.

Some men like long hair, some like short.

Still doesn't answer the question of WHY...

Youd have to ask us all individually about each woman individualy.

We all know that different sections of the media portray different physical attributes as the best or most desirable yet as disperate as those body typpes and looks are each publicaton or programme or film still gets viewers, buyers or bums on seats.

Besides some women I know look great with short hair but awful with long hair and other women its the opposite case in my opinion, but thats the point its just about opinions.

I think that women would all like to be attractive to men or women if thats your thing or women and men if your greedy. Regardless of how important it is to different women I dont think that any of them would like to see the varying amount of effort they put in going to waste. Its why people myself included can spend hours agonising over the right outfit to wear. I pride myself on being an intelligent and well rounded person yet I can still get my self into a sulk because Im worried I wont look great and impress people. Which is silly because I look great. So why do I and others do this?

It is because I can be as shallow as the next person and be overwhelmed by how someone looks on first meeting, on the whole though I and others get over this stage and hair lenght or even the exsistence of hair becomes less or even irrelevant. Even knowing how varied my own and the population in generals tastes are I still labour under the mishapprehension that it is important how I make myself look. When in the long run looks are of little or no importance.

Thank you all for your answers.
Unfortunately, I have been away from this page for some time, but now I have caught on.
Just to clarify: I am not trying to find my next hairstyle. My hair has been long and short depending on my mood and not on my idea what the men around me want.
I also thank you for the reasons you were finding WHY a certain hairstyle is prefered. Actually, this is more than I expected. I was just curious whether it is true that men prefer long hair.
As far as I can see, the answer is a clear "depends"...

Not sure whether this has been covered in this thread (at work, so no time to go through all of the answers), but I remember reading somewhere that long hair is a sign of youth & fertility, and that when men leave their wives they almost always do so for women with longer hair.
There was definitely a point in there that women will often have their previously long hair chopped to shoulder length or less when they get kids/busy at work/bored of looking after it, so it may just be a symptom of the younger-model thing.

Mine looks cr*p long, although for the first time in 5 years, my husband expressed an opinion about my hair last month, and said he prefers it "quite long", so I'm deffers growing it a bit. I don't care if people think this is me being dominated or dictated to - his opinion matters, I love him and want him to fancy me! In the same way, if I said he looked rubbish in a particulaar thing & he continued to wear it constantly, I'd think he didn't care what I thought, which is hardly the basis of a healthy relationship.

In a perfect world, looks wouldn't matter, but who ever said it was perfect??

Mel