Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Fashion and Beauty
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 03-30-2014, 06:49 AM
 
Location: Sydney, Australia
11,646 posts, read 12,892,868 times
Reputation: 6369

Advertisements

Men had longer hair in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Though in the early 1900s up until the 50s they had short hair. And before the 1900s it seems like men had longer hair than women (yikes).

The long/short hair fashion (on men) was on and off throughout the last century. I hope men stay with short hair - much more attractive.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-30-2014, 07:03 AM
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
9,572 posts, read 20,736,777 times
Reputation: 2833
Quote:
Originally Posted by ciceropolo View Post
Small sample set of royalty is not representative. Men by virtue of doing - on average - more consistently strenuous work (and potentially threatening work if wearing long hair) throughout history likely kept their hair shorter than women due to:
1 Safety concerns,
2 Reducing hair as a potential weakness to be used against them in a fight
3 Having better ability to keep it clean and free of disease type issues (Lice) especially when water in many regions of world was not plentiful for activity like hair washing.
4 Style was unimportant except to upper classes

Women historically were encouraged to keep long hair to convey 'modesty' [head covering] et al. Also, historically women were in many cultures adornment chattel etc... so treatment and caring for hair was akin to keeping them as 'pretty' as possible and in some circumstances as a way of differentiating themselves for male attention.
No even peasants in the Medieval period had long hair. Men of course. And of course throughout many cultures, from Japan to Native America to the Vikings. All of these groups frequently went into combat and did dangerous jobs. So no, not buying your reasoning.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-03-2014, 11:13 AM
 
Location: all over the place (figuratively)
6,611 posts, read 4,848,607 times
Reputation: 3596
Quote:
Originally Posted by ciceropolo View Post
Small sample set of royalty is not representative. Men by virtue of doing - on average - more consistently strenuous work (and potentially threatening work if wearing long hair) throughout history likely kept their hair shorter than women due to:
1 Safety concerns,
2 Reducing hair as a potential weakness to be used against them in a fight
3 Having better ability to keep it clean and free of disease type issues (Lice) especially when water in many regions of world was not plentiful for activity like hair washing.
4 Style was unimportant except to upper classes

Women historically were encouraged to keep long hair to convey 'modesty' [head covering] et al. Also, historically women were in many cultures adornment chattel etc... so treatment and caring for hair was akin to keeping them as 'pretty' as possible and in some circumstances as a way of differentiating themselves for male attention.
Good stuff. On #3, people might be wondering why that wouldn't also push women toward short hair, but I think men are more prone to scalp infections and before modern cleaning and medicine, that might have come with some risk of death or at least giving others the idea that someone was very unhealthy to be around.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-03-2014, 11:24 AM
 
3,433 posts, read 5,733,675 times
Reputation: 5471
What goes around comes around

Short hair was popular in the early 50's
Long hair in the 70's

back to short hair
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-03-2014, 11:35 AM
 
3,669 posts, read 6,862,945 times
Reputation: 1803
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
What's strange is the custom of dressing and coiffing little boys like girls. I've seen photos of male relatives/ancestors in their childhood, and they had long hair with curls, and were dressed in the same clothes as girl toddlers were. I couldn't believe they were photos of boys, when I first saw them. These were from around the late 1800's to the early 1900's sometime.
Only from a modern perspective can this be seen. During those times the way toddlers of either sex were dressed was considered nonsexual. There was no gender assigned to toddlers. Back then pink was not considered a girls only color and blue was not specifically assigned to boys. Only after those changes do we look back and see a male infant toddler wearing a "white dress" with "long curly hair" as being dressed like a girl. At that time there was not even a market for male toddler and female toddler clothes, there was just clothes for toddlers, period.

In the most ancient of times long hair on men was considered a symbol of strength, consider Samson or the long-haired Frankish kings.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-03-2014, 04:44 PM
 
Location: all over the place (figuratively)
6,611 posts, read 4,848,607 times
Reputation: 3596
I think in Europe, long hair on men became associated with barbarians and therefore was considered unacceptable.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-04-2014, 04:19 AM
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
9,572 posts, read 20,736,777 times
Reputation: 2833
Quote:
Originally Posted by Merovee View Post
Only from a modern perspective can this be seen. During those times the way toddlers of either sex were dressed was considered nonsexual. There was no gender assigned to toddlers. Back then pink was not considered a girls only color and blue was not specifically assigned to boys. Only after those changes do we look back and see a male infant toddler wearing a "white dress" with "long curly hair" as being dressed like a girl. At that time there was not even a market for male toddler and female toddler clothes, there was just clothes for toddlers, period.

In the most ancient of times long hair on men was considered a symbol of strength, consider Samson or the long-haired Frankish kings.
Yep, all very true. We look at history outside the window of our own domicile.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-04-2014, 01:29 PM
 
Location: brooklyn, new york, USA
898 posts, read 1,214,927 times
Reputation: 1310
here's another angle at your question. religion. specifically islam. men are supposed "to look the opposite of women" such as short hair and keeping a beard. in turn, women keep long hair and no facial hair (as expected). so since 630 AD, all of the lands colonized by muslims and those converted since have somewhat arbitrarily followed this rule. there are exceptions to this but i heard this constantly when i was overseas in islamic countries for vacation (i even heard it in india from a fellow muslim who told me not to shave).

in the sikh religion from india, men do not shave their hair but keep it rolled up in the turban instead. again, religion is influencing man's choice, rather than style or reason.

on a side note, these two religions are the opposite in terms of hairstyle and obviously belief systems, yet americans have no clue about that. both of these images show muslims according to most americans.

islam:


sikhism:
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-04-2014, 05:54 PM
 
Location: Melbourne, Australia
9,572 posts, read 20,736,777 times
Reputation: 2833
^ yet women cover their hair up anyway so it's only for their husbands...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-05-2014, 10:41 AM
 
22 posts, read 23,344 times
Reputation: 17
1 Corinthians 11:14-15

Does not nature itself teach you that long hair is a dishonor to a man, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her instead of a covering. However, if anyone wants to argue in favor of some other custom, we have no other, nor do the congregations of God.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Fashion and Beauty

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:51 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top