Where have all the longhairs gone?

[jdj]

Everybody looks like they are in a Christian Rock band these days.

I grew up in the days of hair metal, (and EVERYONE had big hair back then, not just the metal guys)

The only attractive man I've seen lately media-wise is the guy in The Black-Eyed Peas who look like he is Native American and Asian. He is gorgeous, I remember when alot more men wore their hair like that.

Am I old and out of touch? I heard Gwen Stefani (No Doubt) say the other day that they almost didn't hire their drummer because "he had long hair" and I thought WTF!!! Used to they wouldn't hire a musician who didn't have it, now it's declasse' or something.

I think Eddie Vedder had the perfect hair. Can anyone enlighten me on why this is now the kiss of death? (I've already been told I'm "so eighties"...)

[radiclib]

1. Well, speaking for myself

it's fallen out.

[jdj]

3. yes, I have a friend, guitar player, who has that beautiful

wavy black hair, and it's thinning on top, and he's threatening to cut it.

This needs to be of utmost importance to medical researchers.

I just don't understand why more young men aren't wearing their hair long.

Is it the metrosexual thing, queer eye (they make everyone of they guys with long hair cut it, the bastards) or am I being paranoid and thinking it's George W. Bush and the rise of fascism that is bringing about the skinhead meets xtian rock look?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. I got it!

It's all on my head. ;-)

Got the ponytail trimmed a little, but it's still hella long.

Gwen can bite my ass.

[jdj]

4. hell yeah!!!

That's the spirit.

I have the will to go on.

[fishwax]

5. I keep the hair long

seems to work for me, and I don't know any other way to be. :)

[jdj]

6. That's two.

Awesome.

[parasim]

7. Here's one right here!

:hi:

I don't quite understand it either. I noticed in this month's issue of Rolling Stone they had an illustration of a protester and a cop for a story on the convention and the protester had short hair. It was a bit shaggy, but it was pretty short. Weird.

Anyway, since I grew mine back out, I get all kinds of interesting comments. But, typically, it's like, "Oh, you got the 60's hippy look going there, dontcha?"

Oh well...

[jdj]

9. I have become my parents. (long hair=poodle skirt?_

But we are the first generation, I am sure, that is more liberal and was more wild than their children.

What a fucking weird designation.

[name not needed]

8. Growing it out now as we speak

I'm gonna get it trimmed on top though, so it will be even all over.

[puerco-bellies]

10. My Freak Flag

Is long and wavy, got offered a killer position in Portland OR., and turned it down (I'm a commodities broker) because I would be asked to cut my hair. I'm too damn old to compromise any more!!! I'm sorry to hear Gwen is like that, guess I wont by that music DVD after all.
P-B (A.K.A. Hairball)

[jdj]

12. I didn't understand her point at all, and she didn't elaborate.

It is probably the most glaring instance I've had of realizing I am now "old".

At least before I knew WHY people said stuff like that. Now I am baffled.

Oh, and when I watch VH1 shows, I really don't like the semi-short frosted and moussed compensation 'do that is being worn by bon jovi and all those guys.

At least Slash still hasn't changed.

[Swede]

11. Long hair was a protest to those squares that ran the country back in the

sixties. Short hair also became associated with soldiers in a unpopular war. Maybe it's time to start that mullet.

[jdj]

14. I'll never forget, driving over the I-240 over pass in Asheville NC

long about '94 when I happened to glance down the hill onto river road. There walking next to the rail-road tracks was a Native American man, probably in his late twenties, in a black biker jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots, with a cascade of thick, coal-black wavy hair that almost reached his waist. He stood stock straight, and walked with a confidence and determination that seemed to say "I am what God fully intended me to be. If you don't like it, bite me".

The image of this man walking by those railroad tracks is burned into my brain.

And unfortunately because of the era I grew up in, short hair symbolizes "giving in to the gov't" or something. It isn't, of course...but there's that association. That's why Henry Rollins never did it for me.

[lanparty]

13. The barber ...

Ta-ta ting!!!!!!

[neverborn]

15. I have long hair :o

[LastKnight]

16. people judge you on apperance.

"oh thats just some crazy hippie, he cant possibly know what hes talking about" i heard a few people say stuff along those lines. just cause we have long hair doesnt mean we cant hear. also doesnt mean we are stupid, misinformed or whatnot. but i ended up giving up and succumbed to peer preassure and cut it off... but ill grow it back out this winter and its gonna grow to twice the length or so... nice long n curly. that is if i dont start losing it faster, i swear it falls out alot but it never gets any thinner.

wow... i can rant about the most useless crap.

-LK

[marzipanni]

17. Older guys who are going bald look normal...

Young men with buzzed off heads look like skinheads (UGH), and
young boys look like there's a head lice epidemic at school.

I hope this trend passes soon!

[politicat]

18. Mr. Politicat and I both have long hair.

His is just below shoulders right now, but grows fast. When it hits waist length on him, we cut it back to earlobes and send the hair to locks of love. He's donated 4 wigs so far. *grin*

Mine's waist length, red and has not been seriously cut since I was a sophomore in college. (Trims only)

Lots of long-hairs both men and women in Boulder.

As it happens, I've never dated a man with short hair, nor a woman with long... iconoclasts, I suppose, are what attract me.

Pcat

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Long Hair Here...

I was never a hair metal guy.
Always had the unrepentant ponytailed Hippie look. The last time it didn't hang past my shoulders was 1994. Never again, unless it falls out...

Anyway, who cares what Gwen Stefani thinks? What's the last interesting thing No Doubt did-- they did that trite, sucky ballad that was played to death... and then what?

Saw 'em open for U2 a year or two ago and had to hide out in the john until they were done.

Cool Musician Hair?






...poor Hunter. You know it would be long, if it was still there.

[Hubert Flottz]

20. I got mine too!

Cousin It, eat your heart out!

[Atlas Mugged]

21. Plenty of long hair in rural areas

It's still a perfectly acceptable redneck look, which has a lot to do with some of it's negative perceptions. Just watch the Jerry Springer Show. Sadly, when you see long hair in the country, expect to see a Confederate flag close by, be it a bandana, belt buckle, bead or butt patch.

Shorter hair, especially the shaved bald look, is the fashion for many reasons, not the least of which is generational backlash. Probably the most significant reason is the "extreme sports" look that so many teenagers favor.

Don't despair if you love long locks - if you look at the latest Dolce & Gabanna and Abercrombie & Fitch models a good deal of them sport shoulder length hair. It's all about cycles.

I had long hair for decades. Later, I'll post a picture in a different (but referenced) thread and explain my reasons for the change, if you wish.

[LWolf]

25. That's weird.

When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, "rednecks" did not wear their hair long. They went out of their way to disassociate themselves from "hippies." When did that change?

[Atlas Mugged]

27. Willie Nelson

Yes, it is weird, especially in the context of 'Easy Rider' as a cultural blueprint for the era. But, yes, it's reversed now. Witness 'Joe Dirt'. Southern rock bands also helped the trend.

[LWolf]

28. I guess I just didn't pay attention;

the last time I spent any time with "rednecks" was in 1976. Come to think of it, they were fans of Willie; but then, so was I, and I still am. I never thought of Willie as a redneck! My version of "redneck" is probably narrow; it is epitomized by my father, who wore the label proudly. As a matter of fact, it was part of his CB handle. The last time I saw him was in '76, and he died in '80 or '81.

[NashVegas]

22. As a Child of the '70s

I see long hair (on most guys) as an *outward* show of subversiveness/diverse thinking that belies an inward tendency towards restrictive conservativism when it comes to the realm of culture.

It was my long-haired brothers and their friends who tried to keep me from listening to Talking Heads and B-52s, while righteously pumping their Skynyrd and Rush out of the speakers.

It was the short haired guys who turned me onto the Smiths, Wim Wenders, Chomsky and Dostoevsky.

*shrugs*

[ellie]

23. My DH has

long hair, it is past his shoulders. Sometimes I braid it in one long braid for him. In fact we both started growing it out at the same time, but his grew faster than mine and was healthier! I cut mine all off but his is still long. He was talking about cutting it, but I talked him out of it.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

24. Long hair right here....................

and fuck Gwen Stefani. I have been perpetually unimpressed by her work, and I really hate her glamor kitten image. If she hates longhairs, then I must be doing something right.

[Aristus]

26. I'm going bald, so I wear what's left buzz-short.

Don't want even a HINT of a possibility that someone will think I'm trying for a comb-over. I'm bald and proud!

BTW, anyone agree with my assertion that Firehouse was the last of the "hair bands"?