I am a guy with long hair. Just today my wife braided my hair (an exercise I am not fond of, it hurts) and braided up, the longest of my hair reaches below my shoulder blades. I can reach behind my back and grab my hair.
Why did I do this? It was an experiment. Years ago I shaved my head completely bald to see if people treated me any different. They did. Well, strangers did. I found that people in college treated me worse and “other” people treated me better.
I also found that girls who wore more revealing clothing paid more attention to me with no hair, but, whatever.
I wanted to grow my hair long since I was a kid and I'm not sure why. It wasn't really a rebellion thing, I was pretty sure my parents didn't care. I wasn't trying to model myself after some long-haired hero or something. I just though it would be, I don't know, cool.
It wasn't until I was 29 or 30 that I dared do it. Now my hair is very long and this is what I'm finding.
-People have a easier time recognizing me. Sure, now I write for a paper that is delivered to every home in the city and my picture is in most of them so it stands to reason that more people recognize me because of that. But before I wrote for the paper more people went out of their way to notice me with long hair. If I was gone from church or school, way more people would comment on it when I got back than when I had normal hair.
I think this is a similar thing to something an old Polynesian girlfriend of my said about being a minority. If a white kid skips class, no one notices. If a dark kid skips class, everyone notices because there was only one dark kid in class to begin with.
-People tend to be nicer to me. I don't know why. In my ego I think it's because I look so dang cool and people want to be friends with the cool guy.
-People assume I'm liberal, non-religious, or a hippie. This I understand. It's a stereotype and it's part of life. Before I had to wear glasses it was worse. Without my glasses I really look like a hippie. With glasses I look like an intellectual.
-Jobs. I've had 2 job interviews with long hair and I got both of the jobs. One was for the reporter position at my current newspaper and the other was for a reporter position at The Daily Spectrum which I got but turned down because they lied about what the job would be. I don't know if I am brave enough in this concept to keep my hair long if I was applying for a government job the like, but a journalism job, or even a teaching job I'd be fine with. I don't look trashy. I keep my hair clean and whatnot, still I know that some jobs would not hire me with long hair, and that is their prerogative. If I got a high paying job at Disney, for example, I couldn't have long hair and I would cut it.
-Wind sucks. I don't know how most women with long hair do it. I go for a walk in the wind and hair is everywhere. Strands of hair slap across my eyeballs. It gets in my mouth and up my nose. It fills with dust and pollen which keeps me sneezing well into the night unless I wash my hair a couple times a day, which I do. Even if I put it into a ponytail, errant strands whip out and flock around my face.
-Ponytails. I don't like the way I look in them. Some guys look like computer programmers or rock stars with ponytails. I look like Thomas Jefferson which isn't a very hip look. I let my hair hang down and, except for in cases of high wind, it's never an issue.
-Care. I wash and condition my hair. I dry it with a towel. I brush it. That's it. It takes slightly longer to get ready than when I had no hair. Brushing your hair can hurt sometimes. Now I know why my sisters would throw fits as little girls when my mom tried to de-ratnestify their hair.
-I'm not sure when to cut it. I know haircuts have to happen. Even people with long hair get haircuts. I'm just not sure when to get one. My hair is very healthy. I don't have spit ends, so there is no real reason for a trim, right? Am I missing something? How long is too long? Is the song right when it says that it will stop by itself?
-I like it. I want to keep it. I think it looks better than any haircut I ever had. I know I won't keep it forever, my hair will probably fall out someday and nothing is worse than bald on top with long hair on the sides. Still, I dig the way it looks right now. I'm happy with it. I'm not happy with a lot about how I look. I'm not happy with my weight. I'm not happy with my constantly greasy, zit-covered skin. But I do like the way my hair looks. So I'm going to keep it for a while.
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