If any of you slogged through the long response I made to Dave below and the equally long response he gave me back in the "TV promoting cutting long hair" thread below, you may have gathered some of what I'm braindumping here. I'll apologize for the stream of conciousness format ahead of time, but it's more or less a reality check for me (and maybe some other folks as well):1) Men's long hair vs. Women's long hair In Dave's posts, he is always an adamant defender (notice I didn't say "proponent", Dave?) of long hair. However, contrary to posts by most of the long haired women on the board (e.g., Jade, Holly, the Dianes, etc), he seems to approach the subject with a much more defensive perspective. This isn't a slam on Dave, but leads me to my point: Long hair on men and long hair on women are viewed COMPLETELY differently.Since, for better or worse, the societal standard for women is long hair and for men it's short hair, anything outside that norm draws attention. Women have a wide variety of hairstyles and length of hair usually only gets attention when it is in the extreme in one way or another (i.e., very long or very short). Men, however, will start getting noticed for their hair if it is very, VERY, short (e.g., buzzcut) or as soon as it gets significantly over the ears or collar. Guys like Dave or Jeff (one of our benevolent hosts) who sport impressive manes of hair are going to attract a lot of attention for it, whether they want it or not. Also, not that it's anyone else's business, they will attract more comments about cutting it since it so far exceeds the so-called societal norm.Women usually only get these comments if they have extremely long hair, opinionated friends, or a mother. The latter of these will hate it unless you cut it exactly like she says. :)So, my first reality check assumption would be that while comments to women with long hair would run about 50-50 pro vs. con (if not a bit higher pro), comments to men would be about 90% con. Am I right on this?2) Getting your long hair touched in public This would be just as bad as someone grabbing your hand to look at your nails. It's an uninvited violation of your personal space. I would suppose, the people that do it think they can get away with it simply because they weren't grabbing a breast of some other area that would obviously get them arrested for assault. Simply put, it isn't OK and the people doing it aren't right and should be reported. You don't have to put up with that.Second reality check would be that this isn't necessarily a comment on long hair as it is a comment on the insensitivity of some people or the belief in our responsibilty-free culture that your actions have no consequences. How close am I on this one?3) The media is anti-long hair Yes, I am tired of talking about this one now. Reading back through the other post, I think everyone saw my point but Dave, so I won't rehash it verbatim here. Essentially, makeover shows are for the audience and ratings first, the stylist second, and the makeover candidate third. If the candidate comes out with a look that they love, so much the better, but it obviously isn't a requirement as long as the audience and stylist like it. There are shows on haircare and the like, but they are fewer since they don't give the bang for the buck that makeover shows do.So, reality check number three would be that TV is about ratings and doesn't have and anti-long hair agenda. Plus you can't judge the average person by what happens on daytime TV talkshows. Heck, if TV is anti-long hair, how do you explain the success of Jane Seymour, Roma Downey, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow (until she had the baby), Portia Di Rossi, etc.? Do you agree?That's pretty much it for now. I apologize for the length, but these are some things that I think most of us agree on, but somehow continue to rehash and argue constantly. If I'm wrong, here's your chance to tell me and the discussions can once again resume in earnest. Otherwise, it would just be nice to know that we were able to draw some conclusions from all of our posts thus far.Right, Dave? ;)As usual,JerkyFleaRelated Link:JerkyFlea's Celebrity Hair Spray
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3 pm is simultaneously too late and too early to start anything.
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