# Again with the right hand hair part for men
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 23, 2014, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284 "2014-08-23T10:59:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/1 "2014-08-23T10:59:01Z")
I’m watching Boardwalk Empire and it seems quite a few characters part their hair on the right. This is easy to tell given the slicked hairstyles of the 1920’s that the show recreates.
It seems to me that the right hand part was more popular in previous decades (judging by old movies, which, of course, I did not do my homework for this thread, so can’t give examples).
So, was the right hand part more popular in decades past? I’m not going to bother mentioning that ridiculous hypotheses the husband and wife team put forth where a right hand part looks unnatural to others. Wait, I just did. :smack:
Anyway, as a right hand parter, I’m curious.
Right hand parters: unite! We shall take over the world, or at least a very small, clean portion of it!!!
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### Author:  [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/2 "2014-08-23T11:00:14Z")
Just as I hit send, I realized the title says “men”. The OP really shouldn’t be limited to men’s hair parts.
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/3 "2014-08-23T11:02:20Z")
I… I don’t really get a part. I have a billion cowlicks. It limits me to about two hair cut options and basically zero options that involve parts.
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### Author:  [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/4 "2014-08-23T11:22:23Z")
> [@Jragon](#):
>
> I… I don’t really get a part. I have a billion cowlicks. It limits me to about two hair cut options and basically zero options that involve parts.
I have a cowlick on the right at the back, so my Mom started parting my hair on the right.
I’ve tried switching to the left, but the hair sticks up at that damn cowlick.
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### Author:  [@charmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charmstr)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2014, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/5 "2014-08-23T13:18:23Z")
> [@sparky\_1](#):
>
> I have a cowlick on the right at the back, so my Mom started parting my hair on the right.
This.
Also, as a kid in the 1960’s, I seemed alone in parting my hair on that side–at least on the east coast of the U.S.
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### Author:  [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/6 "2014-08-24T01:21:10Z")
With a cowlick in the front, it’s less of a hassle if I part right.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/7 "2014-08-24T01:30:42Z")
I, too part my hair on the right, because that is the way Mama Plant did it. 🙂
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### Author:  [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/8 "2014-08-24T17:27:54Z")
Parted on the left for years until the line got wider, then in the center for years. Now a righthand part looks better as my hair thins.
I theorize the righthand part got its dislike since Bush 1 wore his hair that way.
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### Author:  [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/9 "2014-08-24T20:05:56Z")
Are you talking about my right or yours as you’re looking at me?
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### Author:  [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/10 "2014-08-24T23:07:34Z")
So, I still wonder if it was more popular in decades past (like prior to 1970 or so)?
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### Author:  [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/11 "2014-08-25T02:15:19Z")
My dad used to swear that men are supposed to part on the left and women on the right.
I part my hair on the left. Mostly.
When I got into punk rock/new wave/goth/alt/etc and started going out dressed in things like torn fishnets, denim cutoffs, and Doc Martens, dad became considerably less concerned about how I part my hair. Perspective!
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/12 "2014-08-25T02:19:52Z")
Once again, I must link to Cracked, this time “5 Seemingly Insignificant Things That Make People Like You” — [5 Seemingly Insignificant Things That Make People Like You | Cracked.com](http://www.cracked.com/article_20779_5-seemingly-insignificant-things-that-make-people-like-you.html)
> [@](#):
>
> **#4. Part Your Hair on the Left**
>
> Since “most men part their hair on the left, which is supposedly perceived as masculine and assertive,” parting their hair on the right in turn causes them to be “regarded as more sensitive, effeminate, and nerdy.” On the other hand, women “traditionally part their hair on the right, and if they are left-parters (like Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton) they may be perceived as powerful and masculine.” Having your part on the unexpected side, then, “creates vague discomfort in onlookers and may lead to being shunned.”
>
> It sounds like a buttload of quackery until you start to tally up all the examples, perhaps the greatest of which being the very pinnacle of masculinity himself, Superman:
>
> Wimpy, nerdy, presumably erectile-dysfunctional Clark Kent has his hair parted on the right. But when he transforms into the muscular, heroic, could literally pound you into dust (with his dick) Superman, his part moves to the left.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/13 "2014-08-25T03:07:33Z")
The way my cowlicks lay, my hair looks much better parted on the right. Nobody’s said anything yet.
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/14 "2014-08-25T03:52:40Z")
hair should be parted down the center like Alfalfa intended.
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### Author:  [@Sterling\_Archer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterling_Archer)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/15 "2014-08-25T16:32:29Z")
As a kid I always parted on the right. In college I switched to the left. After getting married, I changed to a much more modern look – no part, messy, kinda spiky, pushed forward and to one side, pretty much like [this](http://cqjssh.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/how-to-style-mens-hairjake-gyllenhaal-short-hair-styles-cool-mens-hair-4xx0ujsm.jpg)
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### Author:  [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/16 "2014-08-25T18:33:10Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Once again, I must link to Cracked, this time “5 Seemingly Insignificant Things That Make People Like You” — [5 Seemingly Insignificant Things That Make People Like You | Cracked.com](http://www.cracked.com/article_20779_5-seemingly-insignificant-things-that-make-people-like-you.html)
Just LOL at the idea of characterizing left-hand and right-hand parts as indicating anything, let alone “manly” or “sensitive.”
In all my years on the planet, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed which side anyone parts his or her hair on, forget forming an opinion of that person’s character because of it.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/17 "2014-08-25T18:47:42Z")
That’s not really a refutation of that article. I think the point of that little blurb is that it is a source of subconscious judgment. I don’t think it is saying that people are consciously judging people based on the side of their parts. But Hollywood apparently thinks that it does affect perception of movie characters for some reason.
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### Author:  [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/18 "2014-08-25T19:17:46Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> That’s not really a refutation of that article. I think the point of that little blurb is that it is a source of subconscious judgment. I don’t think it is saying that people are consciously judging people based on the side of their parts. But Hollywood apparently thinks that it does affect perception of movie characters for some reason.
My incorrect reference to the husband and wife team in the OP concerns that. Turns out that the hair part theory was put forth by a brother and sister team (John and Catherine Walter).
Personally, I think it’s bogus. I think anyone with sense will agree that parting on the right is just, well, _right_.
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### Author:  [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/19 "2014-08-25T19:27:59Z")
I heard once that right-handers tend to part their hair on the left and lefties on the right. Makes sense to me. The majority of people are right-handed and, it seems to me, that one would naturally want to pull the comb toward one’s dominant side. A little less effort that way.
Maybe Alfalfa was ambidextrous.
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### Author:  [@Killing\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Killing_Time)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2014, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-right-hand-hair-part-for-men/696284/20 "2014-08-26T00:23:44Z")
I don’t see an answer to the question: Are we talking about the MAN’S right, or the observer’s right? I always parted my hair on my right because I hold the comb in my right hand and it’s closer. Never thought about it, but when I google images of men’s hair, I see both ways more or less equally.
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