# Freddie Mercury - Long hair or short? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700 "2014-08-27T23:05:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/1 "2014-08-27T23:05:09Z")
I liked Queen as soon as I first heard them back in the 70s. Frontman Freddie Mercury simply bled talent (as did the entire band, really). He went thru a fairly radical change in his look by means of his hair. When I first saw Queen, Freddie had the jagged bang long hair look. At one time, I saw him with an almost David Cassady look. In between length, kind of blowdried looking even. And then the short hair look, both with and without mustache. Which look did you prefer? [In between length (David Cassady-ish)](http://www.nashvillescene.com/binary/2e4b/1346873138-freddie_mercury.jpg) [Short with 'stache](http://www.freddiemercury.com/images/upload/original_20_0_12-06-26_17-59-36.jpg) [Jagged bang long and short no 'stache](http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/073/2/2/freddie_mercury_by_gerryphantom-d4spire.jpg) Poll to follow ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/2 "2014-08-28T02:23:47Z")
I preferred the jagged bang long. It fit my ideas of what 70s rockers should look like. I did like his short hair look, but the mustache was a bit much, I thought. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/3 "2014-08-28T02:58:19Z")
I’m normally not a facial hair girl, but I call his “the only valid mustache.” I also think he rocked the short hair very well. He had those eyes…they needed to be seen. My fave is the Flash Freddie. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/4 "2014-08-28T03:02:59Z")
For me, the definitive Freddie Mercury look is the one of [his statue at Montreux](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Freddy_Mercury_Statue_Montreux.jpg). So, short with 'stache. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/5 "2014-08-28T03:37:53Z")
For whatever reason, medium length is the definitive Mercury look for me. Was that what he was rockin’ in the Bohemian Rhapsody era? Who knows. Aside: I learned when I was a super in an opera (Boheme, if you care; I was a waiter) that if you give me really short hair (I was flirting with it at the time, because of Christopher Eccleston) and a mustache… yeah. I pretty much turn into Freddie M. There are worse things that can happen to a guy, I guess. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/6 "2014-08-28T05:26:57Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > For me, the definitive Freddie Mercury look is the one of [his statue at Montreux](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Freddy_Mercury_Statue_Montreux.jpg). So, short with 'stache. That is a glorious statute. I’ve not seen that before. When someone references Mercury, in my mind I see short hair with the mustache. Brian May, I see with the curled long hair. But regardless, Freddie’s charismatic stage presence transcended his physical appearance. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/7 "2014-08-28T05:54:04Z")
Edit: a glorious statue, not statute. Legal training kicked in. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/8 "2014-08-28T06:50:12Z")
He’s just not Freddie without the mustache, to my mind. I do kind of wish he’d worn his hair long and had the mustache, but of the looks he’s actually worn, short hair and hairy lip. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/9 "2014-08-28T07:56:02Z")
The funny thing is, the mustachioed Mercury was seen for less than a third of the man’s career, from ´80 through to ´86. Queen had the most visibility then, due to massive touring, although their music had already turned to hollow, throwaway cock pop, IMHO (just what Mercury wanted, it seems 🙂 ). To me, the best look was the late-80’s clean-cut, short-haired one, as seen on the ‘Barcelona’ footage and the sleeve of the ‘Miracle’ LP (by the time of the video shoots for the album, Mercury had adopted the long stubble with short hair, which I associate with the first visible signs of his illness.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/10 "2014-08-28T08:36:32Z")
Mercury’s short hair with 'stache was the gay “clone” look of the 70s and 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/11 "2014-08-28T14:13:41Z")
Y’know, I love Queen, and I think Freddie Mercury was incredibly talented, but his looks do absolutely nothing for me. I looked at all the linked pictures, and I don’t like any of them. I can objectively see how some people would find him attractive, but I can’t really like or dislike any of his looks more than the other. They’re all bad for me. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/12 "2014-08-28T15:41:49Z")
Wow. Late career short with mustache is winning by a landslide. I wonder if it is indeed about their increased exposure in pop culture from that time period. I should do a poll next about their pants. 😉 . ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/13 "2014-08-28T15:43:44Z")
His look never made the slightest difference to me. But I think Queen was making better music when Freddy had long hair. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freddie-mercury-long-hair-or-short/696700/14 "2014-08-28T16:30:47Z")
Don’t like the stache. Ick. I like longer hair as a rule, but he looks better with shorter hair.