# Gay men and long (shoulder length +) hair **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 5, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886 "2012-02-05T20:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/1 "2012-02-05T20:11:17Z")
When I read about the 1960s, I see a lot of references to “long-haired hippie faggots” from more conservative types. And, even in high school in the early 2000s, I heard people make gay-related cracks about guys with longer hair. But, ironically, it seems to me that long hair was really never popular with gay men. I have never met a gay man who had long hair. Not only that, I don’t even know of any gay pop-culture figures who are known for having long hair. It seems to me that long hair is actually an extremely _straight_ style. All the guys I’ve ever met who had long hair were either super-straight guys in rock bands, or super-straight dorks who play Dungeons and Dragons. Either way, it’s a very non-gay thing to have, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/2 "2012-02-05T20:27:10Z")
Perhaps because only women were supposed to have long hair? That and it was probably just another random insult. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/3 "2012-02-05T20:32:47Z")
Indeed, I suspect the idea of accusing men with long hair of being gay stems not from a conception of gay men having long hair but from a simple sublimation of feminine traits into gay stereotypes. Added to the amorphous cloud that many conservatives have lumped homosexuality, transgenderism and crossdressing into and you get an insult that doesn’t really make much sense. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/4 "2012-02-05T20:48:02Z")
If everyone who has ever been called “faggot” was actually gay we’d really have problems propagating the species. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/5 "2012-02-05T20:48:47Z")
I knew quite a few gay men who had long hair, both when it was a style, and when it wasn’t, particularly. This was quite a long time ago, and most of them have short hair now if they have any hair left at all. The “long-haired hippy faggot” thing was just throwing as many insults as possible at hippies (or gay people). I think they also mentioned “unwashed” in case someone was, in fact, both gay and a hippy. Hippies were mostly not unwashed; if they smelled bad it was generally a case of using way too much patchouli. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/6 "2012-02-05T20:53:02Z")
Most of the guys I know with long hair are straight. I know a few gay guys with long hair, but it seems fairly rare. Although, most of the bars I go to cater to the leather crowd so very short hair styles are more common there. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/7 "2012-02-05T21:10:52Z")
When I imagine someone someone using the “long-haired hippie faggot” slur, I picture an Archie Bunker type directing it at Meathead. Yes, Mike Stivic was straight, and so were the majority of his long-haired hippie brethren. But maybe they were the first generation of straight men in a while to wear their hair long? Maybe to the WWII, buzz-cut generation a man growing his hair out was indeed a gay/effeminate thing to do? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/8 "2012-02-05T21:15:19Z")
Most of the gay guys I know have buzz cuts. Tell the military to put that in their pipes and smoke it. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/9 "2012-02-05T21:26:35Z")
The phrase “long-haired man and short-haired woman” went back at least to the 1920s, as a slam against gays and intellectuals. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/10 "2012-02-06T01:03:39Z")
Long hair in gay communities seems underrepresented to the point where I used to feel a bit awkward accompanying my gay friends to gay parties / bars back when I used to have shoulder-length hair. I would, however, wager a small amount that long hair _might_ be more common among bisexual men than straight men. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/11 "2012-02-06T01:13:07Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > I would, however, wager a small amount that long hair _might_ be more common among bisexual men than straight men. Yeah - so they can get the girls. Long hair = “rock star”. Quintessentially heterosexual. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/12 "2012-02-06T01:14:42Z")
It was a random insult, like cocksucker, no one really thought woodstock was the worlds first gay pride celebration. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/13 "2012-02-06T01:19:14Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > … Added to the amorphous cloud that many conservatives have lumped homosexuality, transgenderism and crossdressing into and you get an insult that doesn’t really make much sense. I’m a (political, but not religious) conservative, and have been such since I was in high-school, when Carter was president. From about '78, up until I broke my shoulder about 4 or 5 years ago, when it would have become embarrassing to have to ask total strangers to help me put my hair back into the pony-tail hairband if it got messed up (because I couldn’t do it myself with only one working arm) I had longer-than-shoulder-length ‘hippy-freak’ hair. I also don’t hate “homosexuality, transgenderism and crossdressing” people, or even care what floats their sexual boat. And I subscribe to “National Review” \. Your stereotype of conservatives _badly_ needs updating. It’s a bit flawed. Read that last sentence as “Stereotypical British Understatement”, and substitute language appropriate to the Pit, and you will have an approximate idea of where I have placed you in the “this person [does/doesn’t] have anything worthwhile to say” spectrum. Your stereotype of “Conservatives” is _seriously_ fucking whacked. Further, deponent saith not, because direct insults are forbidden in this forum. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/14 "2012-02-06T01:26:56Z")
You have no idea how little value I place on your specific opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/15 "2012-02-06T01:40:40Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > You have no idea how little value I place on your specific opinion. Oh, on the contrary. I’m _quite_ sure where I belong on your spectrum. I just wonder: Do you realize in what contempt I, and many others, hold yours? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/16 "2012-02-06T02:10:57Z")
In Maddox’s Alphabet of Manliness, he recommended that all manly men grow their hair out way past their shoulders. It is the manliest of all hairs. In all the gay porn I’ve ever watched, and all the gay guys I’ve met, I can only think of one, maybe two guys with long hair. It’s quite rare in the gay community. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/17 "2012-02-06T02:17:34Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Oh, on the contrary. I’m _quite_ sure where I belong on your spectrum. I just wonder: Do you realize in what contempt I, and many others, hold yours? I’m quite sure you feel very righteous in your indignation. As it stands however, I never said one thing about your personal ideology, yet you stamp in here fuming and assuming I’m slandering you when I said many conservatives rather than all. If you do not lump homosexuality, transgenderism and crossdressing into the same category, then it should have been plainly obvious to you that I wasn’t talking about you. If this is the sort of logic you apply to all your opinions, don’t be surprised when people dismiss them out of hand. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/18 "2012-02-06T02:25:32Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > I also don’t hate “homosexuality, transgenderism and crossdressing” people, or even care what floats their sexual boat. And I subscribe to “National Review” \. Your stereotype of conservatives _badly_ needs updating. It’s a bit flawed. Actually, I’d say that it’s _your_ stereotype of conservatives that needs to be updated. Someone who genuinely _doesn’t_ hate “homosexuality, transgenderism and crossdressing” people and who doesn’t care about the sexuality of others is seriously out of step with modern conservatism. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/19 "2012-02-06T04:41:29Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Oh, on the contrary. I’m _quite_ sure where I belong on your spectrum. I just wonder: Do you realize in what contempt I, and many others, hold yours? Yes, because they insist on continually saying. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886/20 "2012-02-06T04:56:09Z")
The _Colour By Numbers_-era George O’Dowd might qualify. Not sure about Ziggy Stardust’s red mullet. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-men-and-long-shoulder-length-hair/611886.md?page=2)