# How do men determine where to part their hair?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [July 24, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977 "2014-07-24T23:57:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/1 "2014-07-24T23:57:40Z")
How do men determine which side of their head to part their hair on? Is it just a random choice, or does (or should) it have something to do with the hair’s growth pattern - the “grain”, so to speak?
Barbers’ and stylists’ comments are especially appreciated.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/2 "2014-07-25T00:40:29Z")
While it’s wet, I comb my hair back. As it dries, it falls into its natural part.
When I need a really neat look, I style it into that regularly noticed part, setting with moose, usually.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/3 "2014-07-25T01:01:17Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#):
>
> When I need a really neat look, I style it into that regularly noticed part, setting with **moose** , usually.
Isn’t that a little awkward? And where do you keep the moose when you aren’t (squeezing it, I suppose) onto your hair?
[Men’s Health](http://www.menshealth.com/grooming/grooming-ask-mh-how-part-your-hair) on the subject.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/4 "2014-07-25T01:06:31Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#):
>
> When I need a really neat look, I style it into that regularly noticed part, setting with moose, usually.
When I saw “moose,” silenus, I thought of you. Got any of that chili left over? 😃
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/5 "2014-07-25T01:10:40Z")
My hair determined it for me.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/6 "2014-07-25T01:17:52Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#):
>
> When I saw “moose,” silenus, I thought of you. Got any of that chili left over? 😃
Well, that particular batch was back in 1980, so…no. 😃
In addition to what Men’s Health says, there is also the issue of which way your hair spirals. That can really mess up a look if you aren’t careful.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/7 "2014-07-25T01:50:24Z")
You don’t want to know where I keep the moose. :eek:
I loves me some elk chili. Will have to try moose sometime.
I saw a chocolate moose.
REal chocolate.
Funny how auto correct doesn’t read context.
.
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/8 "2014-07-25T01:54:35Z")
Back in the day, I had the part on the right because that was how I’d always done it…and I don’t know why I had it on the right in the first place. There were a couple of weeks when I experimented by having the part on the left. Now I shave it off, so I don’t worry about such things anymore.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/9 "2014-07-25T02:33:04Z")
That’s how I solved the problem as well.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/10 "2014-07-25T02:55:52Z")
I used to part it on the left due to being right-handed. Then one day a long time ago, I looked in the mirror and realized it was a comb-over, so I just pushed it all off the back. So I am a long-haired bald guy (kind of like Wm Hartnell, but before it turned white), some guys cannot handle bald, never really bothered me. Except at that Dead concert at Autzen Stadium when I forgot to bring a hat.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/11 "2014-07-25T02:56:14Z")
My mother decided before I could even handle a comb.
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### Author:  [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/12 "2014-07-25T08:00:48Z")
It depends on which side of the equator I’m on.
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### Author:  [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/13 "2014-07-25T08:20:19Z")
There’s a focal point on the back of my head – a little whirl where hair around it grows out in a circle. It’s on the left side of my head, so I have to part it into the whirl. If I try parting on the right side, I’m basically forcing a bunch of hair into the opposite direction it naturally falls.
Not sure if that makes sense, but the gist is that a bunch of hair in the back naturally falls in one direction, so your part has to abide by that.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/14 "2014-07-25T08:32:46Z")
Mine was parted on the side by my mum right from birth, I imagine. I don’t even recall which side.
But way back, when long hair was in style, I started parting it in the middle. I was at the trailing edge of the hippie movement, but I liked the John Lennon look of long hair with a part in the middle.
So, today, I have short hair, but it’s still parted in the middle in tribute to my hippie days.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/15 "2014-07-25T10:20:11Z")
There’s a little groove in my head that just seems to be the natural parting place.
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### Author:  [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/16 "2014-07-25T11:28:15Z")
> [@qubed](#):
>
> There’s a focal point on the back of my head – a little whirl where hair around it grows out in a circle. It’s on the left side of my head, so I have to part it into the whirl. If I try parting on the right side, I’m basically forcing a bunch of hair into the opposite direction it naturally falls.
>
> Not sure if that makes sense, but the gist is that a bunch of hair in the back naturally falls in one direction, so your part has to abide by that.
Me too, though mine is on the right.
I remember as a very little kid going off to school and my Mom parting to intercept that swirl (cowlick?).
It seems these days that no one parts on the right. I don’t know if that makes me unique or a freak?
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### Author:  [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/17 "2014-07-25T12:04:16Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#):
>
> You don’t want to know where I keep the moose. :eek:
> I loves me some elk chili. Will have to try moose sometime.
>
> I saw a chocolate moose.
>
> REal chocolate.
> Funny how auto correct doesn’t read context.
>
> .
It did, just guessed [the wrong context](http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/4364).
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### Author:  [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/18 "2014-07-25T13:03:37Z")
I got whanged on the head years ago while climbing a signal tower. That scar, from above my right ear to above my right temple, determines my part.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/19 "2014-07-25T13:48:14Z")
Don’t women also part their hair?
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-men-determine-where-to-part-their-hair/693977/20 "2014-07-25T13:50:11Z")
Being right handed, I part on the right. Just easier to reach that way. When I comb it, that is, which is rarely. I usually have the wild untamed look.
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