# Long hair and women **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414 "2006-04-12T19:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/21 "2006-04-13T18:34:55Z")
> [@kimera](#): > > I’m having a lot of trouble believing this. For one, we were always hunters. Primates are omnivores and bonobos and chimps, our closest relatives, hunt meat for food. Yes and no. Chimps hunt, but not very frequently. And it’s unclear how much hunting our ancestors did-- early \*Homo \*was probably more of a scanveger than a hunter. > [@](#): > > There was a branch early in our evolutionary history who were strictly herbivores _Robust Australopithecus_ but they are thought to have become extinct because of this. Just to be clear, _Paranthropus robustus_ (formerly called _Australopithicus robustus_) was not ancestral to humans, but is a side branch which has a common ancestor with us. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/22 "2006-04-13T18:48:32Z")
> [@](#): > > 4-6" max? I’ve never known anyone (except men who are bald) who could only grow his hair 6". Where are you getting this infomation? Personal experience. Maybe it’s all the folks I hang out with who are the freaks, but I’ve known few men who could grow their hair as long as a typical woman (much less a long-haired woman). Even the guys who had ponytails, it’s rarely below the bottom of the neck. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/23 "2006-04-13T19:13:38Z")
> [@mr. jp](#): > > As a side note, I don’t really understand why there are so many somewhat short-haired women. I haven’t met a single guy who said he didn’t prefer long hair. Now you have. ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/24 "2006-04-17T02:37:05Z")
At the time that white people got to the Great Plains, most (probably all, but I’ve seen no cites) of the plains tribesmen wore their hair long. The Lakota (along with the Da- and Na-; otherwise known as Sioux) men were especially noted for _very_ long hair. In 2000 I attended a Powwow in Michigan where I saw a man who had his hair fastened in an elaborate tied arrangement. It was quite obvious that at least several inches would have swept the floor otherwise. He was clearly of mixed ancestry - hair color was a medium blondish brown, and there were some “Caucasian” aspects to some of his features. I assumed that his NDN ancestry was from one of the Plains tribes; probably Lakota, as they still seem to put the greatest emphasis on it. My hair has never grown that long - of course I’ve never let it grow for more than 6 or 7 years without at least trimming it some. Currently the longest strands of mine hit below the knees when I wash it in the shower. I don’t know how long my mother’s hair would have grown, either. She started letting it grow when I was 4. Eight years later, she could sit on the last several inches of it. At that point she became ill (ovarian cancer), and in the extended period of her suffering, her hair was whacked off a bit at a time by people doing nursing care. When she died, it was jaw-length. :sigh: Gramma’s was at least as long as hers. I don’t think she had cut hers for many years. There Was A Time when most Native American women wore their hair long. Now, very few do; instead the Plains tradition seems to have caught on and the men seem to be the ones who mostly wear theirs long, although few let it get to waist-length, much less longer. Really long hair is a pain to take care of. Mine gets braided as soon as it’s dry. I pull it up as if I were going to make a ponytail before I begin braiding, as that helps to make the finished braid a bit shorter (still gets sat on, if I’m not careful). ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/25 "2006-04-17T05:15:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Personal experience. Maybe it’s all the folks I hang out with who are the freaks, but I’ve known few men who could grow their hair as long as a typical woman (much less a long-haired woman). Even the guys who had ponytails, it’s rarely below the bottom of the neck. My ponytail reaches to between my shoulder blades, and two other dopers: **iampunha** and **meros** both equal, if not beat me in the hair department. They’ll be ga-ga at the go-go when they see me in my toga My toga made of blond, brilliantined, Biblical hair My hair like Jesus wore it Hallelujah I adore it 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/26 "2006-04-17T08:55:10Z")
I have a sword from the far east which is bound with human hair. The expert at Wilkinson’s told me that it was the practice of some areas for the girls to let their hair grow and only cut their hair when they got married. The hair was then used to bind swords etc. ---
**Author:** ![Ea\_calendula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Ea\_calendula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ea_calendula)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/27 "2006-04-17T12:32:14Z")
> [@mr. jp](#): > > Some wild-ass speculations: > … > As a side note, I don’t really understand why there are so many somewhat short-haired women. I haven’t met a single guy who said he didn’t prefer long hair. Some of us can’t grow long hair. Mine will grow to about 25-30 cm, which means that chin length is as long as I can wear my hair. But that looks decidedly dowdy and generally like I don’t care about my hair, so I wear it fairly close cropped. It’s also the style that I’ve gotten most compliments for. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/28 "2006-04-17T20:17:19Z")
No need to go back to monkeys (and really, it wouldn’t be a hard trick to come up with a convincing monkey-explaination if things were the opposite.) Having a wife that is a woman of leisure has been a status symbol for ages. Purdah, foot binding, valuing suntans/lily white skin, etc. are all premuations of that. Part of why women’s clothing is so impractical is because for most of human history it was a big deal to show off that your wife didn’t have to work the fields, etc. Long hair is another example of this phenomenon, just like high heels or long fingernails or any number of rediculous things women do to be “feminine”. Also, add Sikhs to groups where men have long hair. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/29 "2006-04-17T22:23:39Z")
Most black people that I know of both genders have short hair. I have discussed this with my students and they say it is very hard for them to grow out their hair because it breaks off, and an unstraightened afro is hard to maintain. It knots really easily and is hard to manage. Therefore, they either straighten it (and keep it relatively short anyway), braid it, or cut it really short and get a wig or extensions. This might be why people in Africa keep their hair short. My hair doesn’t seem to grow longer than my waist and also breaks easily. However, I keep it long because I have horrendous cowlicks at the crown of my head that makes my hair stand straight up unless it’s at least shoulder length. Much easier to wear it long than beat down that cowlick. My brother has the same cowlick and keeps his head shaved. It’s really one extreme or the other, b/c anything in between looks dorky. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414/30 "2006-04-19T11:22:52Z")
> [@kimera](#): > > I don’t buy the clinging theory because shorter hair is easier to use for clinging. I also attempted to lift 5 pounds (which I estimated as approximate birth weight) with my hair and found it very difficult. What’s more, the defining characteristic for the course of hominid evolution is bipedal locomation. This certainly holds true for humanoids living in trees or savanna’s (Apes don’t have long hair on their heads, but they do have fur everywhere else that their babies cling to) but it wouldn’t apply if there’s any thruth to the Aquatic Ape theory. If your baby’s floating around you while you both wade around breast-deep in a shallow laguna you both would certainly benefit from him holding on to your long hair. > [@kimera](#): > > Long hair could have been a mutual sexual handicap. A sexual handicap is a secondary sexual characteristic which may pose a greater risk to the individual in general survival terms but increases the individual’s reproductive success. A well-known example of this is a peacock’s showy tail. By expending valuable nutrients on long locks of hair, the individual demonstrates that she or he is fed so well s/he has nutrients to “waste.” Agreed, and that could explain why early hominids in hunter-gatherer societies that barely scraped by, would have men with shorter hair. They just couldn’t afford getting snagged on trees or grabbed while fighting an enemy. It is only the more succesful and economically affluent and proud warrior communities (Celts, Indians, Greek, Chinese) where male warriors could afford long hair, zand they wore it long for much the same reason \*\*kimera \*\* describes. And once long hair is a sign of youth and success as a warrior, then most men will want to wear their hair long. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/long-hair-and-women/352414.md?page=1)