She did it for your birthday to
buy you the pocketwatch chain.
That is true for the most part but it’s still very disappointing when your partner does something that drastically lowers their appeal on basically a whim. It’s just a big “I don’t give a shit about whether you find me attractive or not” that I have to be honest would bother me quite a bit.
Growing your hair out for years and actively not damaging it via heat or chemical processing that entire time so you can donate it to charity once it’s long enough hardly qualifies as on “a whim.”
If it’s such an all-fired big deal, then why didn’t he say so before she got a hair cut? If I had some kind of weird condition where I couldn’t get hard unless my partner has dreadlocks or some such stupid thing, I’d make that known by the third date, because as you say, it is kind of important. And if I didn’t tell them and they ditched their dreads and that ruined the relationship, that’s my fault, not theirs. How the hell were they supposed to know? Rasta telepathy?
I agree with you, if it was such a big deal to him he should’ve been more emphatic about it when asked.
You don’t get it? Really? Not even a little?
If you are really seriously baffled by a boyfriend’s expectation of at least expressing an opinion on how the girlfriend looks, then there is nothing I can do to help you understand.
He expressed it. I’m sure she took it under consideration.
Listening to and acknowledging your partner’s preferences != abiding by them 100%.
OP, I suggest that you read some of the threads written by JohnClay. I believe the two of you would get along swimmingly.
I’ve been married for 10 years and although I have learned that many partners expect this kind of consultation, I think we should all strive as individuals to let our partners make their own choices with regard to their sartorial decisions. A person’s body belongs to that person, not to his or her partner’s. We would really be a lot better off letting go of the expectation that our partners have to mold themselves to our tastes rather than their own. The more I think of it, the more offensive and oppressive it is.
Yeah.
I bet if the dude quite his good paying job to do some random minimum wage hippie shit that would be a whole nother story.
Wow. That is a completely comparable scenario to getting a haircut. Totally sensible.
Makes you wonder what?
Do you think she cut it for her other boyfriend?
Oh you flatterer, you. Ha. No, actually, it was sneak bragging about how awesome my husband is and how incredibly lucky I am to be married to him. I can’t in a million years imagine consulting him about something I wanted to do with my hair. Seriously, I came home with purple hair last month. I didn’t call him up and say, “Honey, how would you feel if I dyed my hair purple?” I just did it because I wanted to. I bet if he hated it, he wouldn’t even tell me. He’s da bomb. 
You flatterer, too. :o
That’s just … there are no words.
It sounds like that’s what she did this time. Her hair is shoulder-length (which most people would consider long) after donating 11", so it must have been somewhere around mid-back length before the cut.
Incidentally, I’ve donated hair to Locks of Love and similar charities in the past and the minimum donation length for LoL is 10". I mention this because it may be that the girlfriend did not learn until she was actually at the salon that she’d have to get at least 10" cut, but decided to go ahead even though this meant getting a shorter haircut that she’d originally intended.
No, I get why people have opinions on how their partners look. I myself prefer my DH without a moustache, as I don’t particular like it looks-wise, plus it is sometimes irritating while kissing. My DH knows how I feel. When his upper lip is shaved, I often mention it, kiss him more, mention how much I like kissing him without a mo, etc. So I get having an opinion and expressing an opinion - that’s not what was baffling me.
What I don’t get is the whole idea of ‘running a haircut by the partner’ prior to getting the hairstyle change. It would not enter my mind to ‘check in’ with my partner before getting a haircut. It’s just a haircut. I’m honestly not trying to be all ‘surprised that people care about physical appearances’ - that’s not it at all. It’s the ‘run it by the partner’ part that is baffling me. Does that include clothes, makeup, shoes, etc? Or just stuff that can’t be reversed immediately, like hair length, hair style, hair colour, piercings, tattoos?
Maybe I’m misunderstanding what ‘run it by’ the partner actually entails? 
I used to have this discussion with my ex-girlfriend as well, but she refused to shave it off…
DH? Designated hitter?
Message board slang for “dear husband.” We don’t talk like that here, but it’s incredibly pervasive elsewhere on the internet.
She can always just get extensions.
It seems rather precious.