# So Katy Perry cut off her hair... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2017, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757 "2017-06-12T05:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/61 "2017-06-14T07:02:53Z")
I suppose she’s still generically gorgeous. Or even a young lady whose details I’m open about, but is welcome to say nice things about me. Generalities stopped being fun long ago. Specifics died decades later. Is she warm? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/62 "2017-06-14T07:24:04Z")
> [@naita](#): > > …I would be shocked if there was any quality published works on attraction to long hair that didn’t acknowledge that this is a preference with some specific level of prevalence and not a trait hard wired into every male. The OP didn’t say anything about “every male”, that’s a strawman. And you said “You’ve been conditioned to find short hair unattractive” and you couldn’t make such a statement unless you held the view that the OP’s preference is definitely nurture, rather than nature. So you appear to have a strong position that no male likes long hair through nature rather than nurture. I consequently wondered if you had any evidence. It seems you don’t. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/63 "2017-06-14T11:55:47Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > The OP didn’t say anything about “every male”, that’s a strawman. In the specific exchange you replied to the OP posted the statement “but we have eons of generations that have evolved to find youthful qualities more attractive in women. I don’t think this can be trained out of us males in any way, so while I empathize with the burden of caring for long hair” He’s free to clarify that he didn’t mean it to apply quite so generally as his words implies. Until then I feel comfortable reading him as “liking long hair is a trait in all males and cannot be changed by culture”. > [@](#): > > And you said “You’ve been conditioned to find short hair unattractive” and you couldn’t make such a statement unless you held the view that the OP’s preference is definitely nurture, rather than nature. > > So you appear to have a strong position that no male likes long hair through nature rather than nurture. I consequently wondered if you had any evidence. It seems you don’t. Ah. You should have quoted that post then and I could have told you that that was an overgeneralization in response to an OP I didn’t consider merited a thoughtful response. I do see how it could have created a context in which you misinterpreted my next statement. However my actual position is that nothing about humans on that level of complexity is all nature or all nurture. Based on the available evidence mentioned before though I don’t think a clear “on/off” switch like that described in the OP exists without cultural conditioning. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/64 "2017-06-14T14:26:19Z")
If you take the biological / reproductive eligibility factor out of it - say, ask homosexual men- I wonder how that would change the responses. Or even a straight guy who’s assessing a woman’s looks using a more objective(for lack of a better word)lens, such as a hair stylist. When taking into consideration the shape of her face, features to be accentuated,such as eyes and cheekbones, and of course the quality and quantity of the hair itself, I think the majority would say shorter hair is more complimentary to most women’s face. I’ve never talked with a stylist who didn’t say hair that hangs past the shoulders adds nothing to a woman’s looks (as far as enhancing her face). Obviously none of that changes the way our monkey brains are wired and there’s nothing wrong with having a _preference_, but when it’s phrased the way the OP or **Evan Drake** did, it sounds cliche and caveman like. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/65 "2017-06-14T14:37:53Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > It’s rather unfair on her. No woman can look as good with short hair as with long, and women cutting their hair short is a deliberate acknowledgement of their inevitable aging and losing of sexual attraction. > However hideously unattractive short hair is, going gently towards old age with dignity and submission shows great maturity. And that choice must be respected. This statement is, of course, absurd on many levels. Katy Perry is only 32 and a long way off from “old age”. Given that Kristen Stewart and Scarlet Johansson have adopted similar haircuts, I think it’s more a fashion trend than any statement of “dignity and maturity”. Although it doesn’t help that she’s complementing the haircut with baggy pant suits. In all fairness, however, a short “pixie” cut or whatever that Miley Cyrus/Justin Bieber cut is called is a pretty severe look and most women can’t pull it off IMHO. It requires a very specific facial structure and body proportions to not look weird. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/66 "2017-06-14T15:36:59Z")
My understanding is that she was under a lot of stress and did it as a way of breaking away a little from the “Katy Perry” image and be more just herself. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2017, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/67 "2017-06-14T15:57:29Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Either way, long or short, I’d let her buy me a beer. That’s the thing, though - she doesn’t look like someone who drinks beer any more. Back when she was rocking the whole “slightly kooky girl next door” look, she looked like someone who would crack open a brewsky, but now? Organic shakes only. With kale. From a place I can’t afford. Which wouldn’t serve a schlub like me anyway. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/68 "2017-06-15T04:38:55Z")
Add me to the list of who found her attractive with longer hair but not now. For me, Miley Cyrus was never attractive because she was never really a women - she went from little girl Hannah Montana to grinding on Robin Thicke with her flat butt and short hair, sticking out her tongue everywhere. Scarlet Johansson? Yikes. She chopped off her hair and started dressing in a middle-aged unattractive fashion. Even though she’s young to me, I think she looks much older and like… post-sexual… or something. There’s nothing “wrong” with women dressing and having their hair however the hell they want. But I don’t see anything wrong with having subjective opinions. Katy and Scarlet went from oozing sexual attractiveness to looking like Hillary Clinton’s younger sisters. I’m probably the only person here silly enough to read blind gossip sites, but there was an entry obviously about Katy Perry that claimed she got wasted and just started chopping her hair off with scissors. Then she asked a stylist to fix it and then just cut it all off when she couldn’t. She recently publicly put down Britney Spears, making some comments about her head shaving incident, on the red carpet, too. ---
**Author:** ![nate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nate/32/13085_2.png) [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/69 "2017-06-15T05:11:22Z")
> [@naita](#): > > In the specific exchange you replied to the OP posted the statement “but we have eons of generations that have evolved to find youthful qualities more attractive in women. I don’t think this can be trained out of us males in any way, so while I empathize with the burden of caring for long hair” > > He’s free to clarify that he didn’t mean it to apply quite so generally as his words implies. Until then I feel comfortable reading him as “liking long hair is a trait in all males and cannot be changed by culture”. > > Ah. You should have quoted that post then and I could have told you that that was an overgeneralization in response to an OP I didn’t consider merited a thoughtful response. I do see how it could have created a context in which you misinterpreted my next statement. However my actual position is that nothing about humans on that level of complexity is all nature or all nurture. Based on the available evidence mentioned before though I don’t think a clear “on/off” switch like that described in the OP exists without cultural conditioning. Just to clarify, as the OP, of course my assertion that males prefer long hair is a generalization. Just like any personal preference there is a statistical distribution over a population on what hair length is considered attractive. That can be proven and is not “evo-psych”. The assumption I make is that males generally prefer longer hair over short hair and I’d love to see contrary evidence of this, I would be shocked. My “evo-psych” was I make the leap that this has to due with the appearance of youth/health. Maybe that’s not the reason, from the hundreds of thousands of women I’ve seen across a lot of cultures, the younger looking ones tend to have longer hair and the older, menopausal do not and I think that is because long old woman hair actually makes the woman look older. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/70 "2017-06-15T12:30:03Z")
re: OP FTR, I always figured it was a wig. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/71 "2017-06-15T12:38:19Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > re: OP > > FTR, I always figured it was a wig. I always assumed she was wearing a wig most of the time. Also, if the damage to her hair is a contributing factor to cutting it short, bleaching it platinum seems counterproductive. I’d rather believe the change is due to nothing more than she just felt like it, and I thinks it suits her beautifully. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/72 "2017-06-15T15:27:26Z")
My parents were World War Two generation. I spent my teenage years constantly getting nagged to get a haircut. As a result, I think all human beings look better with long hair. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/73 "2017-06-15T22:00:12Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > My understanding is that she was under a lot of stress and did it as a way of breaking away a little from the “Katy Perry” image and be more just herself. I have seldom heard a statement more obviously dreamed up by a publicist. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757/74 "2017-06-16T05:45:42Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I always assumed she was wearing a wig most of the time. Also, if the damage to her hair is a contributing factor to cutting it short, bleaching it platinum seems counterproductive. I’d rather believe the change is due to nothing more than she just felt like it, and I thinks it suits her beautifully. The pictures I’ve seen, it’s brown on the sides and blonde on top. The top is longer- blonde from the previous bleaching and brown roots. The sides are shorter, only showing the natural brown. It could, however, be that she just felt like it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-katy-perry-cut-off-her-hair/788757.md?page=3)