# When did humans start to cut their hair? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936 "2021-09-19T17:32:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/21 "2021-09-20T03:30:20Z")
That straight hair is recent? Seems irrelevant. Like @Whack-a-Mole, I don’t see an afro being any harder to grab ahold of than straight hair, maybe even easier. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/22 "2021-09-20T06:14:18Z")
The [Venus of Willendorf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf) is a figurine of a woman with braided hair which is thought to be about 25,000 years old. If people were braiding hair for cosmetic, ritual or other reasons as long ago as that, it’s not unreasonable to surmise that they may also have been triming or cutting it. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/23 "2021-09-20T08:53:25Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I dunno…I am only speculating. I doubt cutting hair started as a fashion. I would think there was a reason for it. Hygiene or fighting or something else…I cannot say. As far as I can see, nobody is actually advancing a position that cutting hair started as a fashion, so … who are you debating with here?? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/24 "2021-09-20T09:49:14Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Apart from military reasons I got nothing. I can’t imagine it started as a means to look good. Why not? Looking good is important. Human hair on the head keeps growing and growing and gets in the way/in the eyes/annoying after awhile. I could definitely see proto-humans hacking away at it, and then, being human, fashion could kick in and custom and tradition… I expect that the first haircut predated H. sapiens. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/25 "2021-09-20T10:18:01Z")
Very long hair would seem to be an odd trait. Another question might be to ask when it turned up in humans or proto-humans. Use of cutting tools is probably a pre-condition to hair cutting. Whether early humans were content with braiding or otherwise managing long hair or whether long hair as a trait emerged after cutting tools were available is another question. Humans seem to be the species with the longest hair growth. Animals with manes still have hair of limited length. Humans that refrain from cutting beards or hair for cultural or religious reasons can end up quite an mess, to the point it is hard to imagine it wasn’t some level of a disadvantage. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/26 "2021-09-20T13:11:05Z")
No one. Just talking out loud as I think it out. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/27 "2021-09-20T15:12:03Z")
Humans have been preparing leather for 400,000 years. It’s a small step from dehairing hides to cutting hair. ---
**Author:** ![videogamefunky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/videogamefunky/32/8953_2.png) [@videogamefunky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/videogamefunky)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/28 "2021-09-20T15:23:13Z")
Well, the ancient Egyptians used wigs… So I would imagine well before then? It’s really hard to scientifically say when humans started cutting their hair, as the practice doesn’t exactly leave obvious evidence. That said, I would imagine that the practice came naturally to tool-using homo sapiens after they figured out you could cut substance A with substance B. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/29 "2021-09-20T15:39:33Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Use of cutting tools is probably a pre-condition to hair cutting. Whether early humans were content with braiding or otherwise managing long hair or whether long hair as a trait emerged after cutting tools were available is another question. Cutting tools are at least as old as Homo habilis. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/30 "2021-09-20T17:04:43Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Apart from military reasons I got nothing. Nits. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/31 "2021-09-20T17:09:42Z")
I recall reading that the Roman army mandated short hair for its soldiers, for exactly that reason. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/32 "2021-09-20T17:46:50Z")
Hunter-gatherer tribes often use hairstyles, along with body paint, tattoos, and scarification, as markers of tribal identity. A person with this haircut is One Of Us. A person with that haircut is One Of Them. I think the practice probably predates H. sapiens. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/33 "2021-09-20T18:52:45Z")
Recent anthropological findings suggest hair cutting began with Homo habilis. …they were apparently more fashion forward than originally thought, too. [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/rbL6GXC.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/rbL6GXC) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/34 "2021-09-21T02:50:46Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Humans have been preparing leather for 400,000 years. It’s a small step from dehairing hides to cutting hair. Well, scraping a hide clean from hair and shaving yourself are quite different. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to perform the former on yourself unless you are already dead, really. But I can certainly see someone jumping from that to “Hey, I’ve figured out how to not have to braid this nonsese anymore!” It wouldn’t be pretty, but it could be functional at keeping the hair out of your face. I don’t see there being a really satisfactory answer to this question, other than finding the earliest mummy we can certainly say had its hair cut, or finding an early artwork depicting someone with hair that has obviously been cut. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/35 "2021-09-21T04:56:55Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Well, scraping a hide clean from hair and shaving yourself are quite different. Not really _that_ different. Both involve running a blade against skin, cutting hair without cutting the skin. But I wasn’t talking about shaving, anyway, just cutting. Once you get the “these hard things can cut as well as bludgeon and pierce” technology down, cutting anything should be obvious (I say “should” because obvious is in the eye of the beholder, like the whole colour language thing) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/36 "2021-09-21T06:35:21Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > So people evidently had uses for human hair, and this provides a reason for cutting it. Not necessarily. They may have had other, more pressing reasons to cut it (battle or hunting perhaps) and then found things to do with the cut hair later on. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/37 "2021-09-21T07:58:58Z")
Pretty much everyone did, the \*men are all close shaved \* is fairly standard code for "_they are at war_ ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/38 "2021-09-21T08:11:52Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Not necessarily. They may have had other, more pressing reasons to cut it (battle or hunting perhaps) and then found things to do with the cut hair later on. It’s not necessarily the case that a culture could have one, and only one, reason for cutting hair. My point is that the use of hair to make belts tells us that this culture had at least one practical reason for cutting hair, and it was a response to Whack-a-Mole’s post saying that he couldn’t think of any practical reason for cutting hair, apart from fighting. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/39 "2021-09-21T11:37:49Z")
People like to ornament ourselves. Aren’t there burials going back forever showing that is a trait of humans? Cutting hair is a form of ornamentation. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936/40 "2021-09-21T12:12:58Z")
This. Ornamenting the body goes back at least to Neanderthals, as we know from burials. SWAG here, but I’d guess hominids have been doing it since _homo habilis_ discovered tool use. Vanity and fashion are, I suspect, fundamental qualities of human nature. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-humans-start-to-cut-their-hair/950936.md?page=3)