# Why is the de facto standard Boys = Short hair, Girls = long hair? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617 "2007-05-10T22:57:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/21 "2007-05-12T02:37:17Z")
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord] Or maybe since we wear clothing now, they can cut their hair. Men don’t need to cover their privite parts but women do? [/QUOTE] Women have been property throughout history more often than we like to think. Interestingly enough, the women around here that don’t cut their hair (Pentecostals, I believe) dress pretty…thoroughly. Maybe they’re just being careful. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/22 "2007-05-12T14:26:29Z")
If you read the Public Domain text _Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds_, there is a whole chapter on hair length as a “mania” over time. The author speaks at length about how hair length among men seemed to continually go up and down, how beards and mustaches come and go, etc. In many of the cases it’s a matter of an Authority exerting control over people by dictating how they should appear - either a religious or a secular authority. There is evidence that the current “men wear short hair” trend got its roots with the urbanization that slowly started in the mid-1800’s, but the reasons for this seem to vary greatly depending upon the source. I’ve read that it’s due to a specific order by Queen Victoria that court members must have short hair, that it was due to easier wearing of hats, that it was due to being easier to keep clean in the sooty inner city, etc. I did some research into this a while back and kept ending up in a rabbits warren of conflicting citations, and gave up on it. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/23 "2007-05-12T14:55:07Z")
[QUOTE=Una Persson] If you read the Public Domain text _Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds_, there is a whole chapter on hair length as a “mania” over time. The author speaks at length about how hair length among men seemed to continually go up and down, how beards and mustaches come and go, etc. In many of the cases it’s a matter of an Authority exerting control over people by dictating how they should appear - either a religious or a secular authority. There is evidence that the current “men wear short hair” trend got its roots with the urbanization that slowly started in the mid-1800’s, but the reasons for this seem to vary greatly depending upon the source. I’ve read that it’s due to a specific order by Queen Victoria that court members must have short hair, that it was due to easier wearing of hats, that it was due to being easier to keep clean in the sooty inner city, etc. I did some research into this a while back and kept ending up in a rabbits warren of conflicting citations, and gave up on it. [/QUOTE] Hair and beard styles are also an easy emblem to adopt as a symbol of defiance, or a badge to identify your particular group, which helps muddy the water considerably also. By the time you factor that in with capricious norms imposed by authority or popular fashion, attempting to make coherent sense out of this subject is hopeless. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/24 "2007-05-13T01:43:45Z")
[QUOTE=cwthree] Notions of “long hair on men = bad” and “short hair on women = bad” didn’t just appear out of nowhere in the 20th century, though. The apostle Paul made a similar assertion some time earlier: “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” (Corinthians 11:14 - 15) This is still understood by many streams of Christianity to mean that men and boys should cut their hair short, while women and girls should leave their hair long (if not uncut). [/QUOTE] You can go back longer than that; if you look at the wall paintings from Egyptian tombs, you see the women are shown with long hair. The men’s hair is shorter. My guess - long hair is pretty, and women are more interested in being pretty than men. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/25 "2007-05-13T17:36:09Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] The reason that modern U.S. culture defaulted to short hair on men for a large chunk of the 20th century is simply that long hair was considered effeminate. Just a bit of psychosis on the part of our culture. [/QUOTE] But the OP’s point, is why did it come to be considered effeminate, until about 1965? Conservative Christian sects were, and usually still are, also against long male hair, but that too seems to be just a reflection of that prevailing attitude. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/26 "2007-05-13T17:57:38Z")
[QUOTE=DaveRaver] So why is Jesus usually depicted with long hair? [/QUOTE] My guess is that Jesus didn’t actually have long hair. The quotation from Paul above suggests that long hair wasn’t in fashion in Judea at the time, so if Jesus did have long hair this would have probably been noteworthy enough to be known and mentioned by some of the Bible authors. But does the Bible say he had long hair? (Maybe it does – I’m certainly no Bible scholar – but I can’t remember hearing such a verse.) I’m guessing the long-haired Jesus (like Jesus being portrayed with Northern European features) was something that originated with painters in the Middle Ages. ---
**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:** [May 13, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/27 "2007-05-13T18:10:58Z")
Certainly, hairstyles have varied considerably through history. But has there ever been a time when the customary female hairstyle was shorter than the customary male hairstyle of the same time? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/28 "2007-05-13T18:31:51Z")
Something else I thought of, though I may be off base. Time was when access to running water was less prevalent, and that was later than you might think. Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman wrote in his memoir about growing up with several siblings, and all the kids having to be washed in one fill of bath water. Males usually seem to be more susceptible to body odor, especially given the stricter division of labor and activity that used to prevail. So on men, long hair would be another place to gather dirt and odors, and hence more objectionable. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/29 "2007-05-13T19:08:15Z")
According to [this site](http://www.ukhairdressers.com/history%20of%20hair.asp), there have been times and places where men wore their hair longer than women: > [@](#): > > Masai warriors tied the front hair into sections of tiny braids whilst the back hair was allowed to grow to waist length. Non-warriors and women, however shaved their heads. This one doesn’t specify, but I believe they are referring to men: > [@](#): > > In the heat of Egypt, noblemen and women clipped their hair close to the head. But for ceremonial occasions heavy, curly black wigs were donned. Here’s it debatable whether men’s or women’s hair was longer: > [@](#): > > Unmarried Chinese girls hair was usually worn long and braided whilst women combed the hair back from the face and wound into a knot at the nape. The Manchu regime of the time dictated that men shaved the front of the head and wore the back hair long and braided, tied with black silk. Here’s men and women with equally long hair: > [@](#): > > …whilst Plains Indians, both men and women, wore the recognized long braids adorned with feathers. Big, elaborate wigs for both men and women: > [@](#): > > The 18th century saw the emergence of elaborate wigs, mile-high coiffures and highly decorated curls. White powdered wigs with long ringlets were the order of the day often tied back with a black bow for men or decorated with feathers, bows and garlands for women. As I understand it, Jewish women shave their heads and wear wigs made of somebody else’s hair (?!) while the men grow their hair and beards fairly long, with long ringlets. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617/30 "2007-05-13T19:14:51Z")
[Here’s an](http://www.elite.net/~ebedyah/PastorsSite/otherareas/longhair.htm) interesting site looking at what the Bible says about men having long hair. It gives cites both for and against men having long hair. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-de-facto-standard-boys-short-hair-girls-long-hair/403617.md?page=1)