this imploding heart

COME ON NOW. I know you had one. This is for the benefit of all your long haired bretheren, of which my first boyfriend is one. co-ome onnnnn...

yes I noticed the trend. Fuck trends... is there soemthing wrong with liking being outside of 'the norm' in terms of the way we look?

I kept my hair long because... over the way it LOOKED, I really enjoyed the way it FELT to have long hair... it was a comfort that I can't quite describe.

I got rid of it for 2 reasons: 1- I cut it off and go short for a few years every 7 or 8 years. 2- my best friend died, and before she kicked this mortal coil, she told me that she always wanted to know what I looked like with short hair.

Yes I miss my hair. I FULLY realize that many of my friends seem to be very glad that I cut it off... 1 year later, people are still telling me 'how much better I look without that long hair' and I agree, I think I look pretty damn handsome with short hair.

But I FEEL much more myself with the locks a flowing.

Thanks for stepping up, babushka. You're a delightfully puffy sweet treat of a rockstar. Next?

I know I'm wrong... but todays question seems tailored just for me, and that's an eeeeeeeeerie sensation, even, as I said, it's not just for me...

but now I have to go downstairs and deal with a demon cat before she kills again

Well, there's also John Galt. I wouldn't presume to answer this question for him, but he's always held that he had damn pretty hair.

I had long hair until 97, when I was 20. If you still want to know, I'll hollah.

Holla!

I cut mine off when I was thirty-ish because I had passed from "long-haired rocker" to "aging hippy still desperately holding on" territory. Why long hair? Well, first of all, when I was growing up my parents harangued me into keeping it short and once I was in control I decided to let nature take its course. Plus, at the time it seemed like chicks dug it (in combination with the whole "guy in a band" phenomenon.)
I held out for so long because of the general fuck-all-of-y'all-ness of it, as in "Fuck all of y'all, I'll grow it any damn way I please."
Plus, as Sven pointed out, it does kind of feel nice to have long hair flowing down your back, or the feeling of the wind blowing through it.

As far as the trendiness of it goes, if you wait for long hair to come in style it's out of style by the time your hair reaches any respectable length. Plus, fuck being in style (see above).

I started growing my hair long when I was about 15. At the time I listened to a lot of "rocker" music (embarassingly enough) and I figured if it was cool for Metallica, Megadeth and G&R, it was cooler for me! After I started to realize those bands were ass, I kept the long hair anyway because I always wore a hat and it was out of my face. After a few bouts of having it in my mouth when playing make-out games, I started debating why it's sexy to have her hair in my mouth, but not mine.

I finally decided to rid myself of the extra 5 minutes in the shower and the hair in face when snowboarding (caused from eating snow really hard and my inability to make a good ponytail). Actually I lie. I finally decided to have it cut when a really hot hair dresser at school told me I could come in and she'd give me a discount on the first cut. The cincher was when she said, "You'd look a lot cuter with one of my hair cuts." And she was right.

gee, I haven't had long hair in a looooong time. every couple of years or so I try to grow it out again (made it to almost-long-enough-to-pull-back last year) but I end up shaving it off to nearly bare before it gets too long.... i remember really liking my hair when it was long, and sometimes think other guys with long hair look good, but anything long enough to pull into a ponytail just looks stupid on a guy once he's past his mid-20s, especially if the only way he ever wears it is IN a ponytail. I wish I knew why, but I just can't put my finger on it. i don't think it has anything to with being trendy or not, I just think that somehow... shit, I don't know. you just outgrow it, literally-- your face looks funny with long hair once you've started to gather a few wrinkles or (god forbid) some gray.

but then I think you're free to grow it out again once you're over 60, somehow that just feels right.

This survey discriminates against guys over 20 who started going bald when they were 18!

Oh, how I WISH could could have those long, blonde, corn-silky flowing locks again!

Sven is right! Long hair just FEELS good!

*Sniff! Snurk!*

Now, I am depressed...

The survey *does* discriminate. I don't hold anybody accountable for what happens in the teen years. The thing about it is this: There are a few guys I come in contact with on a weekly basis who are over twenty, holding on to the long hair, and complaining about having trouble in the dating lovely ladies department.

Speaking on behalf of myself: When I see a guy over twenty who still has long hair, the first thing that comes into my mind is "That guy has issues he can't bear to be seperated from and is unwilling to let go of the time that his mother spent caring for him". It also implies that Everything is a Casual Affair (See: You will never choose to look "respectable" when we go on a date. Damn the man or not, you're also kind of damning the girl at that point.)

The other weird thing is that long haired over twenties get really offended when you suggest that they might look nicer with a neater haircut.

Maybe it's the phrasing of the question. Instead of, "You'd look a lot nicer with short hair." Try, "Want to a know a way to up your ability to get with lovely ladies?"

"yeah, I want to know a way to up my ability to get with lovely ladies. how?"
"cut your fookin' hair, you moron!" how's that for phrasing? i much prefer the subtle (somewhat) "I wonder how you'd look if your hair was shorter, it might be kind of cute." but then again, I live with someone who likes to rub my nearly-shaved head, so there you go.

I think it was someone's, "You know I really liked your hair when it was [blah blah blah]" that made me think of cutting mine.

I had long hair until 1998. I was 26. I cut it.
The reason I had long hair was a little strange. I actually didn't like the way I looked with long hair. But when my hair is short I tend to compuslively brush it away from my forehead, which is something you're not allowed to do when you work in a restaurant-- you're not allowed to touch your hair and then touch food. So I grew it long so I could tie it back.
The whole time it was long I kept it in a braid all day. I'd get up in the morning and take a shower, braid it in the shower, leave it like that all day, and take the braid out when I went to sleep.
It looked really bad.
But I was broke, and I worked every friday and saturday night. So I wasn't getting a lot of play in any event.
And John Galt did, indeed, have lovely hair. Thick and dark and wild in the best sense of the word.

ps- the reason I cut it was that I stopped working at a restaurant that year. No restaurant, no stupid-looking braid.

I must step forward, Sonya. I had the long hair for a while. From February 2002 (the time I was completely independent) to February 2003 (the time when I realized I was spending too much on shampoo), I spent that time growing my hair out. Not so much as a trend, but more out of laziness for going to Supercuts. I was fully aware that it didn't look good on me, but few things do, so I didn't bother with it. Also, it wasn't yet at ponytail-compatible length. It was bottom-of-the-neck length. Wow, I feel like I just released some demons confessing that.

i guess i am one of those cheesy 20s with the long hair but since i play in a band and am a cheesy metal guy i guess i have just kept it that way. I do admit i cant stand the ponytail computer programmer look when i am at work but work is work and i dont look like that when i am not at work. Im not a computer programmer btw.

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