Long hair
Long hair is a hairstyle where the head hair is allowed to grow to a considerable length. Exactly what constitutes "long hair" can change from culture to culture, or even within cultures. For example, a woman with shoulder-length hair in some cultures may be said to have short hair to medium hair, while a man would be said to have long hair.
Long lustrous female hair is generally rated attractive by both men and women across cultures. The prevalence of trichophilia is 7% in the population, and very long hair is a common subject of devotion in this group.
Biological significance
Humans, horses, orangutans, and lions are among the few species of mammals that may grow their head hair or manes very long. Humans are believed to have lost their fur 2.5–3 million years ago as hominids when transitioning from a forest habitat to the open savanna, as an effect of natural selection, since this development made it possible to run fast and hunt animals close to the equator without getting overheated. Head hair was an exception, which was a survival trait because it provides thermal insulation of the scalp from the sun, protects against ultraviolet radiation exposure, and provides cooling. The ability to grow straight hair has been observed among Homo sapiens sub-groups in less sunny regions further away from the equator. Relative to kinked Afro-textured hair, straight hair allows more UV light to pass to the scalp.The ability to grow very long hair may be a result of sexual selection since long and healthy hair is a sign of fertility. An evolutionary biology explanation for this attraction is that hair length and quality may act as a cue to youth and health, signifying a woman's reproductive potential. As hair grows slowly, long hair may reveal 2–3 years of a person's health status, nutrition, age, and reproductive fitness. Malnutrition, and deficiencies in minerals and vitamins due to starvation, cause loss of hair or changes in hair color.
Psychological significance
speculate that the functional significance of long head hair may be adornment, a by-product of secondary natural selection once other androgenic/somatic hair had largely been lost. Another possibility is that long head hair is a result of Fisherian runaway sexual selection, where long lustrous hair is a visible marker for a healthy individual. For some groups or individuals, however, short hair is the selected trait.By seven to nine months, infants can tell the sexes apart based on hair length, vocal pitch, and faces.
Cultural meaning
Ways of life often viewed as more rigid, such as soldiering and religious discipline, frequently have explicit rules regarding hair length. For example, Buddhist monks shave their heads as part of their order of worship. Similarly, religious men with long hair is exemplified in modern Paganism, among Nazarites in the Hebrew Bible and among the Sikhs. Other cultures may view male long hair negatively; historically, some conquering groups have used the long hair of conquered people as a symbol of their imagined "otherness" or inferiority, as was the case with the Gaelic Irish under English rule and the Moors under Spanish rule in Medieval Spain.East Asian cultures have traditionally associated unkempt hair in a woman with an irresponsible attitude, as women in East Asia were expected to tie up their hair in styles such as the ponytail, plait, or any bun, as a symbol of responsibility.
Transferred meaning
The traditional connotation of "long hair" in English meant, roughly, someone artistically knowledgeable or wise, an aesthete. As a descriptive term, it has been applied to Merovingians and classical music enthusiasts, as well as hippies and aesthetes.Hair lengths
Hair length is most often measured from the line of the scalp on the forehead up over the highest point of the skull to its termination, and sometimes from the crown, the latter resulting in 10 centimeter lower values in average. In cosmetology, hair lengths are usually categorized according to the part of the body where the bulk of the longest hair terminates: chin level, shoulder length, lower shoulderblade/''mid-back level, waist length, hip-length, classic length, thigh-length, knee-length and ankle/floor length'' hair.Hair usually takes about two years to reach shoulder length, and about seven years to reach waist-length/hip-length, including occasional trims.
Maximum hair length
The maximum hair length that is possible to reach is about for infants, about for children, and generally for adults. Some individuals can reach excessive lengths. Lengths greater than are frequently observed in long hair contests. Xie Qiuping had the longest documented hair in the world, measuring in May 2004.The maximum terminal hair length depends on the length of the anagen for the individual. Waist-length hair or longer is only possible to reach for people with long anagen. The anagen lasts between 2 and 7 years, for some individuals even longer, and is followed by shorter catagen and telogen periods. At any given time, about 85% of hair strands are in anagen. The fibroblast growth factor 5 gene affects the hair cycle in mammals including humans; blocking FGF5 in the human scalp extends the hair cycle, resulting in less hair fall and increased hair growth.
Cultural history
Europe
Ancient Greece and Rome
In ancient Greece, long male hair was a symbol of wealth and power, while a shaven head was appropriate for a slave. The ancient Greeks had several gods and heroes who wore their hair long, including Zeus, Achilles, Apollo, and Poseidon. Greek soldiers are said to have worn their hair long in battle. Such warriors considered it a sign of aristocracy and are said to have combed it openly to show off. Also, in order to keep enemies from getting hold of it in battle, they were known to cut the front short, but leave it long in the back, where it was more out of reach. A widely held alternative interpretation of the conventional belief is that they kept it long, and simply tied it back in a style known as a ponytail in order to keep it out of their enemies' reach. The ponytail method allowed warriors, who often traveled to battle with a minimal amount of equipment so that they could avoid excessively heavy loads over long marches, to keep their hair manageable with a small piece of string to hold it in place and a knife to cut the back to length with one slice. Around the 6th century, however, the Greek men shifted to shorter hairstyles, with the exception of the Spartans. Women in the culture kept the longer style, which for them showed freedom, health, and wealth, as well as good behavior. With men, long hair by this time was considered a sign of false pride.Pliny the Elder in his Natural History and Varro related that the Romans did not begin to cut their hair short until barbers were introduced to Italy from Sicily by P. Ticinius Mena in 299 BC. Women in Roman times valued long hair, usually with a center part. Apart from in the earliest times, men's hair was usually shorter than women's, although other cultures of the time, such as Greeks in the east, considered long hair to be typical of philosophers, who were thought to be too engrossed in learning to bother with hair. Strictly in the province of Rome, however, the shorter hairstyle was especially popular. When Julius Caesar conquered the Gauls, who favored long hair, he ordered theirs to be cut short.
Middle Ages
In the European Middle Ages, shorter hair often signified servitude and the peasantry, while long hair was often attributed to freemen, as was the case with the Germanic Goths and Merovingians.The Gaelic Irish took great pride in their long hair—for example, a person could be heavily fined for cutting a man's hair short against his will. When the Anglo-Normans and the English colonized Ireland, hair length came to signify one's allegiance. Irishmen who cut their hair short were deemed to be forsaking their Irish heritage. Likewise, English colonists who wore their hair long in the back were deemed to be forsaking their role as English subjects and giving in to the Irish life. Thus, hair length was one of the most common ways of judging a true Englishman in this period. Muslims in Christian areas were ordered to keep their hair short and parted, as their longer style was considered rebellious and barbaric.
File:Franz Xaver Winterhalter - Kaiserin Elisabeth von Österreich mit aufgelöstem Haar, Kniestück.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Empress Elisabeth of Austria wearing thigh-length hair in 1865.
The long hair tradition was widespread among English and French men in the 11th and 12th centuries, although it was considered acceptable for men to have shorter hair, mainly because of the endorsement of the Roman Catholic Church. The tradition was largely brought about by monarchs who rejected the shorter hairstyle, causing the people to follow. Wulfstan, a religious leader, worried that those with longer hair would fight like women, and be unable to protect England from foreign invasion. Similar ideas can be found among later military leaders as well, such as those of the American Confederacy. Knights and rulers would also sometimes cut or pull out their hair in order to show penitence and mourning, and a squire's hair was generally worn shorter than a knight's. Married women who let their hair flow out in public were frowned upon, as this was normally reserved for the unwed, although they were allowed to let it out in mourning, to show their distressed state. Through these centuries it was expected of Eastern Christians to wear long hair as well as long beards, which was expected especially of clergy and monks.
In England, during the English Civil Wars of 1642 to 1651, male hair length was emblematic of the disputes between Cavaliers and Roundheads. Cavaliers wore longer hair, and were less religious-minded, being thought of by the Roundheads as lecherous. The more devout Roundheads typically had somewhat shorter hair.
Around this time, long hair in England also came to be associated with adventurers who traveled to America and were familiar with the native culture there, short hair was associated with less adventurous types.