Four questions
Posted by MattB on February 05, 2001 at 18:10:13: Previous Next
1. My hair tends to knot up pretty bad whenever it's loose for awhile (such as when I'm sleeping). Anything I can do to help prevent this?
2. Anyone else out there in a grappling art like JuJitsu or wrestling? What do you do about your hair when your rolling that keeps it out of your way while at the same time (hopefully) prevents alot of it being torn out by head controls?
3. Gratuitous opinion poll: Should a guy with thin/balding hair keep it long, does it look good or should he be a man about his baldness and shave his head! ;-)
4. Possibly Idiotic question: Any truth to that old say about shaving hair leading to them growing out in greater profusion? I've always had fairly long hair, and it's fine, thin, and almost blond. While my jaw, which I shaved for several years, the hair is incredibly thick, course, and a very dark red.
Thanks in advance,
matt
Re: Four questions
Posted by Old Hippie on February 06, 2001 at 21:18:11: Previous Next
In Reply to: Four questions posted by MattB on February 05, 2001 at 18:10:13:
A few things I have learned on my still-rather-young (9 months) journey as a "longhair-in-development," a journey I expect to continue for life...
: 1. My hair tends to knot up pretty bad whenever it's loose for awhile (such as when I'm sleeping). Anything I can do to help prevent this?
I have already been made aware of this problem (and indeed within the past two weeks first noted some tangling of my "neither particulary coarse nor fine" rather wavy hair during sleep in particular). Finer, longer hair has a worse problem with tangling. Sleeping with your hair in a braid or rope, or in a ponytail with multiple, loose ties, should reduce it.
: 2. Anyone else out there in a grappling art like JuJitsu or wrestling? What do you do about your hair when your rolling that keeps it out of your way while at the same time (hopefully) prevents alot of it being torn out by head controls?
Unfortunately, I have no advice here.
: 3. Gratuitous opinion poll: Should a guy with thin/balding hair keep it long, does it look good or should he be a man about his baldness and shave his head! ;-)
Here is my honest take on this issue, controversial as I'm sure it is. In my area I get to see on occasion at least two elderly longhairs (one may be a septuagenarian) with rather extensive male pattern baldness, who nonetheless grow quite attractive silvery manes over halfway down their backs from the hair still coming from the backs and sides of their heads. They both seem to always have their hair loose, and I suspect this, as opposed to forming it into a ponytail, may actually help disguise any resulting thinness. I feel they both look quite uniquely dignified this way. Their manes are certainly not in any way painful to look at; I think much more advanced balding or thinning than what I have seen would be necessary before the mane would become painfully thin. I cannot bring myself to think that shaving the head on account of baldness is a "manly" way out (or even that shaving or buzzing the head is really "masculine" so much as "artificial" and "totally unoriginal"); it strikes me more as an extreme "easy" way out. I also find it repulsively unnatural. (For those who may actually like the look, OK, I have no problem with your choices, but permit ME not to want such an option for myself.)
: 4. Possibly Idiotic question: Any truth to that old say about shaving hair leading to them growing out in greater profusion? I've always had fairly long hair, and it's fine, thin, and almost blond. While my jaw, which I shaved for several years, the hair is incredibly thick, course, and a very dark red.
Really, no. What you describe is really nothing more or less than the natural difference between head and beard hair, the latter almost always being significantly coarser and curlier than the former and having highly variable pigment relationship to it. One way one may be misled into thinking shaving darkens or thickens hair is that a freshly shaved hair end is quite squarely cut and while looked at head-on, as it emerges from the follicle, will seem darker than a hair with a very fine end that emerges from a newly-started follicle or after such procedures as waxing. It would also seem darker than the hair as seen from the side of the shaft. This is for optical reasons essentially similar to why a piece of glass looks dark when looked at edge-wise.
Re: Four questions
Posted by Bill on February 07, 2001 at 15:46:51: Previous Next
In Reply to: Re: Four questions posted by Old Hippie on February 06, 2001 at 21:18:11:
I concur with what Old Hippie said regarding questions 1 and 4. Like him, as to question 2 I have no experience, though it looks like you got a thorough and informed response from Jarkko on that.
As for question 3:
: 3. Gratuitous opinion poll: Should a guy with thin/balding hair keep it long, does it look good or should he be a man about his baldness and shave his head! ;-)
Keep it if you like the look! And shave if you like that. Grow intermediate length hair if you like that. It's your head, so please yourself! Being a "man" is about standing up for yourself.
My feeling is that hair is good - up to a point "more is better". Most men can grow hair that will fall all over their shoulders despite a dose of male pattern baldness, and if they do that, people will read them as a longhair. Many men can also grow large beards to the point that few will think of them as hair-deprived at all.
One good thing comes out of getting a bit of MPB - no one will "think you look like a girl". You will appear to be a MALE longhair to everyone.
A few people will call you an old hippie and say it looks ridiculous to have long hair and be bald on top. I say, their comments are ridiculous. Men in nature grow long hair and get bald. One could say it is more ridiculous for men to remove all their facial hair and thus look like women, if you think about it...
As for the "old hippie" comment, my stock answer is that I'd rather look like an old hippie than an old yuppie, and that "old" is a variable I cannot factor out of the equation. That confronts the insult head-on - they are on the surface dissing your hair but actually attempting to insult you because you are old. With that response you are calling them on it, letting them know you are happy to be old (which is indeed something to celebrate over the alternative!) AND longhaired.
Incidentally, I have no noticeable MPB and I still get the old hippie comment. So it's not because you're balding, man. They're messing with you with the O word. Some people will do anything they think they can get away with, to hassle a longhair.
Looking like an old hippie can be fun. Tourists here in San Francisco are dying to catch a remnant of the Summer of Love on film. I get asked to be photographed frequently! People LIKE the way I look! I assure you that would not be happening if I were a -yawn- yuppie.
Re: Four questions
Posted by Jarkko on February 07, 2001 at 04:07:51: Previous Next
In Reply to: Four questions posted by MattB on February 05, 2001 at 18:10:13:
Hi, MattB
: 2. Anyone else out there in a grappling art like JuJitsu or wrestling? What do you do about your hair when your rolling that keeps it out of your way while at the same time (hopefully) prevents alot of it being torn out by head controls?
Well, I'm a yellow belted and practise ju-jitsu (formerly karate).
I have hair down to my shoulder blades and I usually wear two plaits
(braids) behind my ears while practising. They usually hang in front of my
shoulders and seldom get in my way. The ponytail does not stay put and
tends to stick in to my back and neck. It also causes too much tension
on individual hairs during wrestling. A braid is more elastic and distributes
tension better. It is also less likely to tangle with fingers during
ukemis. Fortunately I don't do matches where the braids would be easy
to grab by the opponent. We play rather nice on the practise floor as well.
Jarkko