MetaChat - Shallow and vain question: Do hetero men dislike short hair?

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17 July 2009

Shallow and vain question: Do hetero men dislike short hair? →[More:]I read someplace that 95% of men don't find women with short hairstyles attractive. I find this stat to be ridiculous. Generally, I think men prefer long hair because it is "feminine", but how short is unfeminine?

post by: LoriFLA at: 20:13 | 21 comments

Hmm. I think you can see the old school cultural trope of long strong silky hair = womanly but in the West nobody has been growing their hair that long for a while. Short hair is absolutely not unfeminine. It rather depends on the style of short hair though. Now that I think about it a particular cut or style or shape can definitely switch short hair from feminine to unfeminine, but when you look at it you can get a sense of that innately, as can your hairdresser and friends etc. so it's not worth worrying about. Plus "feminine" is arbitrary, hair is just part of the equation, some people aren't that turned on by femininity, all the rest of that stuff.

posted by Firas 17 July | 20:23

No. It's like any other haircut. Some people it works for, some it dosen't.

posted by jonmc 17 July | 20:25

It really depends on the woman. I've seen many very attractive short haired women, and many unattractive long haired women.

posted by reenum 17 July | 20:25

What jon said. Plus, mmm necks.

posted by danostuporstar 17 July | 20:27

I had a boyfriend who begged me for years to cut my hair short. Real short. When I buzzed it down to a half inch with him, it was the most attracted to me he'd been in a long time.

posted by piratebowling 17 July | 20:33

The soon-to-be Mr. Cupcakes FAR prefers women with short hair. He totally digs the whole tomboy/Amazon look. I think if T'Pol from Enterprise were real he'd trade me in in a heartbeat.

Too bad he's stuck marrying a girlie-girl with hair down to her hips :D Word on the street is, he finds me rather fetching anyway.

posted by evilcupcakes 17 July | 21:11

Depends on the person. It so depends on the person.

I have preferences that center more on hair color rather than length. Mmmm...brunette.

posted by plinth 17 July | 21:15

Again, it depends but yea a short haircut on a woman can be sexy as hell.

posted by octothorpe 17 July | 21:32

Thanks, people.

I think I might be a little self-conscious about my short hair. I was reading about yoga on AskMe and came across a "How Can I Be Hot Again" question and succumbed to insecurity about my hair. Sad but true.

I asked my husband about it and he said my hair wasn't short but was on the "verge". Ha.

posted by LoriFLA 17 July | 21:42

Hair can look bad or good regardless of the length. But I will say long hair takes a lot more effort to look good. A lot of people, male or female, with long hair look bad because their hair is limp and thin or wild and frizzy. Find a look that's good for you and makes you feel good and your confidence will shine through.

posted by arse_hat 17 July | 22:29

But I will say long hair takes a lot more effort to look good. A lot of people, male or female, with long hair look bad because their hair is limp and thin or wild and frizzy

Totally! That's what disappointing about having long hair- it never looks the way you're think it's supposed to look. Short hair is better at delivering the look you want when you want it.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 17 July | 22:57

MuddDude (I'm thinking about calling him "MuddSpouse" from now on, to further confuse me and mudpuppie)... anyway, MuddDude loves me with shorter hair. He actively complains if my hair grows too long.

My mother used to keep her hair really really long "for my father", but after she cut it shoulder-length, he admitted that it was super-sexy, so that's another data point...

I completely reject the trope that women with super-short hair are "boyish". There are all kinds of feminine and the Annie Lennox look is just one of them.

posted by muddgirl 18 July | 00:20

One more vote for short hair -- but then we're all weirdos here, right?

posted by dhartung 18 July | 01:12

Man, this makes me want to shave my head again.

posted by Specklet 18 July | 03:01

I know that I would be smitten down at any moment but I think that Rachel Maddow is totally hot.

Although she likely spends more on her hair in a month than I spend on food and shelter, but still.

posted by danf 18 July | 09:24

I love Rachel Maddow and her hair. She does have great hair.

posted by LoriFLA 18 July | 10:29

I had no idea who Rachel Maddow is and had to look her up. Her hair is cute, as is she.

I'm seriously crushing right now. *swoon*

posted by deborah 18 July | 11:47

To get all evolutionary-biology for a moment: long hair is evidence of both a sustained period of good health and of possessing sufficient resources to groom and maintain it.

But yeah, what everybody else said. Some people perceive short hair as unfeminine. Some of those people, but not all of them, might be a little bit sexist and/or homophobic, and some of them, but not all of them, might have a somewhat limited conception of femininity and female beauty. But then, sometimes a preference is just a preference.

Me personally? As with almost all of this stuff, I like to judge on a case-by-case basis.

posted by box 18 July | 13:42

I cut all my hair off when I was 14 (real tomboy cut) and didn't manage to get it proper "feminine" long again until I was 29. Love life did not suffer in the least.

So yeah, depends on the hairstyle, the wearer and how you feel in it. I had lots of tomboyish styles and super feminine curly longer bits here or there or bang styles going on, there's endless variations. The one thing about short hair is get a really good hairdresser - bad cuts show up fast on short hair.

posted by dabitch 18 July | 17:33

I like it! Or long hair, on the right person. Probably the majority of women I've been attracted to have had short hair.

It's the person, not the hair. And there's no such thing as a degree of shortness that is unfeminine or unattractive: I've seen stubble that looked great.

posted by shane 18 July | 21:00

The haircut that you like and feel comfortable in might not be the one that's the most popular. I like my hair on the short side but everyone else likes it when it has grown out. That includes my boyfriend. But I'm really happier when it's shorter. I feel like it's more "me".

posted by halonine 19 July | 14:49

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