Men Loving Long Hair - Fact or Fiction

Princess Two had quite long hair when she returned home from her mission. She said since she pulled it up every day due to the humidity, there was no point in trying to straighten or curl it while she was in Taiwan.  She has had long and short hair over the years but nothing much shorter than a "bob" a few times. So, for the most part, she has always had quite long hair. 

She decided it was hard to keep it maintained and wanted a change so she went and had lots chopped off. You can see in this photo of her with Prince number one at her homecoming, it is on her shoulder, curled and still is quite long.  In most of the pictures I have of her since she returned home, it is in a braid or ponytail so I had a hard time finding one with it down. 

I posted one of her with the shorter, blunt cut that she got recently. She has been out of town or missed church due to illness and surgery for several weeks now and today at church, she got so many comments on her hair cut by the men of the congregation. Several commented on it more than once. 

This has happened over and over with my girls and myself when we went from long hair to short over the years.  Below is a photo of my hair when I cut it really short about twelve years ago. It was even shorter than this. I HATED my hair that short as I felt very masculine.Most of our friends (male) made comments asking "how I could cut my long hair so short and how they "loved" long hair."

That made me realize just how much men appreciate long hair on women. That was the shortest my hair had ever been and I cut it for my husband at the time as he liked women with really short masculine type cuts. I just never felt pretty and noticed I wasn't treated the same by others when I had short hair. When my hair was long, men would hold doors open and let me pass through first etc. With my hair short, I noticed getting different treatment.

Apparently, most men like women with longer hair. Studies show that men find women with longer hair more attractive. The same women were shown with longer hair and then again later with shorter hair and the women with longer hair were reported to be "more attractive" than those with short even though it was the same women. Also, other studies have shown that length of nails and hair make men think the women are healthier than women with short hair and nails. So, when men choose a mate, they choose the one that makes them think they will get healthier offspring. 
 
In one study published in the research journal of Human Nature, researchers found that women who had originally been rated by a test group as being less attractive were rated far more highly when shown with a longer hairstyle. The experimenters concluded that longer hairstyles increase women's attractiveness in part because longer hair helps to disguise less desirable features. Long hair tends to make the jaw line slimmer and less prominent and draws attention away from undefined cheekbones. Also, as described by many men, long hair also contributes to a more feminine and youthful appearance.

I have posted about the girls donating their hair to charities in the past. Click here for that post.

All of us have VERY healthy hair and it grows so quickly that it doesn't make much difference if we trim or cut it often. Princess two spoke today several times about the comments she received about her hair and we discussed it. She ended up saying something like, "It doesn't really matter because in six months, it will be half way to where it was." After all the "hair" talk today, Princess 4 asked me to trim her hair this week. As you can see in the top picture, it could use a trim near the bottom. She had a Christmas concert this week and when I was leaving the auditorium a male friend commented on her long hair and one of her sisters friends commented that her hair was "like a mermaids hair!" 

We all had a good laugh over that. I think I will keep mine about the same length since older women aren't "Supposed" to have long hair but I don't think I will ever be able to go short again. It just isn't me. When I was 12, I had only cut my hair once in my life. I could sit on it. Perhaps I will be able to find a picture and scan it at some point. I have been so busy that my scanning of the old photos has gotten put on hold. Here is a post about how to scan the photos cheaply. Here is one about me scanning photos with Princess two.

There were a few others posts on scanning but you get the idea. Perhaps soon, this year of stress will end and I will be able to get back to focusing on organizing what I have, rather than things being so crazy. Either way, I am so blessed. In the end, I'll take my life and my kids anyway it shows up.