It's interesting to ponder the political implications of long hair, anyone who can remember the 60s will recall it made a BIG difference back then.

Long locks on men is not that uncommon historically, no one ever called General Custer a sissy. The Egyptians shaved their heads and wore long wigs, to control lice.The Greeks wore it long, the Romans short. In the 17th and 18th centuries, men prided themselves on long hair, and wore wigs if they didn't have it, or didn't want to bother with maintaining it. As far as I can tell, the close trim took hold during the Napoleonic wars, probably due to the effect on fashion of the Grande Armee's hygienic regulations, and it stayed short until the 60s. I finally cut mine off when it got tangled up in a mainsail sheet block.

Fashion and practicality aside, the association of long hair with Bohemianism, anarchism, and homosexuality seems to have arisen in Victorian times, and lasted almost a century. The reaction by orthodoxy against the inevitable swing of the pendulum was particularly and unexpectedly violent, and was associated with political and cultural issues. Today, no one really seems to care, one way or the other.

Anyone care to comment?