okieinexile
Well-Known Member
Getting your dander up
By Bobby Neal Winters
I got my hair cut the other day. It had been about two-and-a-half months or so. The haircut was something that happened every week when I was a little boy and every two weeks if money was tight, but, if you were a man, keeping your hair short was essential. I didn’t make the rules nor did I know anybody who did, but it was just the way it was.
In fact, the men on the Winters side of the family only wore their hair two ways: short and shorter. My brother and I had it cut the standard way, and don’t try to tell me you don’t know what way that is, because it is the One True Way. My dad opted for the crew-cut because in his work hauling cement, he had a lot of opportunity to get it in his hair, and the shorter style was more practical.
On the Byrd side of the family, there was a bit of variation. Not to sound disparaging in any way of my kinsmen on the maternal side, but their genes coded for finer hair, and it was to their advantage to comb it back, but they, like the decent, God-fearing men they were, kept it short.
However, there are always those who want to flout the rules, and one of my cousins did grow long hair back during the early Seventies. He was a member of a rock group modeled on the “Hendrix Experience” and not only grew his hair long but permed it as well. This was a topic of considerable conversation around the old homestead, as you might imagine. Regardless of how much heat he took from the family, he didn’t get his hair cut until he got a girl pregnant and joined the US Navy. These days his politics are somewhat to the right of Rush Limbaugh, but his hair is the correct length and he doesn’t have a perm, so we love him anyway.
If you think about it (or even if you don’t think about it), something like the length of a man’s hair doesn’t seem like much to get your dander up about. Just because you take fifteen minutes and get your hair cut doesn’t make you a better person, so why is it such a big deal? On the other hand, if you can take fifteen minutes every few weeks and have a man’s haircut, then why don’t you?
Someone who knows more history than I do might well disagree with me, but I think that it goes back to the time of the Romans. In all the busts of Julius Caesar, he had short hair. I think that when the Roman Empire came-in and took-over things, those who wanted to be on the fast track had their hair cut like a Roman’s.
The main opposition to the standard haircut is the long pony tail like the old Germanic tribes used to wear. They wore their hair long, put rancid butter in it, and fought naked. The Germans held out against the Romans for a long time, and their haircut is still fighting. However, I prefer to wear clothing, keep my hair short, and save the butter for my corn-on-the-cob.
You only have to look at a one-dollar bill to know the battle between long hair and short hair had ebbed and flowed over the years. George Washington wore a powdered wig, and there is just something wrong with that, if you ask me. He did manage to win us freedom from the British, but he had to have help from the French, if you can imagine that.
Everybody on each side was wearing wigs. What an odd sight that would have been to see with all of those long-haired men with white, powdered wigs running into battle, bayonets fixed to their muskets to kill each other in pitched battle. Talk about shock and awe. Maybe they should have just broken out the rollers and given each other perms instead.
The tide has flowed the other way now, and only a few individuals are brave enough to go against it and wear their hair long, like the German Tribesmen in defiance of the Roman Empire. As long as they keep their clothes on and keep the rancid butter to themselves, live and let live is what I say.
(Bobby Winters is a professor of mathematics, writer, and speaker. You may contact him at bobby@okieinexile.com or visit his webpage at www.okieinexile.com. )
By Bobby Neal Winters
I got my hair cut the other day. It had been about two-and-a-half months or so. The haircut was something that happened every week when I was a little boy and every two weeks if money was tight, but, if you were a man, keeping your hair short was essential. I didn’t make the rules nor did I know anybody who did, but it was just the way it was.
In fact, the men on the Winters side of the family only wore their hair two ways: short and shorter. My brother and I had it cut the standard way, and don’t try to tell me you don’t know what way that is, because it is the One True Way. My dad opted for the crew-cut because in his work hauling cement, he had a lot of opportunity to get it in his hair, and the shorter style was more practical.
On the Byrd side of the family, there was a bit of variation. Not to sound disparaging in any way of my kinsmen on the maternal side, but their genes coded for finer hair, and it was to their advantage to comb it back, but they, like the decent, God-fearing men they were, kept it short.
However, there are always those who want to flout the rules, and one of my cousins did grow long hair back during the early Seventies. He was a member of a rock group modeled on the “Hendrix Experience” and not only grew his hair long but permed it as well. This was a topic of considerable conversation around the old homestead, as you might imagine. Regardless of how much heat he took from the family, he didn’t get his hair cut until he got a girl pregnant and joined the US Navy. These days his politics are somewhat to the right of Rush Limbaugh, but his hair is the correct length and he doesn’t have a perm, so we love him anyway.
If you think about it (or even if you don’t think about it), something like the length of a man’s hair doesn’t seem like much to get your dander up about. Just because you take fifteen minutes and get your hair cut doesn’t make you a better person, so why is it such a big deal? On the other hand, if you can take fifteen minutes every few weeks and have a man’s haircut, then why don’t you?
Someone who knows more history than I do might well disagree with me, but I think that it goes back to the time of the Romans. In all the busts of Julius Caesar, he had short hair. I think that when the Roman Empire came-in and took-over things, those who wanted to be on the fast track had their hair cut like a Roman’s.
The main opposition to the standard haircut is the long pony tail like the old Germanic tribes used to wear. They wore their hair long, put rancid butter in it, and fought naked. The Germans held out against the Romans for a long time, and their haircut is still fighting. However, I prefer to wear clothing, keep my hair short, and save the butter for my corn-on-the-cob.
You only have to look at a one-dollar bill to know the battle between long hair and short hair had ebbed and flowed over the years. George Washington wore a powdered wig, and there is just something wrong with that, if you ask me. He did manage to win us freedom from the British, but he had to have help from the French, if you can imagine that.
Everybody on each side was wearing wigs. What an odd sight that would have been to see with all of those long-haired men with white, powdered wigs running into battle, bayonets fixed to their muskets to kill each other in pitched battle. Talk about shock and awe. Maybe they should have just broken out the rollers and given each other perms instead.
The tide has flowed the other way now, and only a few individuals are brave enough to go against it and wear their hair long, like the German Tribesmen in defiance of the Roman Empire. As long as they keep their clothes on and keep the rancid butter to themselves, live and let live is what I say.
(Bobby Winters is a professor of mathematics, writer, and speaker. You may contact him at bobby@okieinexile.com or visit his webpage at www.okieinexile.com. )
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