I’ve had long hair for most of my adult life. However I made the mistake of cutting my long hair three years ago. I thought that I needed to renew myself, especially with my new job promotion. I now had people that were my responsibility, so I thought that presenting a more formal appearance would help with the authority required for my new job and as a team manager.
BIG MISTAKE!
Not only did I regret my long hair’s haircut some 24 hours after the act itself, but my co-workers simply stated that I just didn’t look like myself and that I looked far better with long hair. I came back home that day and told my wife that I wanted to grow my hair long again, and she literally said, “oh, honey, I thought you’d never be saying that again”. Suffice to say, I never got a haircut ever since that day.
I decided to document my long hair journey. I created a small blog just on my long hair but my crappy host had not kept the daily backups it had promised they’d do. I lost my blog and it was, after all, my fault as I should be keeping copies of my own blog anyhow.
My former long hair blog was nothing spectacular. I had as many followers as I had with this blog in the early 2000s, which means that I had, as we say in England, “fuck-all” followers. This, in the Queen’s language means: almost zero followers. It’s no wonder though, long hair as a topic is quite boring and so is system-admin topics that are exclusively about stuff that I engage with every day. Who’d want to read through all of that, right? Right.
With my long hair blog, I blogged every once in a while, but, when I did, it’d be about something new and break-through (to me) concerning my long hair. So in an effort to rehabilitate my blogging capabilities and make this website a recollection of everything about me, I’m going to post, bit by bit, my former landmarks when growing my hair long for a last time as I remain a long hair male forever!
I’m leaving my long hair behind
13th February 2014
In a big to change my physical appearance for my new job and so as to also surprise my lady for Valentine’s day, I went downtown and got a haircut at a well known barbershop here in Buenos Aires.
This barbershop is as old as the Bible and the owner of it continues to cut hair like he means it. I don’t know his age but the guy looks to be in his 90s, I’m not even kidding you. As I sit on the chair waiting for my turn to get a haircut, I watch this old barber cut the hair of the guy who was in front of me. His cutting skills are out of this world and he’s smooth as silk. He gives the customer a really cool short haircut that reminds me of the haircut of Matthew Morrison in Glee. It only took the barber some 10 minutes to leave this chap as dapper as one could get.
My heart starts pounding faster as soon as the barber says the word “next” in Spanish to signal my turn to get my long hair trimmed to a very short length. I tell him in Spanish that I’m very nervous of getting a haircut and losing my long hair. He says that I look like a tranny with long hair and that real men have short hair only. I’m left baffled at his comment but find it somewhat exhilarating. There’s no doubt that this guy takes his job seriously.
I tell him that I don’t want to have my eyes open as he cuts my long locks. I just don’t want to see my long hair be reduced to nothing. He tells me to man up and quit being a woman. He says that if I’m going to have my eyes shut while he cuts my long hair, he’s going to throw me out of the barbershop. He sounds half serious and half not-serious, but I don’t want to risk it and I leave my eyes open.
He grabs a thick and wide lock of my long curls and chops it like he’s chopping an octopus. The shears he’s using must have been of excellent quality as the blades just went through my thick curly hair like a hot knife through butter. I’m amazed and heart broken, but this barber has already gone through one third of my long hair by the time I realize how much hair he’s already trimmed.
A couple of minutes later, I’m back to being a short hair guy. Man, has it been a very long time since I had short hair. I looked in the mirror and I don’t recognize my reflection. I look so different! And uglier too, or so I think. The barber says I now look like a man, to which I say, “an uglier man”. I’m perplexed by how he seemed to now at my comment. I’m really starting to not like this old geezer.
All of my long hair has been trimmed to about three inches in length. He now asks me what is it that I want exactly as a short haircut. I had told him initially that I’d be thinking about this as he chopped my long curls, but, in all honest, I was too busy seeing my long curly hair hit the barbershop’s floor.
I tell him that I want a similar haircut to the on that the previous lad before me got. He tells me the name in Spanish, which I’ve never heard. Only a couple of days later while researching on the internet did I get to know that this haircut is called an Ivy League haircut. The old barber called this haircut the “Buenos-Aires dapper cut” when translated to English. This old geezer seemed to be fixed on short haircuts and looking dapper.
Ten more minutes pass and I look like a new man with my Buenos-Aires’ haircut. It actually doesn’t look that bad. A new guy opens the door and enters the barbershop, allowing the summer breeze (February is summer in Argentina) to enter the barbershop for me to feel the breeze on my head. Wow, I really didn’t remember how the wind felt with short hair. It feels very different when compared to long hair.
I pay for my haircut and leave the barbershop. I’m seriously feeling like a new man and I’m starting to like how my short hair looks as I take it upon myself to look at my reflection on every shop’s window.
I’m growing my long hair ’cause I hate my short hair
14th February 2014
Today’s Valentina day. I wake up to kiss my wife, but the kiss doesn’t seem as passionate as usual. She is acting weird as she tries to hide what’s troubling her. I go down to the kitchen to have breakfast with my kids and they all say how different I look. My older daughter says that I’ve lost my cool and that she won’t now be able to show off how cool her long hair dad is. Having my kids say these things isn’t particularly awesome to say the least. I kiss them goodbye as they head off to school with my wife. I put on my jacket, get on my car and drive to work.
As soon as I got there, everyone, and I mean it, had to make a comment about my new short hair. My male co-workers said I no longer looked like the cool Henry-dude as I was known. My female co-workers say that I no longer have that rebellious and mysterious persona that I had with long hair. Despite not being the most handsome guy at work, I knew for a fact that my long hair drove many ladies wild at work. I tried to shrug all of this off and requested a meeting with my team so as to prepare the month of March.
We’re now in the meeting and I see many co-workers gossiping while looking at me. It’s beginning to drive me crazy, so I say, “alright, what’s the issue here. What is it that you’re all saying about my new short hair?”. We have good camaraderie at work, so it didn’t take very long for a good number of co-workers to lt me know what they thought of my hair.
These are some of the main comments that I get:
- You look like a regular guy now, not like Henry.
- I was looking forward to having a boss (team manager) who was for once a cool guy with long hair.
- Your long hair made you look manlier and more imposing.
- You look less trustworthy with short hair.
- Your flopping ponytail exuded manliness (both females and males agreed to it).
After some 30 minutes of talking about my short hair, we all reached a consensus: I had to grow my hair long again. I’ve failed at trying to look like a typical corporate boss because I’ve tried to b a copycat; good bosses and leaders aren’t copycats, they’re innovators and know what their people need.
Ok, so I got home from. I’ve booked a table for two at a very nice restaurant in downtown Buenos Aires. They serve great food and the place is very romantic as your table is isolated from the rest of tables via some kind of white curtains. Makes the experience more intimate.
I tell my wife that I’ve booked a table for two at that restaurant and she’s jumping with joy. She’s been dying to go again ever since we went to it last year. She goes up to our bedroom to get ready. The sitter knows on the door, she knows my kids and where everything is, so I simply welcome her and tell her that we’ll be back by 11 or so.
My wife comes down from the bedroom. She kisses me again and thanks me for having booked a table at that restaurant. However, she suddenly changes her expression from sheer joy to sadness. While holding both of my hands, she looks at me with sad eyes and tells me that I was a lot more handsome with my former long hair.
“Don’t worry baby, today I decided that I’m growing my hair long again”, I tell her while smiling at her. She starts jumping again full of joy, hugs me and kisses me repeatedly. After all this commotion, we leave our house to go to the restaurant.
Once we get back to our house, the kids are asleep, so we pay the babysitter and she leaves. My wife promptly grabs me by the hand and rushes me to the bedroom. We made love until 4 AM and let me tell you that she went ballistic. We made love just like the first days when we were dating a good 25 years ago.
Must be the long hair.
My long curly hair is now sticking out big time!
27th August 2014
It’s been 6 months since I’ve been growing my curly hair. Up until now my hair has behaved, but it’s now starting to get on my nerves. My curls stand up no matter what, it’s like they are alive and don’t give a toss about how they look.
From my research, this is called the awkward stage. My hair is 12 centimetres long which is about 5 inches long. This length of hair is typical of the awkward stage in which your hair blows up into an afro and there’s no convincing of your hair otherwise.
According to the sources I’ve consulted, the awkward stage lasts until your hair is 20 centimetres long, which is 8 inches more or less. Some of the products that help with the awkward stage are:
- Hair oil
- Wide tooth comb
- Hair cream
- Conditioner
- Shampoo less frequently
So this week I started with using a conditioner daily and I’m shampooing my hair with less frequency. I also bought a hair cream to keep my hair styled in as much of a non-afro as possible. It’s only four days into my new approach to tackle my awkward stage but so far I’m seeing decent results.
I can only hope that these hair products help m to pull through this evil stage!! LOL
I’ve also attempted to tie my hair but it’s not long enough. At present, I can only tie the hair on the back and I can only achieve a daft looking ponytail. Anyway long curly hair is best styled with no ponytails, so I’m now waiting for the time when my long curls will dangle down and not blow up as I’m currently having to deal with.
I’m looking forward to keep on trucking with this and hopefully get to a stage where the awkward stage is nothing but history.
To be continued…
Useful Long Hair Men Resources
Overtime and as I’ve grown my hair, I’ve visited a lot of online sites that cover long mens hair but I’d say that the most fascinating resources on long hair for men are the ones you’ll find below. I’m talking of stuff from long curly hair like I have to just being a long hair guy. The philosophy, tips and lots more good places to visit. The list so far is made up of these sites although I may add some more whenever I find good websites that cater to our people!!!
Long Hair Guys: Great website for long hair men. They have everything that a guy with long hair needs. If you’re growing your hair long then this website will also work very well for you. This is the best website for men with long hair (IMO). Read their FAQ tutorial in the link, it’s just too useful so keep it bookmarked.
Choisser: Bill Choisser hasn’t got enough credit for what he has done for the long hair community. His website is packed with lots of great content for long hair men. His page on more resources for long hair men has the most dedicated and detailed list ever on the internet. Bill Choisser is no longer with us but you take my word for it lad, his words will remain with those of us with long hair.