Human hair is always talk of the town. Either for a man or for woman his/her hair is considered to be the signifying factor of their beauty. But to the question on who decided on long hair to be women’s form and short hair style men’s we find no answer. But the fact of the matter is evolution of the time tagged good and bad judging on the length and breadth of their hair.
The first hair of the child is donated in the name of charity or God. Among Muslim families, the hair first removed from an infant is weighed and charity is given in the form of money, gold or silver. Where as Hindu families go to Tirupati or other pilgrimage centres and shave the first hair of the child seeking the blessings. And so the significance of the hair is connected to spirituality as well.
Based on the changing of trends both men and women followed a set pattern of hair style and length. In the current times, we see a generation where men grow hair to their shoulder level and women cut it short till their ear lobes. But when matter of formal hair style comes in, the trimmed short hair is recommended for men. Men in ancient Rome had a longer hair says the written records. And the trend setter towards short hair was Julius Caesar. Looking at the history of medieval Europe, the length of the hair spoke individual’s economic class and status. An individual from lower class maintained a short hair due to his unaffordability of maintaining it. Unlike today it was not of shampooing or conditioning the hair but taking a head bath and oiling was difficult.
In the culture of Indigenous America cutting of hair considered cowardness or represents mourning. Even in Indian Hindu culture as a part of funeral ceremony of the father, son shaves his head bald. We also see the history of Hitler’s detention camp described in Chicago Kent Law review which describes, hair was not only shorn from the heads of corpses immediately after their removal from the gas chambers, but also from prisoners selected for labour when they entered the camp. The loss of hair deprived prisoners, particularly women, of their individual identity and worth and degraded them to the point that they were not capable of normal human reactions like resistance against tyranny or physical abuse”, it expressed.
Indeed Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but if there is something which can add on to the human beauty is their hair. In spite of any tradition or pre-fixed gender denoted hair length, there are also views stating that, the person with long hair is spiritually and mentally strong and uncontrollable.