Getting your dander up

[okieinexile]

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. )

[alexa]

Originally Posted by okieinexile

As long as they keep their clothes on and keep the rancid butter to themselves, live and let live is what I say.

Amen.

Bobby,

I hope you keep all these writings for a future bibliographie!

Oh, this fashion which tortures us every day. What do you think about women and their hair ? Do they have the right to cut it and wear short ?

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.

The French called them perruques; the English dubbed them periwigs. I think they were a blessing for the balds and the lazy one. You know some of them, took advantage and didn't wash their hair. I remember my history teacher who used to say that at the French court they needed long forefingers to scratch their head (and catch the louses ).

The wigs were coloured in grey or white in 1720 with flour or starch. They needed a lot of flour to do this, so it was very messy. That's why they created special rooms, called powder rooms.

This fashion was stopped in 1798, when William Pitt, Prime Minister, introduced a tax on powder. Pitt's enraged opponents, led by the Duke of Beaufort, refused to wear powdered wigs thereafter, and the trend died with only the elderly and old fashioned choosing to don powdered wigs. And the poor one abandoned them, as the wigs became to expensive.

I think Brian can tell us if the wigs are still used in Britain in official occasions.
I saw in Canada are still used in court rooms, but in special occasions. It makes me laugh, but who can fight with tradition ?

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Originally posted by Alexa

I think Brian can tell us if the wigs are still used in Britain in official occasions.

I'm not I, Brian, nor do I play him on tv, but I think they are used in the British Courts (as in legal courts.) I don't know about otherwise, but, if I remember my Rumpole and other British legal fiction, the judges and the attorneys wear powdered wigs (tradition.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[alexa]

That's how I remember them too, but as I didn't have the occasion to visit Great Britain yet, I prefer to let Brian answer. Thanks.

[okieinexile]

I kept thinking of Rumpole as well. Is the actor who played him still living?

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

No. Leo McKerrn died either last year or this year. He was no spring chicken, either.

Bit of trivia: Leo McKern was the villian in the Beatles movie, Help (three of the main "characters" from the flick are gone: McKern, George Harrison and John Lennon.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[I, Brian]

I believe wigs are now removed for children as witnesses - and I believe it's the higher courts that wear them. I have to take my own father to the county court soon - I'll tell you if the judge is wearing a wig.

As for the long hair - Alexander the Great was supposed to have long hair. I think he had the right idea.

Long hair as strength - masculine and feminine. Short hair is practical if you're wearing a helmet - and especially a chainmail hood (coif) - but aside from that, I'm not a fan.

[alexa]

I used to have it long for many years. I'm not wearing a helmet or a coif, but I prefer my hair short. You know, kinda woman emancipation.