Men's Long Hair - Not rebellious, but conforming, compliant, obedient

Male long hair has been seen as:
rebellious
disobedient
countercultural
nonconformist
defying cultural norms
breaking rules

I want it to be seen as:
cooperative
compliant
conforming (to good rules)
obedient
long-term commitment
cultural identity
traditional
family-oriented
impulse resistance, self-restraint
responsibility
resisting short-term fads and trends and fashions
social approval

Long hair follows a standard of rules. It doesn't happen by accident. It doesn't happen when people are merely 'permitted' to wear long hair, as they are in this society. People are permitted to do it, but nobody does it, because it is actually a HIGHER achievement, not a lower achievement. It takes MORE effort to let the hair grow long, and resist changing it on impulse. People are defaulting to the easiest hairstyle, and so, everybody has short hair, except for a small minority of people who are hard to find.

There are better rules and there are worse rules. Merely complying with rules isn't necessarily a bad thing. But it is if you are following bad rules (such as 'Go to Iraq and bomb the cities and kill people.') If there are healthy rules to follow, then obedience is a good thing, not a bad thing. I don't mean unquestioning obedience regardless of the consequences. I mean: a trusting, questioning obedience to healthy, good rules that have positive consequences, positive results that you can see for yourself and verify.

I want the 'normal,' 'conformist' men of the society to wear their hair and beards long according to a set of standards. It won't be just a whim. It won't be something that you try for a while and then give up, to try something else. It will be a serious statement of your commitment to this cultural identity, this set of rules and beliefs. It will be a statement of a long-term plan, a long-term perspective on yourself, your family and friends, your society.

Portraying male long hair as being 'disobedient and rebellious' hasn't given us very many long-haired men at all. It gives us men who grow their hair a few inches long, for a few months when they are in a rebellious mood, and then they cut it off when they aren't in that mood anymore, or feel like being in a different mood. It's seen as an adolescent experiment that you are expected to outgrow someday. That's not what I want to see.

I want the SHORT male hair to be the shocking statement of rebellion. I want short male hair to be the disapproved-of, frowned-upon appearance. So, this is a community of people who are going to see long male hair as 'normal,' and short male hair as 'abnormal' or unexpected, an act of rebellion. It is the opposite of what we see now.

To be more precise: Totally shaved head hair is still seen as rebellious. However, it is considered 'normal' to grow up to about an inch and a half of hair. Neither too short, nor too long. But I want a community where all cutting of hair is seen as unusual.

Very long beards don't exist in any religion I've seen either. They have partial beards, or beards that reach a certain length and then get trimmed, cut, or shaped a specific way, but not full length beards. Theirs are always 'neither too long nor too short,' and 'must be a particular style.' And usually, in religions that have bearded men, they are required to cut their head hair. And also, it is usually restricted to small specific groups of men, not large groups, not everybody.

Knowing how to twist or braid the hair so that it will be pinned up out of the way is important. Long beards will get in the way and will be dangerous around machines, just like long head hair. Putting hair into a bun or braid, even the beard hair, will be expected in certain situations.

This could be life-threatening around machines, sometimes machines in everyday situations that we take for granted. My long hair once caught on the edge of a conveyor belt at a store checkout lane when I was at Target (I don't normally shop at Target, but I was in that shopping center to get something else. Everything I've ever bought from Target has been more expensive and yet worse quality). It was only for a second and I lifted it out before it became tangled. Hair has to be kept out of the way, and you have to be constantly aware of it, when you are near machines or in situations where it could be tangled, and you don't always know in advance what types of things it could tangle on. I've heard of people who caught their long scarves, or long pieces of clothing, in elevator doors and car doors. Hair could do the same.

I don't mind hair being worn up in a bun or braid, because I know that it will still be there later on. You don't have to see it all the time. (This was an issue because of the voices. They have frequently urged me to wear my long hair down instead of putting it up in a bun. I didn't mind it much in the past, but now that my hair would be described as 'greasy strings' or 'pseudo-dreadlocks-in-progress,' I don't always feel like wearing it down.)

So, they woke me up asking me questions about the meaning of male long hair. The most important focus is: male long hair will be seen as compliant, obedient, conformist, and accepting society, instead of noncompliant, disobedient, nonconformist, and rebellious.

(I also added the 'seduction' tag to this blog, because guys are changing their hairstyles to try to attract a particular girl, but only for a short time.  I don't want hairstyles to be something that change just to get some particular person's attention.  I want it to be a long-term commitment, and you aren't expecting to attract some particular girl with it, but instead, it means you're a member of this community, regardless of whether anyone finds it attractive or not.)