Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Bohemian (or Lise the Bohemian), 1868, oil on canvas, Berlin, Germany: Alte Nationalgalerie

Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits. In this context, Bohemians can be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds.

This use of the word bohemian first appeared in the English language in the 19th century^[1] to describe the non-traditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, journalists, musicians, and actors in major European cities. Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment political or social viewpoints, which were often expressed through free love, frugality and — in some cases — voluntary poverty. A wealthy and privileged, even aristocratic, bohemian circle is sometimes referred to as the haut bohème ("high bohemians").

The term Bohemianism emerged in France in the early 19th century when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower-rent, lower class gypsy neighborhoods. Bohémien was a common term for the Romani people of France, who had reached Western Europe via Bohemia.^[2]

Origins[link]

European bohemianism[link]

Literary "Bohemians" were associated in the French imagination with roving Romani people (called "bohemians" because they were believed to have arrived from Bohemia^[3][4]), outsiders apart from conventional society and untroubled by its disapproval. The term carries a connotation of arcane enlightenment (the opposite of Philistines), and also carries a less frequently intended, pejorative connotation of carelessness about personal hygiene and marital fidelity. The Spanish Gypsy in the French opera "Carmen" set in Seville, is referred to as a "bohémienne" in Meilhac and Halévy's libretto (1875).

The term Bohemian has come to be very commonly accepted in our day as the description of a certain kind of literary gypsy, no matter in what language he speaks, or what city he inhabits .... A Bohemian is simply an artist or "littérateur" who, consciously or unconsciously, secedes from conventionality in life and in art. (Westminster Review, 1862^[2])

Henri Murger's collection of short stories "Scènes de la Vie de Bohème" ("Scenes of Bohemian Life"), published in 1845, was written to glorify and legitimize Bohemia.^[5] Murger's collection formed the basis of Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème (1896). Puccini's work, in turn, became source material for Jonathan Larson's musical Rent. Like Puccini, Larson explores a Bohemian enclave in a dense urban area, in this case, New York City at the end of the 20th century. The show features a song, "La Vie Boheme", which celebrates postmodern Bohemian culture.)

In English, Bohemian in this sense was initially popularized in William Makepeace Thackeray's novel, Vanity Fair, published in 1848. Public perceptions of the alternative lifestyles supposedly led by artists were further molded by George du Maurier's highly romanticized best-selling novel of Bohemian culture Trilby (1894). The novel outlines the fortunes of three expatriate English artists, their Irish model, and two very colorful Eastern European musicians, in the artists' quarter of Paris.

In Spanish literature, the Bohemian impulse can be seen in Ramón del Valle-Inclán's play Luces de Bohemia (Bohemian Lights), published in 1920.

American bohemianism[link]

Bohemian Grove during the summer Hi-Jinks, circa 1911–1916

In 1845, Bohemian nationals began to immigrate to the United States, and from 1848 the wave included some of the radicals and ex-priests who had wanted a constitutional government. In New York City in 1857, a group of some 15–20 young, cultured journalists flourished as self-described "Bohemians" until the American Civil War began in 1860.^[6] Similar groups in other cities were broken up as well; reporters spread out to report on the conflict. During the war, correspondents began to assume the title "Bohemian", and newspapermen in general took up the moniker. Bohemian became synonymous with newspaper writer.^[6] In 1866, war correspondent Junius Henri Browne, who wrote for the New York Tribune and Harper's Magazine, described "Bohemian" journalists such as himself as well as the few carefree women and lighthearted men he encountered during the war years.^[7]

San Francisco journalist Bret Harte first wrote as "The Bohemian" in The Golden Era in 1861, with this persona taking part in many satirical doings, the lot published in his book Bohemian Papers in 1867. Harte wrote, "Bohemia has never been located geographically, but any clear day when the sun is going down, if you mount Telegraph Hill, you shall see its pleasant valleys and cloud-capped hills glittering in the West..."^[8] Mark Twain included himself and Charles Warren Stoddard in the Bohemian category in 1867.^[6] By 1872, when a group of journalists and artists who gathered regularly for cultural pursuits in San Francisco were casting about for a name, the term Bohemian became the main choice, and the Bohemian Club was born.^[9] Club members who were established and successful, pillars of their community, respectable family men, redefined their own form of bohemianism to include people like themselves who were bons vivants, sportsmen, and appreciators of the fine arts.^[8] Club member and poet George Sterling responded to this redefinition:

Any good mixer of convivial habits considers he has a right to be called a Bohemian. But that is not a valid claim. There are two elements, at least, that are essential to Bohemianism. The first is devotion or addiction to one or more of the Seven Arts; the other is poverty. Other factors suggest themselves: for instance, I like to think of my Bohemians as young, as radical in their outlook on art and life; as unconventional, and, though this is debatable, as dwellers in a city large enough to have the somewhat cruel atmosphere of all great cities.^[10]

Despite his views, Sterling associated very closely with the Bohemian Club, and caroused with artist and industrialist alike at the Bohemian Grove.^[10]

Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and George Frederick Cameron wrote the song "The Bohemian" in the 1889 opera Leo, the Royal Cadet^[11]

I've written some Psalms and some songs, I've dabbled in most of the arts:

Quixote-like, righted some wrongs in fact, I have played many parts.
I have seen both the bright and the dark of the world and the things that are its,
like the dove that flew forth from the ark: In a word, I am given to flits.
For the life of a rover is mine, A rover by land and by sea:
With a lady to love and a flagon of wine, oh, the world is the village for me!
To-day, as you see, I am here, Enjoying my pipe and my bowl:
To-morrow, and I may appear inscribing my name on the Pole.
The next day may see me once more, content as a hog upon ice,
Far down on the Florida shore, existing on bacon and rice.
I have hobnobbed with peasant and king, with a hundred to run at my call;
I have seen the sweet flowers of spring lose their odor and grace before Fall.
I have loved with the warmth of the boy and adored with the passion of man,
But the altar's it's drop of alloy, so I came buck to where I began!

Chorus. For the life of a rover is mine etc.

Gelett Burgess drew this fanciful "Map of Bohemia" for The Lark, March 1, 1896.

The impish American writer and Bohemian Club member Gelett Burgess, who coined the word blurb among other things, supplied this description of the amorphous place called Bohemia:

To take the world as one finds it, the bad with the good, making the best of the present moment—to laugh at Fortune alike whether she be generous or unkind—to spend freely when one has money, and to hope gaily when one has none—to fleet the time carelessly, living for love and art—this is the temper and spirit of the modern Bohemian in his outward and visible aspect. It is a light and graceful philosophy, but it is the Gospel of the Moment, this exoteric phase of the Bohemian religion; and if, in some noble natures, it rises to a bold simplicity and naturalness, it may also lend its butterfly precepts to some very pretty vices and lovable faults, for in Bohemia one may find almost every sin save that of Hypocrisy. ...

His faults are more commonly those of self-indulgence, thoughtlessness, vanity and procrastination, and these usually go hand-in-hand with generosity, love and charity; for it is not enough to be one’s self in Bohemia, one must allow others to be themselves, as well. ...

What, then, is it that makes this mystical empire of Bohemia unique, and what is the charm of its mental fairyland? It is this: there are no roads in all Bohemia! One must choose and find one’s own path, be one’s own self, live one’s own life.^[12]

In New York City, an organization of musicians was formed in 1907 by pianist Rafael Joseffy with friends such as Rubin Goldmark, called "The Bohemians (New York Musicians' Club)".^[13] Near Times Square Joel Renaldo presided over "Joel’s Bohemian Refreshery" where the Bohemian crowd gathered from before the turn of the 20th Century until Prohibition began to bite.^{[14][15][16][17]}

People[link]

The term has become associated with various artistic or academic communities and is used as a generalized adjective describing such people, environs, or situations: bohemian (boho—informal) is defined in The American College Dictionary as "a person with artistic or intellectual tendencies, who lives and acts with no regard for conventional rules of behavior."

Many prominent European and American figures of the last 150 years belonged to the bohemian subculture, and any comprehensive "list of bohemians" would be tediously long. Bohemianism has been approved of by some bourgeois writers such as Honoré de Balzac, but most conservative cultural critics do not condone bohemian lifestyles.

Laren Stover, the author of The Bombshell Manual of Style, breaks down the Bohemian into five distinct mind-sets/styles in Bohemian Manifesto: a Field Guide to Living on the Edge. The Bohemian is "not easily classified like species of birds," writes Stover, noting that there are crossovers and hybrids. The five types devised by Stover are:

• Nouveau: bohemians with money who attempt to join traditional bohemianism with contemporary culture
• Gypsy: the expatriate types. They create their own Gypsy nirvana wherever they go.
• Beat: also drifters, but non-materialist and art-focused
• Zen: "post-beat," focus on spirituality rather than art
• Dandy: no money, but try to appear as if they have it by buying and displaying expensive or rare items – such as brands of alcohol^[18]

In the 20th century United States, the bohemian impulse was famously seen in the 1940s hipsters, the 1950s Beat generation (exemplified by writers such as William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac) and the much more widespread 1960s and '70s hippie counterculture.

Rainbow Gatherings may be seen as another contemporary worldwide expression of the bohemian impulse.^[19] An American example is Burning Man, an annual participatory arts festival held in the Nevada desert.

In 2001, political and cultural commentator David Brooks contended that much of the cultural ethos of well-to-do middle-class Americans is Bohemian-derived, coining the paradoxical term "Bourgeois Bohemians" or "Bobos".^[20]

Former bohemian communities[link]

By extension, Bohemia meant any place where one could live and work cheaply, and behave unconventionally; a community of free souls beyond the pale of respectable society. Several cities and neighborhoods came to be associated with bohemianism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries:

Europe

• Montmartre and Montparnasse in Paris
• Chelsea, Fitzrovia, and Soho in London
• Mitte in Berlin
• Schwabing in Munich
• Skadarlija in Belgrade
• Tabán in Budapest
• Cais do Sodré, Mouraria and Alfama in Lisbon

United States

• Greenwich Village, New York City^[21]
• North Beach, San Francisco, California
• Venice Beach, California^[22]
• Topanga, California^[23]
• Tiburon, California^[24]

Australia

• Fremantle, Western Australia^[25]
• Newtown^[26]
• Potts Point, Sydney ^[27]
• Fitzroy in Melbourne.

See also[link]

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Easton, Malcolm (1964). Artists and Writers in Paris. The Bohemian Idea, 1803–1867 (ASIN B0016A7CJA ed.). London: Arnold. 
• Graña, César (1964). Bohemian versus Bourgeois: French Society and the French Man of Letters in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00736-8. 
• Parry, Albert. (2005.) Garretts & Pretenders: A History of Bohemianism in America, Cosimo, Inc. ISBN 1-59605-090-X
• Stansell, Christine (2000). American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century. Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-4847-2. 
• Wilson, Elizabeth (2002). Bohemians: The Glamorous Outcasts. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-86064-782-0. 

Further reading

• Levin, Joanna (2010). Bohemia in America, 1858–1920. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-6083-6. 
• Siegel, Jerrold (1999). Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830–1930. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-6063-8. 

External links[link]

• Bohemianism and Counter-Culture

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010)

Tuli Kupferberg
Born	Naphtali Kupferberg (1923-09-28)September 28, 1923 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	July 12, 2010(2010-07-12) (aged 86) New York City, New York, U.S.
Education	Brooklyn College
Occupation	Author, poet, cartoonist, pacifist, anarchist, musician
Years active	1958–2009
Known for	The Fugs 1001 Ways to Beat the Draft 1001 Ways to Live Without Working
Spouse	Sylvia Topp

Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010)^[1] was an American counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs.

Biography[link]

Naphtali Kupferberg was born into a Jewish, Yiddish-speaking household in New York City.^[2] A cum laude graduate of Brooklyn College in 1944, Kupferberg founded the magazine Birth in 1958.^[3] Birth ran for only three issues but published notable Beat Generation authors such as Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, LeRoi Jones, and Ted Joans.

Kupferberg reportedly appears in Ginsberg's poem Howl as the person "who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and walked away unknown and forgotten into the ghostly daze of Chinatown". The incident in question actually occurred on the Manhattan Bridge,^[4] and is mentioned in the prose poem "Memorial Day 1971" written by Ted Berrigan and Anne Waldman:

'I asked Tuli Kupferberg once, "Did you really jump off of The Manhattan Bridge?" "Yeah," he said, "I really did." "How come?" I said. "I thought that I had lost the ability to love," Tuli said. "So, I figured I might as well be dead. So, I went one night to the top of The Manhattan Bridge, & after a few minutes, I jumped off." "That's amazing," I said. "Yeah," Tuli said, "but nothing happened. I landed in the water, & I wasn't dead. So I swam ashore, & went home, & took a bath, & went to bed. Nobody even noticed."'

The above paragraph by Berrigan and Waldman is a poetic fiction, according to Kupferberg, and did not really occur as stated. Ginsberg's description in Howl is likewise fictional, Kupferberg told his friend Thelma Blitz and other friends such as Larry Sloman and Steve Dalachinsky in personal conversations. He did jump from the Manhattan Bridge in 1944, after which he was picked up by a passing tugboat and taken to Gouvernor Hospital.^[5] Severely injured, he had broken the transverse process of his spine and spent time in a body cast.^[6] He told Blitz he feels it's important that people don't think they can emulate this leap and walk away unscathed as the poetic accounts suggest he did.

Kupferberg self-published the book Beatniks; or, The War Against the Beats in 1961. Perhaps his best-known book is 1001 Ways to Beat the Draft (1966), a satirical collage created with Robert Bashlow. In 1961, he wrote 1001 Ways to Live Without Working, which actually contains 1005 ways to live without working. The book also contains a number of old advertisements, for items such as raffles for slaves, and unfailing ways to cure cancer and obesity. One of his last published volumes is Teach Yourself Fucking, a collection of cartoons, which was published by Autonomedia in 2000.

In 1964, Kupferberg formed the satirical rock group The Fugs with poet Ed Sanders.^[7] Kupferberg took their name from Norman Mailer's substitute for the word "fuck" in his novel The Naked and the Dead. He was one of the band's singers and wrote many of their songs such as "Morning, Morning," "Kill for Peace," "CIA Man," "Supergirl," "Carpe Diem," and he set to music Matthew Arnold's pacifist wedding hymn "Dover Beach." He also released two solo albums: No Deposit, No Return in 1966, which is a collection of found pop poetry, and Tuli & Friends in 1989.

Kupferberg was active in New York pacifist anarchist circles. He appeared as a machine-gun-toting soldier policing Manhattan in W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism, a 1971 film about the revolutionary psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich by Dusan Makavejev. An anti-police-brutality skit from his Revolting Theatre appeared in the 1971 Richard Pryor underground film Dynamite Chicken. More recently Tuli appeared in the music video for Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror by Jeffrey Lewis.^[8] His bi-weekly television show "Revolting News" still airs on Manhattan Neighborhood Network's Channel 56, RCN Cable channel 83, Verizon FiOS ch. 34 and MNN.org ch. 2 on alternate Mondays, 10 PM, New York time, now produced by Thelma Blitz with archival and new material.

Kupferberg suffered a stroke in April 2009 at his home in New York City, which left him severely visually impaired and in need of regular nursing care. After treatment for a number of days at a New York hospital, followed by convalescence at a nursing home, he recuperated at home. He continued to write songs and add "perverbs" to his YouTube^[9] and DailyMotion channels, both called "tulifuli." According to The Fugs website, the band had been in the studio completing a new CD, entitled Be Free, featuring five of Kupferberg’s new songs, including the anthem “Backward Jewish Soldiers” and a setting of his famous poem “Greenwich Village of My Dreams.”.

Kupferberg died in New York Downtown Hospital in Manhattan of kidney failure and sepsis on July 12, 2010.^[1] In 2008, in one of his last interviews, he told Mojo Magazine, "Nobody who lived through the '50s thought the '60s could've existed. So there's always hope."^[10]

Bibliography[link]

• " Birth 1, The Bohemian Issue" (1958)
• ' Birth 2 'Children's Writings (1959)
• Beating (1959)
• Children as Authors: A Big Bibliography (1959, with Sylvia Topp)
• Snow Job: Poems 1946-1959 (1959)
• Selected Fruits & Nuts (1959)
• Birth 3, parts 1 & 2 Stimulants, An Exhibition (1960)
• 1001 Ways to Live Without Working (1961)
• The Grace & Beauty of the Human Form (1961)
• 3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Beatniks : or, The War Against the Beats (1961)
• Sex and War (1962)
• The Mississippi (A Study of the White Race) (1962)
• The Rub-Ya-Out of Omore Diem (1962)
• The Christine Keeler Colouring Book & Cautionary Tale (1963)
• Kill for Peace (1965)
• Caught in the Act: a Legal Vaudeville (1966)
• The Book of the Body (with Judith Wehlau, 1966)
• I Say to Masturbate is Human, to Fuck Divine (1966)
• 1001 Ways to Beat the Draft (with Robert Bashlow, 1967)
• Fuck Nam : a morality play (1967)
• 1001 Ways to Make Love (1969)
• Newspoems (1971)
• Listen to the Mockingbird; satiric songs to tunes you know (1973)
• As They Were (with Sylvia Topp, 1973)
• Universal Housewife (1975)
• First Glance (with Sylvia Topp, 1978)
• As They Were Too (with Sylvia Topp, 1979)
• O God! (1980)
• The Crazy Paper (1980)
• Less Newspoems (1981)
• Questionable Cartoons (1981)
• True Professions (1981)
• Why Don't We Do It in the Bed? (1982)
• Was It Good For You Too? (1983)
• After the Balls Are Ova (1984)
• In Media's Feces (1986)
• Kill For Peace, Again (1987)
• Reaganation (1987)
• The Tuli Kupferberg Instant Lottery Broadside (1988)
• The Dark Night of the Soul in the Poetry Mines (1988)
• Signed By the Artist (1990)
• Don't Make Trouble (1991)
• My Prick is Bigger Than Yours (1992)
• The Land that God Remembered (1992)
• The Old Fucks at Home (1992)
• You Know Helen : Maybe Chimps Know a Lot More Than We Think (1994)
• Hey Ann! : What's The Diff Between Religion & Patriotism? (with Dave Jordan, 1994)
• Whitman said : "In order to have great art you have to have great audiences!"(1994)
• When I Hear the Word 'Culture' I Reach for My Gun (1994)
• I Hate Poems About Poems About Poems (1994)
• Great Moments in the History of Sport : No. 4, The Spartans Invent Football (1994)
• Teach Yourself Fucking (2000)
• Paris I Have Never Seen (2001)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Works by or about Tuli Kupferberg in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Tuli Kupferberg at the Internet Movie Database
• The Fugs
• Photo of Tuli performing with The Fugs, NYC, 1967 by Michael Maggid
• Tuli's Youtube channel
• Vox Tablet Podcast dedicated to Tuli Kupferberg
• Kupferberg, Tuli (June 1997). The Fugs' Tuli Kupferberg. Interview with Jason Gross. Perfect Sound Forever. http://www.furious.com/Perfect/tuli.html. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
• Kupferberg, Tuli (2004-01-29). Interview With Tuli Kupferberg. Interview with Matthew Paris. Xiccarph. http://www.matthewparis.com/mp/viewtopic.php?t=72. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

This article is about human hair. For other uses, see Longhair (disambiguation) or Hair

Boy with shoulder length hair on a beach in Melanesia.

Long hair is a hairstyle. Exactly what constitutes long hair can change from culture to culture, or even within cultures. For example, a woman with chin-length hair in some cultures may be said to have short hair, while a man with the same length of hair in some of the same cultures would be said to have long hair.

Scientists view long hair as playing a large part in natural selection among many species, since long, thick and healthy hair or fur is frequently a sign of fertility and youth.^[1] As hair grows slowly, long hair reveals several years of a person's health status and reproductive fitness. Hair length is significantly correlated with female attractiveness, as rated by men as well as women.^[2] Hair length and quality can act as a cue to especially a woman's youth and health, signifying reproductive potential.^[3] The prevalence of trichophilia (hair partialism or fetischism) is 7% in the population, and very long hair is a common subject of devotion in this group.^[4][5]

Ways of life often viewed as more rigid, such as soldiers and religious cultures, often have explicit rules regarding hair length. For example, Buddhist monks shave their heads as part of their order of worship.^[6] Even outside religious structures, cultures often associate male long hair with ways of life outside of what is culturally accepted. Subservient cultures, for example, are sometimes detected by their rulers through hair length, as was the case with the Gaelic Irish under English rule and the Moors under Spanish rule in Medieval Spain.^[7]

Again, though, there are exceptions to these rules, notably among the long-haired and religiously devoted Nazarites of the Hebrew Bible (Samson being a famous example)^[8] and among the Sikhs.^[9]

East Asian cultures have traditionally seen long, unkempt hair in a woman as a sign of sexual intent or a recent sexual encounter, as usually their hair is tied up in styles such as the ponytail, plait, or any bun.^[10]

Transferred meaning[link]

The traditional connotation of "long hair" in English meant, roughly, someone artistically knowledgeable or wise, an aesthete.^[11] As a descriptive term, it has been applied to Merovingians and classical music enthusiasts, as well as hippies and aesthetes.^[11]

Hair lengths[link]

A Polish woman with hair reaching the mid-back

A Swedish male with waist-length hair

Painting of a woman with hair grown down to her hips, by Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Woman with knee-length braided hair

Hair length is measured (in centimeters or inches) from the line of the scalp on the forehead up over the highest point of the skull to its termination. In cosmetology, hair lengths are usually categorized according to the part of the body where the bulk of the longest hair terminates.^[12] Hair usually takes about two years to reach shoulder length,^[13] and at approximately 80–90 cm (32–36 inches) for most people, waist-length hair usually takes about seven years to grow, including occasional trims.^[12][13]

Maximum hair length[link]

The maximum hair length that is possible to reach is about 15 cm for infants (below the age of 1), about 60 cm for children (below the age of 13), and generally 100 cm for adults. Documentation for decrease of the maximum length with age cannot be found in the literature. Some individuals can reach excessive lengths. Lengths greater than 150 cm are frequently observed in long hair contests.^[14] Xie Qiuping had the longest documented hair in the world, measuring 5.627 m (18 ft 5.54 in) in May 2004.^[15]

The maximum terminal hair length depends on the length of the anagen (period of hair growth) for the individual. Waist-length hair or longer is only possible to reach for people with long anagen. The anagen lasts between 2 and 7 years, for some individuals even longer, and follows by shorter catagen (transition) and telogen (resting) periods. Between 85% and 90% of the hair strains are in anagen.

Psychological significance[link]

Anthropologists speculate that the functional significance of long head hair may be adornment, a by-product of secondary natural selection once other androgenic/somatic hair (body hair) had largely been lost. Another possibility is that long head hair is a result of Fisherian runaway sexual selection, where long lustrous hair is a visible marker for a healthy individual. For some groups or individuals, however, short hair is the selected trait.^[1]

By seven to nine months, infants can tell the sexes apart based on hair length, voice pitch and faces.^[16][17]

Cultural history[link]

Hair is one of the most important ways humans have of presenting themselves, being one of the parts of their body which is easiest to manipulate. Also, males having short, cut hair (or a shaven head) is often viewed as being under society's control, such as while in military service or prison or as punishment for a crime, while males having long hair signifies being outside of the mainstream.^[18]

In Jewish and Christian scriptures[link]

In the Old Testament, the Nazirites would go for long periods of time without cutting their hair to show devotion to God.^[19] Samson is one example; his strength depended upon his refraining from cutting his hair.^[8] The New Testament says, "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering,"^[20] something followed by women in some apostolic pentecostal denominations in some countries as an act of holiness.

Western culture[link]

Ancient Greece and Rome[link]

In ancient Greece, long male hair was a symbol of wealth and power, while a shaven head was appropriate for a slave. The ancient Greeks had several Gods and heroes who wore their hair long, including Zeus, Achilles, Apollo, and Poseidon. Greek soldiers are said to have worn their hair long in battle. Such warriors considered it a sign of aristocracy and are said to have combed it openly in order to show off. Also, in order to keep enemies from getting a hold of it in battle, they were known to cut the front short, but leave it long in the back, where it was more out of reach. A widely held alternative interpretation of the conventional belief that they cut it short in the front in order to keep their enemies from getting a hold of it during battle is that, they did not in fact cut it in the front, but rather tied it back in a style known as a pony tail in order to keep it out of their enemies' reach. The pony tail method allowed warriors, who often traveled to battle with a minimal amount of equipment in order to avoid excessively heavy loads over long marches, to keep their hair manageable with a small piece of string to hold their pony tail in place and a knife to cut the back to length with one simple slice. Around the sixth century, however, the Greek men shifted to shorter hairstyles, with the exception of the Spartans. Women in the culture remained with the longer style, which for them showed freedom, health, and wealth, as well as good behavior.^[21] In men, it was considered a sign of false pride by this time.^[22] Women in Roman times valued long hair, usually with a center part. Men's hair was usually shorter than women's, (but in the early times, the custom was quite the same as in Greece) although other cultures of the time, such as Greeks in the east, considered long hair to be typical of philosophers, who were thought to be too engrossed in learning to bother with hair.^[23] Strictly in the province of Rome, however the shorter hairstyle was especially popular.^[22] When Julius Caesar conquered the Gauls, who favored long hair, he ordered it to be cut short.^[24]

Middle Ages[link]

In the European middle ages, shorter hair often signified servitude and peasantry, while long hair was often attributed to freemen, as was the case with the Germanic Goths and Merovingians.

The Gaelic Irish (both men and women)^[25] took great pride in their long hair—for example, a person could be heavily fined for cutting a man's hair short against his will.^[26] When the Anglo-Normans and the English colonized Ireland, hair length came to signify one's allegiance. Irishmen who cut their hair short were deemed to be forsaking their Irish heritage. Likewise, English colonists who wore their hair long in the back were deemed to be forsaking their role as English subjects and giving in to the Irish life. Thus, hair length was one of the most common ways of judging a true Englishman in this period. Muslims in Christian areas were ordered to keep their hair short and parted, as their longer style was considered rebellious and barbaric.^[7]

Empress Elisabeth of Austria wearing thigh-length hair in 1865.

A long hair fad was widespread among English and French men in the 11th and 12th centuries, though otherwise it was considered, mostly because of endorsement of the Roman Catholic Church, proper for men to have shorter, and women, longer hair. The fad was largely brought about by monarchs who rejected the shorter hairstyle, causing the people to follow. Wulfstan, a religious leader, worried that those with longer hair would fight like women, and be unable to protect England from foreign invasion. This idea can be found in later military leaders as well, such as those of the American Confederacy.^[27] Knights and rulers would also sometimes cut or pull out their hair in order to show penitence and mourning, and a squire's hair was generally shorter than a knight's. Married women who let their hair flow out in public were frowned upon, as this was normally reserved for the unwed, although they were allowed to let it out in mourning, to show their distressed state. Through these centuries it was expected of Eastern Christians to wear long hair as well as long beards, which was especially expected from clergy and monks.

In England, during the English Civil Wars of 1642 to 1651, male hair length was emblematic of the disputes between Cavaliers and Roundheads (Puritans). Cavaliers wore longer hair, and were less religious-minded, thought of by the Roundheads as lecherous. The more devout Roundheads had short hair, although there were exceptions.^[6]

Recent meanings[link]

A man with waist length hair

Before World War One men generally had longer hair and beards. However, short hair on men has often been enforced as a mean of control, in police, military and other forces that require obedience and discipline. Slaves and defeated armies were often required to shave their heads. The trench warfare in 1914 to 1918 exposed men to flea and lice infestations, which prompted the order to cut short hair, establishing a norm that has persisted.^[12]

Beat poets during the 1950s wore longer hairstyles, as did many of the urban gay culture, although long hair was far from popular. By 1960, a small "beatnik" community in Newquay, Cornwall, England (including a young Wizz Jones) had attracted the attention and the abhorrence of their neighbors for growing their hair to a length past the shoulders, resulting in a television interview with Alan Whicker on BBC television's Tonight series.^[28] The 1960s also introduced The Beatles, who started a more widespread longer hair fad. The social revolution of the 1960s led to a renaissance of unchecked hair growth,^[12] and long hair, especially on men, was worn as a political or countercultural symbol or protest. This cultural symbol extended to several Western countries in the Americas, Western Europe, South Africa, and Australia.^[29] Specific long hairstyles such as dreadlocks have been part of counterculture movements seeking to define other alternative cultures and lifestyles since this time.^[10] Longer hair in general remained popular among the youth rebellion throughout the liberal decade of the 1960s.^[29] Homosexual men, many of whom had adopted a long hairstyle in the early 1950s, have largely abandoned this trend. Some people saw the long hair fad as a threat to gender identity, cultural, and religious norms as it grew with the spread of the hippie movement in the 1960s.^[29] Notably, some country-and-western performers during this period (and many fans) also sported longer hair.^[30][31]

In the 1970s, the popularity of Jamaica's reggae music and musician Bob Marley prompted interest in dreadlocks internationally. The anti-establishment philosophy of Rastafari, echoed in much of the reggae of the time, resonated with leaning youth of all ethnicities — especially and primarily among African Americans and other Blacks, but among counterculture whites as well.^[32] The Eastern Christians are encouraged to wear long hair with long beard. In the 1980s the view of long hair as a solitary signifier of political or counter-cultural identity was countered and parodied in films such as Rambo and many other militaristic heroes of media which challenged then-contemporary views of what was masculine.^[33] Today, longer hairstyles remain popular among rock enthusiasts.^[34] Long hair may be grown for the purpose of being donated to an organization, such as Locks of Love, for hairpieces to help those who could not have hair otherwise, such as those who are diagnosed with alopecia areata.

Women[link]

Women often have a stronger inclination towards long hair than men do. Younger women tend to have longer hair than older women. Hair length and quality can act as a cue to a woman's youth and health, signifying reproductive potential.^[35] Growing and wearing long hair was almost universal among women in the western world until World War One.^[12]

Sikhism[link]

The Sikhs were commanded by Guru Gobind Singh at the Baisakhi Amrit Sanchar in 1699 to wear long uncut hair called Kesh at all times. This was one of the 'five requisites of faith', collectively called Kakars that form the external visible identifiers to clearly affirm a Sikh's commitment and dedication to the order (Hukam) of the tenth master and made one a member of the Khalsa. The Khalsa is the "Saint-Soldier" of Guru Gobind Singh who stated the following: "He does not recognize anyone else except One Lord, not even the bestowal of charities, performance of merciful acts, austerities and restraint on pilgrim-stations; the perfect light of the Lord illuminates his heart, then consider him as the immaculate Khalsa." (Guru Gobind Singh in the Dasam Granth page 1350)

The Kesh or unshorn long hair is an indispensable part of the human body as created by Vaheguru that is the mainstay of the 'Jivan Jaach' and the Rehni that was prescribed by Guru Gobind Singh Sahib by which a Sikh is clearly and quickly identified, Kesh. The kanga, another requisite of faith is usually tucked behind the "Rishi Knot" and tied under the turban. The uncut long head hair and the beard in the case of men forms the main kakar for the Sikhs.

KESADHARI, a term defining a Sikh as one who carries on his head the full growth of his kes (hair) which he never trims or cuts for any reason. Anyone, Sikh or non-Sikh, may keep the hair unshorn, but for the Sikh kes, unshorn hair, is a requisite of faith and an inviolable vow. The Sikh Rahit Maryada published by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, statutory body for the control and management of Sikh shrines and by extension for laying down rules about Sikh beliefs and practices, issued in 1945, after long and minute deliberations among Sikh scholars and theologians, defines a Sikh thus: Every Sikh who has been admitted to the rites of amrit, i.e. who has been initiated as a Sikh, must allow his hair to grow to its full length. This also applies to those born of Sikh families but [who] have not yet received the rites of amrit of the tenth master, Guru Gobind Singh. ".

Islam[link]

Transjordanian Bedouin with shoulder length hair, during World War II

In the Muslim world, it seems the trend of hair styles is now favouring short over long in men. In the past, Bedouin Muslims often wore their hair in long braids, but western influences brought on the view that such styles were feminine in nature. Now, Bedouins are much less likely to have long hair.^[36] Islamic countries in North Africa such as Egypt view long hair in men as homosexual and in one case the Egyptian police viewed it as satanic and a sign of an infidel^[37].

Muslims regard Prophet Muhammad as the best example to live by, and try to emulate him whenever possible. The Islamic Prophet Muhammad reportedly in Sahih Muslim had hair that "hung over his shoulders and earlobes".^[38] Sahih Bukhari, regarded the most authentic of hadith, also supports this using a prime example of the prophet Isa.^[39] The Prophet Muhammad has also described Jesus as "having long hair reaching his ear lobes."^[40] Malik's Muwatta 51.2.6 reported, Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that Abu Qatada al-Ansari said to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, "I have a lot of hair which comes down to my shoulders, shall I comb it? The Messenger of Allah. may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Yes, and honour it." Sometimes Abu Qatada oiled it twice in one day because the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to him. "Honour it."

With regards to women, neither Qur'an nor Sunnah explicitly state that women cannot cut their hair. Hadith does mention that women should not imitate men, and vice versa, and hence many scholars on this assumption, decree that women should let their hair grow longer than the hair of the Prophet, reaching beyond their shoulders, as hadith mentions that the Prophet had his hair between his shoulder and his earlobes. (He described Jesus's hair, which hung to his earlobes, as long.^[41])

However culturally, some Muslims are opposed to men having long hair as it is also important in Islam to have clear differences (in appearance) between sexes. And generally these cultures encourage women to have long hair and men to have short hair.^[42] The Taliban in Afghanistan viewed long hair for men as a western influence, and punished it by arrest and forced haircuts,^[43] albeit this would be a direct contradiction of the sunnah of the Prophet. Similar measures have been taken by Islamists in Iraq.^[44] In spite of this, several Taleban affiliated members of the Mehsud clan are recognisable by their long hair. The Saudi Islamist fighter Amir Khattab was also notable for his long hair. Dervishes of some Sufi orders, such as the Kasnazani, often have long hair and whirl it around during rituals.^[45]

Native Americans[link]

Yakima boy with mid-back level hair. (Photo by Edward S. Curtis, 1868–1952.)

Many Native American men wore long hair before the arrival of western influences on their culture or rather eastern influences for them. (In Cherokee legends, for example, males said to be handsome were often described as having "long hair almost to the ground" or similar formulas.^[46]). Both men and women of these cultures have frequently struggled to maintain their tradition, but have faced heavy opposition. Many consider it a sign of giving in to western influences to have their hair cut.^[47][48] Early American settlers saw long-haired, native men as rebelling against their civilized society. Mountain men and trappers who adopted the customs were also considered amoral, and often identified by their long hair.^[49] Since the cultural movements of the sixties and seventies, however, Native Americans have felt less pressure to have short hair, as different movements have defended their cultural rights.^[50] For example, several states have loosened prison regulations, allowing Native Americans to wear long hair during incarceration, along with other cultural allowances.^[51] There has been resistance to these changes, however, as long hair is sometimes used to hide drugs, as well as to identify with a gang.^[52]

Sub-Saharan Africans[link]

Ngbandi girls with waist-length hair, central Africa, 1905

In West African cultures, women with long hair were highly valued. Long, thick hair was seen as a sign of health, strength, and capability to bear many children. In keeping with this general theme, women who were too young for marriage would shave a portion of their heads to signal so. This tradition, however, did not extend to every African tribe, as several valued shorter hair.^[53]

African Americans[link]

When African slaves were freed in the Americas, they struggled with comments from whites calling their hair ugly and nappy. Many African-American women began straightening their hair. However, there was and always will be a variety of hairstyles, such as dreadlocks, twists, short hair, long hair, curly hair, straight hair, etc. Social pressures were heavily influencing African-American females to have long straight hair. Although African Americans have short or long hair, they can do a lot with their hair. Therefore, they have hair shows to show the large variety of hairstyles. African Americans, as well as other thick curly-haired people, are often pressured to not wear their natural hair in today's society. When they wear their hair natural, it's soft and easy to manage. However, when it comes to not wanting to wear natural hair, it becomes more difficult to manage. Therefore, African Americans are wearing natural hair more, so it's finally becoming more accepted.

Asia[link]

Japanese woman combing her long hair. (Colour woodblock print from 1920 by Hashiguchi Goyō.)

Illustration of The Tale of Genji, painted by Tosa Mitsuoki (1617-1691).