PAST

June 11, 2006

NEXT

Lake Michigan, 2002

So, before you go ahead and tell me that I should let my hair grow back out, could you please tell me why people tend to stereotype guys with long hair? I mean, over the years, whenever I've had my hair long, people have treated me totally differently. 
I mean some people would actually come right up to me and ask me if I knew where they could get some drugs. That really became very annoying since I have always avoided them, myself. 
Then other people would call me stupid nick-names, like "Fabio" or "Cato". However, I didn't mind too much when they would compare me to Brad Pitt or Val Kilmer. But that was, of course, just because of certain movies where they wore their hair differently.
But I also made numerous trips to China, back through 1994-1997, and only got questioned and searched through customs when I had longer hair.

Either way, people had always treated me differently when I had long hair and it actually bothered me to some extent. I mean, why should they care what my hair was like, and, crazy enough, why should I even care what others think of me? Especially when they didn't even know me. But when people automatically treat you differently, just because of your hair, it definitely makes a difference.

Now I don't know why, but I have always felt more comfortable and more at ease with longer hair. Maybe it has something to do with my Native American background, and my desire to be closer to nature. But either way, I have, for many years, had longer than average hair, and enjoyed that feeling. But I have often had it cut rather short, on numerous occasions, just for the sake of popular opinion of what seemed right or wrong in society. 

So, do we just follow the moral majority, just because that is what pays the bills most of all? Or do we just live our lives and present ourselves so that we will not have to constantly prove ourselves over and over again? Just because people didn't approve of the way we looked. Just because it's different.

So should I have long hair? You tell me. But think about it. Would you want to hang around with a guy with long hair? I mean, you might think he looks good with long hair. But when it boils down to it, none of us really want to draw that much attention to ourselves. A guy with long hair stands out in a crowd. Am I getting so old that I no longer want to stand out in a crowd and be special? Or is my accident getting to me and I am changing my ways of thinking? You tell me. I'm confused.

"Yeah, that's Danny. He's a friend of ours. Yeah, he's got long hair and he's pretty cool. But we don't invite him to all of our get-togethers."
"I mean, people might talk."

reference links:  

Galixy.net