Male Characters: Long Hair or Short Hair?

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Male Characters: Long Hair or Short Hair?

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1themusescircle
Bewerkt: jan 11, 2012, 3:07 pm

Hi everyone! I am new to this YA Lit group, so I figured to start a new topic to show my interaction! I write reviews for YA books (and other kinds as well) so feel free to join/follow/check out my blog called The Muses Circle

Okay so here is my topic. I love romance, whether it's a YA romance or an adult romance. I know that at one time long hair for male characters was a very sexy trait. I guess it kinda goes along with the whole "bad boy" character. Ya know, the long haired, not-afraid-to-be-different, living-on the-other-side-of-the-tracks, bad boy.

Anyway, I still love long hair on male characters, but I noticed that some people (I teach, so my students inform me that long hair is sooo not popular anymore) think it's not an attractive thing.

So what do you think? Is long hair on male characters attractive? Or is it a thing of the past?

I think I need to make that question into a poll on my blog!

Mia ---> The Muses Circle

2Marissa_Doyle
jan 11, 2012, 1:53 pm

I don't know--my 20 yr old college junior son has hair half-way down his back, and he gets plenty of positive female attention because of it (and occasionally male attention, which he doesn't care for!) He's not a bad boy but a geeky computer science major, and long hair on men seems to be not uncommon in that industry.

As far as characters, go...well, it depends on the character and setting, doesn't it? In a historical, I don't see that it's at all an issue. In a contemporary, it can be a character trait, rather than a "if I give my hero long hair he'll immediately be sexy" thing.

3themusescircle
jan 11, 2012, 3:07 pm

Hi Marissa! Yes, I agree. I didn't mean to sound like I was stereotyping-- I know not all "bad boys" have long hair. You are right, it does depend on the character, setting, even the type of book! I was just curious what people think in general. My female students are constantly talking about boys and I hear them say, "Eww, he needs to get a hair cut! His hair is too long!" The same with the Jacob character in Twilight. I think Jacob looked amazing with long hair. But a lot of my students were like, ewww, thank GAWD he cut his hair! So I was just curious if the younger generation is over the long hair thing and what kind of hair styles do they find sexy when they envision male characters in books.

~Mia ---> The Muses Circle

4BookLizard
jan 11, 2012, 3:29 pm

In the historical romances I've read lately, it seems like their hair is "longer than is fashionable" - whatever that means. It doesn't matter so much to me if the male hero has long hair or not - often the cover art doesn't really match the description in the book itself - but in real life, I wouldn't want to date a guy with long hair, mainly because I'd be jealous that he had nicer hair than me!

5taz1030
jan 11, 2012, 4:04 pm

It just depends on the length of the hair. Hair that goes below the shoulders of a guy i do not like but the wavy long hair i do like

6macsbrains
jan 11, 2012, 10:36 pm

Long, long, always long, and bonus if they know how to braid it.

My hair is the shortest it's been in a while (it's only to my waist when I usually keep it just short of sitting on it) and my partner's hair is about to the end of his shoulder blades. His hair's thin though, so it doesn't really grow past that.

7LaurynApril
okt 4, 2012, 3:02 pm

Interesting question, but I'm kind of glad you asked because this is something that I actually pay attention to when reading romance. For me I like short hair. I get what you're saying with the bad boy thing, and I kind of like the scruffy look. Or if their hair is just long enough that it gets in their eyes, I don't mind that. But, when a character has really long hair I have a hard time imagining the character as anything other than a cheesy romance novel cover - which is so not my thing.

8donnao
okt 4, 2012, 7:35 pm

I always find that guys who are very beefy/muscular usually don't look good with longer hair. I like longer hair on men who are more androgynous or with more "delicate" features.

9jlko
jan 10, 2013, 6:38 pm

i agree with taz, it all depends on the guy. i generally am long-hair averse (even in books i read) but every now and then there are exceptions (aren't there always). i think it'd be cool if there were books where you could customize the protagonist (e.g., hair length). then we could really see who likes what!

10andrewsp
jan 11, 2013, 8:15 am

I think it depends what you mean by long hair. I agree with LaurynApril. I don't like long hair at the back but I like the look of guys with long hair at the front that sometimes gets in their eyes.

11luna_lovegood
feb 24, 2013, 6:26 pm

I agree with Donnao

but in real life guys look better with short hair

13luna_lovegood
feb 24, 2013, 10:00 pm

um ok

14andrewsp
feb 27, 2013, 6:26 am

wow

16andrewsp
feb 28, 2013, 9:06 am

Yul Brynner looks good. Don't like the other guys.

17donnao
Bewerkt: feb 28, 2013, 10:49 am

Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard- Star Trek: The Next Generation and Charles Xavier - X-men)
Tom Hardy ( Dark Knight Rises and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

I just realized Tom Hardy played Picard's clone in the Star Trek movie Nemesis. Maybe that's why I like both of them.

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSWFNhbGlXD83n4dS-FB9O9-3Fe...
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR2c6Dr53YMwdAQx72nw4VSy8Af...

18CyndiGoodgame
mrt 3, 2013, 8:13 am

Agree on hair drifting to one side over the forehead giving that sexy look and short in the back,but it is all about personal preference. I honk Les like the shaggy look. If it is long and well-kept, it is just as nice on a guy.

19luna_lovegood
mrt 11, 2013, 10:53 pm

Bald=Old=Gross.

20Jenson_AKA_DL
mrt 12, 2013, 9:56 am

I didn't realize Tom Hardy was in Nemesis....I'll definitely have to re-visit the movie again :-)

On the topic of long hair...I have no particular preference. My boyfriend has hair down to his midback and I like it...but historically I don't mind guys with short hair either.

21luna_lovegood
mrt 12, 2013, 7:26 pm

Long hair is fine for fantasy... but not much else.

22andrewsp
jun 12, 2013, 7:34 am

23immdauntless
okt 14, 2013, 11:18 pm

short hair brings to mind a kind of milatary style to mind and long is more like bad boy take Twilight for an example

24PencilStubs
okt 15, 2013, 12:18 am

I think short hair looks much better than long. ("Long" being anything that starts creeping past chin-length.) I don't read fantasy or romance though--more so war, dystopian, thriller, horror, mystery.

25ericbishoppotter
nov 16, 2014, 6:26 am

Dit bericht wordt niet meer getoond omdat het door verschillende gebruikers is aangemerkt als misbruik. (Tonen)
Simon Sixsmith, the street-smart narrator of "Jimmy, Mrs Fisher and Me", has short-ish hair, and girls, boys, men and women want him badly...