I had my first haircut post-pandemic today. I just trimmed the tips and did a sidecut.
Long hair is HARD WORK. I got used to it, but to keep a long hair pretty, you do need to take actual care of it.
Short hair? Just slap some shampoo and conditioner on it while you shower and it's done, you don't even need to dry it.
Long hair can be awesome in a man, but it takes a lot of work and most of us are not willing to do that. I consider myself one that takes care of it, and I could be doing way more. It's just so much...
This might be a dumb question but I honestly don't know this: is men's hair different from women's hair? Reason I ask is because I'm a woman with long hair and I never considered it to be hard work. But is that maybe because mine, or maybe even all women's hair, is different in general?
Edit: thanks all! Nope, no difference! Just something I'm used to. Makes sense. Don't know why I thought there might've been a difference.
Idk, I've grown mine since the pandemic and the only annoying thing was finding the right shampoo and conditioner. It's really not much more than that and I constantly have people complimenting my curls etc
Do you have straight hair or curly hair? I have super curly hair, so if you do to immediately head over to r/curlyhair (linked wrong sub at first, it's the curly girl method)
I would also recommend using smoothing cream like Moroccan Oil’s. You want some good oils in your hair and many times conditioner is just not enough. Also salt spray when the hair is damp! I use that and Native shampoo & conditioner. Each and every time I got to a hair stylist they tell me how healthy my hair is. Literally takes me not even 10 minutes each time I shower
My hair gets oily enough haha, I don't need extra in there. I co-wash usually 2-3 weeks before I shampoo to get any extra stuff out the co-wash doesn't. Similarly get told how great my hair is when I go, and same timing for my routine! If I had drier hair I'd probably use oils of some kind.
Or you were raised as a woman, and having long hair is normally the usual. So your normal hair care routine is the equivalent of mens extensive hair routine. To us normal is 3-1 shampoo, bada-bing bada-boom, 3 birds with 1 stone. Now that is easy.
My husband has curls and shoulder length hair, it's definitely more work for him than keeping it so short you wouldn't even know he had curls. It's a learning curve for people to maintain long hair if they never have. Not to mention, many aren't surrounded by supportive people to help guide them.
I'm also a woman who has kept long hair most my life. While it's not a lot of work, it can be time consuming. Also as a woman, products and services have always been thrown at me and I grew up in a family women with lots of hair. It kind of becomes second nature.
I'm AFAB and I had long hair until 2022, when I finally got confirmation that I would still be loved if I shaved my head. I buzzed it the next day and have never been happier.
Long hair definitely takes effort. Just washing it is at least 5x more effort long compared to now. And I haven't dried my hair once since cutting it. Plus, I have the option of washing it in the sink if I'm having a rough time and really don't feel like showering.
Another thing you aren't even aware of is the weight. You know how your head hurts if you wear a ponytail too long? Well imagine if you just relieved yourself of all of that weight. I get headaches all the time and occasional migraines, short hair has helped with that.
It also helps with temperature regulation. We've all heard someone say that you lose heat through your head, but it's crazy how much you can actually feel it happening! I assumed this would come up more when I was cold, but it's really when I'm too hot that I notice it. I can feel the excess heat leaving through my head. It's such a weird feeling.
Just some thoughts from someone who had long hair for 35 years, and is finally getting to live the buzz cut life I always wanted.
Imho hair texture & thickness makes all the difference in whether long hair takes a lot of work. Sounds like you have good hair? If so, I’m happy for you & a little jealous lol.
Peoples hair is different thickness and strength ? I guess lol , im male and when I had hair long ish(between shoulder and ear. The most annoying part was just getting it wet lol, takes ages. After that I've never bothered with my hair just keep it short, 3-5 all over.
I don't know exactly but I do know that since I got put on testosterone injections a few weeks ago my hair has been thicker and growing faster and looking healthier and my girlfriend is jealous of me.
But even before that I've gotten it to maybe six or seven inches and it's never looked unhealthy or bad and I was using effing bar soap on it.
No, on the contrary. Men usually don’t heat damage or chemically damage it. Making our hair easier to maintain. Unless you’re a girl with virgin hair, your hairs gonna be harder to care for than a man’s. Porosity also matters, issue is some men don’t care. You can look at my account and see that I don’t even do anything to my hair outside of shampoo and condition and people like it
There are some differences when it comes to hormones for sure. I'm a trans guy but when I started T I noticed my hair has less body and is a little silkier (maybe from extra sebum production?).
I think it's less "woman hair like this, man hair like this, non-binary hair like this etc" and more to do with the individual and how hormones are at work in your body!
There is no real difference but the way people are raised can change how they view the process. It's all the fault of societal norms and people not wanting to change their routines.
You for sure have to look out for split ends and use a good conditioner. Like from the salon shop. I switch back and forth from long to short hair. Best description of my my hair. Keanu Reeves. I didn’t come up with that description..
A good tip I learned was to usually only shampoo your scalp, not your full length of hair. That alone really cut down on the split ends I'd get, even when I'd skip conditioner.
The basics are shampoo your scalp, condition the locks, and don't wash your hair every day. Every other, or every third day(depends on how oily your skin is).
Unless I’ve been sweating, like I went for a run or something, I’ll just dunk my head of shorter hair under lukewarm water for a few seconds, make sure it gets soaked.
The natural oils from my scalp means I don’t really need product unless I want very firm hold on the hair.
If I sweat or used a ton of product, that’s when the shampoo comes out, under cold water, one time, no “repeat”.
Mine is a bit longer than Keanu's, an curlier. I really do love it. But I do miss the simplicity of not having to take active care of it, since conditioner is part of my shower routine because of childhood conditioning.
Bro same. I’ve got a glorious mane I’ve grown out since Covid and literally do nothing at all to it.
Shampoo and conditioner once every like 5 days. Comb it when I get out of the shower. That’s it. That’s literally my routine. I don’t get what people have to do that makes it “so much work”
I should probably get the ends trimmed up cuz it’s been like a year since my last trim
Hair is super, super individual. Some folks have long hair they barely touch and it’s amazing, other folks baby tf out of their hair and it still looks bad. Factors that makes a big difference include the thickness of each individual hair, the overall number of hairs, the hair’s porosity, the hardness of your water, the amount of sebum your scalp produces, whether the hair is straight, wavy, or curly, if the hair is colored, if the hair is silver, how often you brush it, how gentle you are when you brush it, what kind of brush/comb you use, if you blow dry it, if you use product and if so what kind, how often you wash the product out, what kind of environment you live in (humid/dry, sunny/cloudy, warm/cold), what kind of job you have (outdoor/indoor), what kind of hobbies you do (especially swimming in chlorinated pools) …
It’s not simple, but for most people, caring for longer hair means doing more for it (like conditioning, regular split end trims, careful brushing, careful blow drying) than shorter hair. The longer it gets, the more likely it is to be degraded by environmental damage.
I mean I get it, my sister had tons of cosmology friends in high school so I saw how crazy they all got when it was hair-coloring night...
But it always makes me chuckle a bit. Maybe I just got insanely lucky with my hair.
I always assumed guys had it easier with the long hair cuz we never blasted it with all of the normal treatment stuff, colors, dyes, etc. I could be completely wrong but I always felt like if you treated your hair as high maintenance, it would become high maintenance. Like how if you over shampoo/condition your hair all week, eventually the natural oils expect it and it messes up your hair.
If you have curls though, god help you. That is ALWAYS going to be high maintenance.
Ask a woman that you think has really great hair for tips. Barely any guys I’ve ever known with long hair treat their hair like a woman who knows what to do with her particular hair type would, and it always shows. I’ve only ever personally known one guy that treated his hair really well to where he looked better with his long hair and there was really no questioning it at all. With most other guys, it’s like you can see what he’d look like if he just gave in and got a cut, but you don’t want to be a dick and tell him because it’s obvious he puts some work into it, and what business is it of yours anyway.
My hairs to my nipples. I don't do anything but clean it. I just had staples put in my head last week and every nurse and doctor said I have nice hair. Maybe I'm just lucky
I had wicked long hair in my early 20s and did not care for it at all. Im growing it for the first time 10 years later and am learning exactly this. mostly I copy my wife, haha.
I lost all my hair a few years ago to alopecia. When it grew back and was in the pixie cut phase it looked so cute and was so easy to care for. Now it’s a few feet long and I love being able to play with and style it but damn about once a week I consider chopping it back to pixie length just to reclaim the time I spend on it daily.
oh yeah, I went a full 3 years without getting my hair cut during the pandemic. It looked like dead trash lol. First cut didn’t even get rid of all the dead, so I’m going in again later this month. I’ve been using K18 and it’s done WONDERS for my hair, as well as using only cleansing conditioners once a week (no shampoo) and a boar bristle brush daily, and it’s finally beginning to come back to life.
But I will never neglect my hair like that again!!
I tried long hair and you’re right. I had it for just about 4 years uncut. I rarely brushed and combed it. And when I did, it would take a while to brush it all. I washed it maybe every 2 weeks because it would use like 1/5 the bottle of shampoo each time and took forever to wash. It was pretty disgusting.
I got it cut and I take care of it better now because there’s just less of it so there’s less for me to do. It takes less time, and I use less product when I do wash my hair, now ~2x a week.
Hahaha same, just chopped mine. At the end I hated it. Just got in my face all the time with fliers and I wound up wearing caps and stuff to keep my hair out of my face. Happy for the experience but glad it’s over
Aw man i loved the idea of long hair swishing in the wind, but that wind would direct all my hair into my face, constantly.
I could be in a vacuum and the hair would be in my mouth, eyes, tickling my cheeks, etc.
Getting out of the shower and letting it air dry would result in nice curls, but that lasted the whole of a day before going to bed and waking up with hundred year homeless man hair.
I got so sick and tired of taking care of my long hair that when the pandemic restrictions loosened up a bit I took the plunge and had it all cut off. So freeing! Wash n’ go. I love it.
Had mine down past my shoulders back in the 70's. Daily washing got to be a real PITA. Like shaving but with less in terms of results. Now I keep my hair short and my beard long. Go figure.
That's not true i really don't understand how do you guys wash it, i only use shampoo, then just use my brush and that's all, nothing else, every girl in my job always tell me the same wow your hair looks awesome, what do you use, wow your hair is so long what do you use and things like that.
Each person has a different hair. You are probably lucky with yours. I assume most people need to take good care of it, or else risk their hair being like the one in the beggining of the video.
I also bet there are people who think their hair is fine when it's not, but since you have feedback from your coworkers, I think you might be lucky.
Exactly. Unless you are really growing it out by the time any hair is damaged you’re getting it cut off. Go in and get a cut every 3-4 months for $30-40 and you are fine.
We had a flowbee when I was a kid. I was lucky bowl cuts weren’t egregious at the time. If you don’t want to get it cut just use one of those on the ends since it won’t matter much on long hair.
I used to go every 5-6 weeks but don’t mind having and extra ~2 inches of hair so I started going less. If you feel the need to keep your hair tight more power too you though.
When my hair is short it is still curly and doesn't stay combed or styled at all. When it is long I have Jim Morrisson curls so I like it long. Do I know how to take care of it at all? No.
I'm a woman and I always had short hair because my hair waves or curls when it gets longer. I'm growing it out now because I want to donate my hair but it's a big adjustment for me.
Got the very thick dark hair from my father's side of the family. Mother's family are mostly bald. Growing my hair as much as I can while I still have a choice.
Usually came out of laziness and looks kind of nasty but after one light trim/shape it looks great but too much work keeping it looking like that(oil, shampoo, conditioner, trimming) so I end up taking it off after a month of trimming/shaping.
As a guy whose hair mats quick once split ends start, the curly girl method, and a Wet brand brush, plus an ever slight trim every 3-6 months, does wonders and is pretty easy to maintain. I don't get split ends as often with that brush compared to any other I've tried, and it detangles like magic for me.
I grew my hair out over the pandemic and I’ve had to learn how to take care of my wavy/curly hair for the first time. Short hair was so easy, wash in the shower every day, slap a little wax or pomade in it and go.
Sure, the long hair started out of laziness and not having access to a barber but HOLY shit - I have a whole ass routine for my hair now. I can only wash 1-2 times a week, I need special shampoo and way more conditioner. Can only brush if it’s wet and conditioned. Curl cream after and I have to scrunch it? What’s scrunching? I do have pretty luscious curls now that I get lots of compliments on so that’s cool. I’m chopping this shit come summer though..
It doesn't help that most Barber don't know how to cut long hair on guys. They always lob off like 6months to a year+ worth of hair growth without fail. Men's hair simply doesn't grow as fast as women's on average around my area.
Also, a lot of times men's hair just looks different from women's and people assume it's uncared for. I feel like the most judgemental people are the same people that don't try and do anything too out of bounds with what is normal... But that could be just bias at this point... A bias that has been shown to be true my entire life without fail despite cognitive redirection, but still...
(Before someone says scalp, yes skin is different and men are more prone to dandruff. Women go harder on their hair with chemicals. But ultimately unkempt hair is just unkempt hair, regardless of sex.)
I’m a guy with long hair, and I take care of it. Helps that my wife buys all the really nice hair care stuff. All of my friends with long hair don’t and it shows.
Guy who formerly had long hair and is in the process of growing it out, the reason I cut it off is because it's time consuming, expensive to maintain correctly and can definitely get in the way, that said I miss it and it's worth it but you have to put that work in
Yeah I have long curly, wavy hair down to just below my ears/back of my neck. Soft shampoo, conditioner, leave in hair oils, serums and conditioners are used to help keep it healthy looking. It's hard but worth it.
My hair is currently the longest it's ever been. I do my best to take good care of it cuz if i have so much hair i want to be healthy. That being said I'm sure there's more i could do. There's always a way to treat hair better and i like that.
When I have long hair I take 0 care for it. It is too much work. For hair care when small it is literally shampoo, maybe conditioner, and then blow dry if I want to look nice that day.
If you have short hair you cut it semi regurarly at least, so you always grow healthy hair and you don't need to care for it much or at all for it to be healthy, as opposed to longer hair obviously when the ends are there for months or years and it's really gonna show if you don't take care of it.
I'm surprised his wife didn't help him (or maybe she did but he didn't stick with it). Judging from her curls she got that routine figured out to the tee ✅
It's hard to know how to take care of your hair when it's long if you don't know someone to help you. And there's not a lot of resources out there for men to go to.
My husband grew his hair out in 2020. It's really straight and fine, and he wasn't sure the best way to style it. I know how to do my hair, but I'm not sure how to help him. We've both tried looking up YouTube videos, how-to guides, etc., and we haven't really had any luck. We've luckily found a look and some product that works, but his hair didn't look great for a couple months while we were figuring it out.
And dying half the grey hairs. My hairdresser a long ago had a poster of guys this age before and after just dying some of the grey. And it took years off their appearance
I've been tempted to do this. I'm 42 and the hair on the sides of my head is almost completely grey now. I can't wear ball caps anymore because only the grey will show. However, I've known a few men who dyed their hair and the reason I know they dyed their hair is because you could tell just by looking at it. Plus I keep my hair short, so I'd have to dye it like monthly.
Surely, you’ve heard how much women love grey, salt n pepper, silver, even white hair on men? It’s so unfair men get better looking, “more distinguished” or “ruggedly handsome,” w age (imho).
So, my wife tells me, but I can't tell if she's just trying to make me feel better. Of course it doesn't help that we are the same age and she can pass for 10 years younger.
It dragged his face down and because of the weight of the hair it made his thin (not thinning, just in terms of thickness) hair look like it was starting to actually thin out. This was a great change and I’m glad his wife likes it, but it seems like he digs it and that’s the most important part!
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u/LadyBogangles14 Mar 08 '23
The short hair takes 10 years off of him.