On Sat, 14 Apr 2001, John D. Giorgis wrote:
> At 12:42 PM 4/13/01 -0400 David Hobby wrote:
>
> > I don't buy this at all. If you have long hair, you tie it
> >back securely. Then it is out of the way while you fight, and makes
> >no difference. Note that Viking warriors typically had long hair, for
> >example. You are merely reflecting a bias of your own culture.
>
> I guess it depends how long you think "long" is. Obviously,
> shoulder-length hair can be tied behind one's head relatively easily.
> Although I certainly wouldn't know, I would think that hair that
> extends half-way down one's back would be a bit more problematic.
There are tidy ways of getting longer hair out of the way. Trust me on
that one. :) My sister gets her hair up in a jiffy on a regular basis
fairly easily, and hers is down to around the bottom of her shoulder
blades, I think. Mine's a little more problematic, but "long" doesn't
have to be as extreme as "just a little past the bottom of one's
buttocks". (And it's easier to deal with if it's been trimmed to a more
uniform length recently.) Part of my problem stems not from the length,
but the texture of my hair. (It's fairly coarse and wavy, while my
sister's is somewhat finer and not quite as wavy. My husband's hair is
even finer, and in some ways easier to deal with. He's got his down to
below his waist these days.)
One issue in hand-to-hand combat is, does the hair give the opponent a way
to grab you? That would be my big concern.
Another thing to consider is, if you're making an effort to be more
hygenic (and your soldiers stay healthier if you make them do so), longer
hair takes more time to take care of properly in that respect. Drying
long hair means either using artificial means (which, depending on what
they are, may be damaging to the hair, so you end up needing to keep it
shorter so as to eliminate the worst of the damaged part over time) or
taking longer to let it air-dry. From the time I step out of the shower
to the time I consider my hair really dry can be as long as 4 hours. If I
try to put it up when it's still wet, I'm pretty much committed to that
particular hairstyle until the next time I wash my hair. But due to the
way my scalp and hair behave, then unless I get really grubbed up, I don't
have to wash it as often as some other people.
Julia
