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The name “hairpeace” refers to a term that was introduced after the 1960’s by Beatle John Lennon, but probably the term was mentioned earlier. However as The Beatles introduced themselves gradually with long hair it soon became a movement of freedom for men to have long hair. Before that time one probably couldn’t find not even one man with long hair in the Western world. So my site is also a bit of a tribute to The Beatles who not only introduced a revolutionary new music-style, but also made the first steps to hairfreedom, for the first time since ages it was “allowed” for men to have long hair, it became a movement on world scale. However the term hairpeace didn’t become wellknown over the world, John Lennon suggested by using that word that a struggle for individual freedom was going on. In fact it’s not the term, but it’s that thought I want to bring this back into the spotlights.
When I speak of hairpeace or hairfreedom on this site I mean: Freedom of hairstyle and length for males of all ages - boys, young men and adult males.
Hairpeace is a term which emerges throughout this site. I hope this describes the content of my homepage about freedom for men to do whatever they choose to do with their own hair, without “hairrules”. It’s not that I want to propagate the concept that all men should let their grow hair long, that’s a matter each man should decide for himself. But I mean the freedom of choice should be there in my opinion.
This site considers the attained freedoms in the sixties such as hairpeace for men which now seems to have gradually faded away and become more a phenomenon from the past. Little by little I have observed a change of perception and longhaired men have become considered an undesirable trait. People thought:”we’ve done something a bit crazy for a while, we now will go back to normality, like everything should be.” (Like nothing ever happened !!??) At the same time all of the stereotypes have emerged and are scattered around, such as the thought that men with long hair are almost always hard rock fans (some numbers of that genre I think is rather nice but it’s not exactly my music style, not to disparage hardrock, of course) and often there’s also a link with wanderers and untidy, unwashed hair and the use of drugs. Or a boy with long hair is called a girl, how strange is that, when a girl has short hair no one says:”she’s a boy.” I think those reactions are pittyful. Men with long hair is really the problem. When a man lets his hair grow it’s like he’s entering a complete different social class and society doesn’t understand what’s going on with this person. On the contrary, when a woman has a change of hairstyle from short to long or the opposite, the act only has consequences for her hair.
By writing about this subject I hope I can reverse a bit of the arisen lack of freedom imposed on boys and men, by invisible and unspoken “laws”. During my lifetime I have experienced a never-ending stream of negativity regarding long hair on men. I have wondered:”Why, what’s wrong with it?”
Because I have discovered I’m not the only one who has had these experiences I have felt the urge to speak out on the street, to give more attention to the subject. This is because I’m afraid that when one doesn’t exercise the hair freedom struggled for in the sixties anymore, there may someday be nothing left of it. I don’t want to create problems where there aren’t any, but on the other hand I have to be honest, having long hair as a male person in the year 2007 has been discouraged very much .
Short hair on men initially not self-evident
Perhaps at first glance this all seems a bit strange, but in fact it’s just a piece of individual freedom I want to advocate. (It’s not my intention to shock anyone, but just to give a different, unprejudiced, and open-minded view on something that has become regarded as normal by “us”. My opinion may not be immediately shared by the masses, but on the other hand in history there have been opinions which were shared directly by the masses and appeared at a later date to be totally wrong.) As well as for men I especially do what I do here for future kids, small boys and young men whose hair is shorn without their being asked. Those kids will never be able to see themselves with long natural hair without interference with the biological norm, which is given to all mankind by nature (both man and woman). Also in their lives they will never be able to experience the feeling of having long hair. When my son was young I left the choice up to him and he thought it OK to go through life with long hair. Only later because of reactions from society he felt more and more uncomfortable with it.
The use of scissors and shaving apparatus isn’t part of the creation plan for the human male. Also it’s simply not true that creation or nature has created the head of hair of men with short hair and the head of hair of women with long hair. If men should really have short hair as a gender-characteristic, then nature would have equipped men with heads of hair without growth possibilities. Also according to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, one cannot read from the bible:”and God gave Adam scissors and a shaving apparatus to keep his hair tidy and neat.”
This site is about a desire for freedom which isn’t recognized by mankind, however the lack of recognition gives many the feeling of enslavement. Those who experience this enslavement cannot simply explain these things or share it with others, it cannot be communicated easely.
There is no “we”-feeling.
One cannot find many others who will join him in asserting,”We want to be the one to decide our own hair style and lenght.”
This makes me think a bit of the women’s movement that fought for equal civil rights; many women at that time shared the same ideas and ideals.
Unfortunately there is no men’s movement that fights for freedom of hair style and hair lenght.
Men on this point cannot share anything with others because of an unconcious mechanism that makes discussion of the subject almost impossible; hardly nowhere in the world can you find an organization to increase “hair freedom” for men, or one to protect “civil rights” of men with long hair, or one that fights for equal rights for men to be free to choose their hair style and lenght. Hopefully one day there will be such a men’s movement for equal “hair-rights”.
But at the moment as a man it’s considered a strange act when you should speak out and say you let your hair grow long. Imagine you should say at work in front of your colleagues,” I’ll be letting my hair grow long.” I think you will find yourself being laughed at and not taken seriously anymore. This among others is what I mean with the subject not being discussable. If you get a reaction in such a case, people would probably say only women have long hair, as if long hair is a gender characteristic. In mankind this is not the case, unlike the example of the male lion. The long hair on a male lion is really a gender characteristic, it indicates masculinity.
The possibility of having long hair is first of all a trait of the whole human species. This long hair of the human kind is at the same time an ornament that is unlike that of other mammals in abundance.
By writing about it I hope I can make people reflect, so I perhaps can contribute to more individual (hair-) freedom so that a we-feeling can be accomplished. I hope I can contribute to a proces of more awareness, so that the enslavement becomes apparent and society becomes more understanding about it.
Because of numerous events in history and the existing view worldwide, humanity got stuck with the idea that ”women have long hair and men have short hair”; therefore the real complaint never reaches the surface and isn’t understood. One doesn’t talk about it, so it simply doesn’t exist. It’s a vicious circle which can cause men to always be sentenced to scissors and shaving apparatus, with all their implications. (When men don't treat their hair as anything more than something to be discarded, I think this may lead to a situation where men gradually don't have hair on their heads at all. This is not a scientific thesis, but one can logically be inclined to think that way.)
But I think it’s a fable to presume that all men think it naturally nice to let there hair be cut and shaved. They undertake having short hair as a matter of course, they don’t reflect on it (?????????????????????) Whatever, there’s no choice at all.
In the sixties the vast majority of all boys had long hair, just because they could, it was allowed. At that one time there was the possibility to choose and boys choose en masse to have long hair. Nowadays the freedom of choice has become limited again. Step by step people in society grasp back to the old values and standards “the way it always was”, they consider that as “safe en secure”.
Alas a man is socialized during long time in this manner and the mechanism that holds him is so powerfull and stubborn, it cannot easely be broken. All of mankind is brought up with the idea that long hair on a man doesn’t look right and thus doesn’t fit. Because of this socialisation people reject long hair on men, saying ”long hair looks no good on men etc.” But saying this doesn’t make sence at all. Long hair on men just gives a different appearance than long hair on women, but that doesn’t mean it would not look good. It’s a biological phenomenon given to mankind (man and woman) by nature. One cannot say for example, ”I think a male lion is not nice with all of that hair, it must be a mistake of nature.....................”
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