Why is it the custom for men to have short hair and women’s long hair? What tradition decided this in our world? Does it have to do with something in being a man? Being a man could differ from one place to another. They said the ancient Samurai engaged in flower arrangement, painting, scholarship, and other pursuits. Could these activities be deemed feminine or masculine? In many periods of European history, male hair was long; in ancient China, Japan, and Korea, hair for males was as long as it was put into a topknot of various styles. In many periods of the history of many cultures, male hair went from long to short to in-between. Who defines feminine or masculine? It’s biological, cultural, and all things, physically, men and women have different bodies, and it’s many things that define the genders and all people, and that is all valid. Occupations, activities, and interests are probably not determined by masculine or feminine. In the world of myth, the rules could be different because of the time, region, culture, spirituality, and religion. Many things in life define what people think in the mythical world longer hair is typical; at times, men are without hair, as in our world, there are many different kinds of hairstyles for men and women. Some men wear long braids in the front, reaching past the shoulders; in the back, it comes only to the back of the neck to a point, a style found in the north. In all parts of the region of the mythical world, men have long hair generally down to their shoulders, like women, they could be made into braids, many times, there’s nothing elaborate, and the braids fall to the shoulders. That has been a custom for generations. Similar to the ancient cultures of Japan, China, and Korea in our world, where men’s hair was long and tied up into an elaborate topknot. Such things existed in other cultures. Hairstyles always go in cycles.
Besides hair being long, men have created all kinds of beard styles. There’s the goatee, the mustache, the full beard, and long beards. On the side near the ears, men try to raise long tresses of facial hair; it’s cut just right, it grows to a long point, another point is shorter, and in the middle is the classic goatee with a mustache. There’s a type of goatee that is a style that is not pointed in the middle but to the sides of a two-pronged fork, sometimes, it’s tied up in elaborate coils. They (these) are of many styles. Some have a handlebar mustache, and on the sides of the face, the long tresses of hair come to a point. A type of long beard reaches the chest; it’s cut thin in the middle, and the bottom is bushy. Another variation of the goatee, the pointed beard is cultivated on the side near the ears, a roll of spiked hair in the middle, only a stubble of hair, mustache, or none, depending on the preference of the wearer. There are so many styles.
A type of hairstyle for hair for men existed, in front of the ears, braids of hair reach the chest style to a point, and the hair in the back reaches the shoulders and is pointed; there might be a type of ingredient that keeps the hair in place or the way it’s cut. In another variation, the coat reaches to the shoulders or cheek and flairs out like an ax shape; in the back, again, it’s complete and pointed. It’s to be remembered that the style of hair is required by custom, time period, or trends, sometimes it might be, but men in the mythical world are more individualistic, and they invent their own styles of hair. Some men use formal types of long braids in various forms. The braids are tied with many sorts of tresses that keep them in place; others are held in shape by some kind of ingredient similar to lacquer. Along trees or braids, that looks like a long triangular piece of hair reaching past the chest; there are other braids, and the hair in the back could be shorter. The sides of some men sport a type of braid that is curled to be carved, pointing like a scimitar sword, each separated braid becoming longer, reaching to the shoulders. Some braids look like ringlets or a chain again coming to the shoulders. There are more styles that the imagination could conjure in the mythical world.
Younger men do not raise beards until they reach a certain age; that is one traditional custom that is listened to, besides many young men don’t think they look good in a beard because they say it ages them. The women don’t seem to like it, although one could be a rebel here and there. That custom is going away soon. There is sort of a goal to look childlike or feminine. The point is not to look aged. When a male is generally a teenager, they have shorter hair just below the ears, by the age of seventeen to eighteen, they start growing their hair longer.
Women in the mythical being spoken about have the most elaborate hairstyles, an almost endless variety. Some are because of rank and occupation, some the whims of trendy changes, others personal, and there are ethnic considerations in the manner of hair. There’s a type of hair that tapers to a point in the middle of the forehead and wide ax-shaped hair on the sides; the coat reaches down to the shoulders in a side flip, like those in the nineteen-sixties. The flip doesn’t go all the way to the back, like that of the males; the hair comes to a point on the back shoulders. Some women wear short braids reaching just above the shoulders, and on the top of their heads is a kind of crest-like hair like the top of an ancient Roman helmet. The crests of hair vary, some of them taper to a point in the front, others are weaved, and some are triangularly elongated like the top of a Samurai’s hairstyle from the Edo period 1615-1868. One style is rounded like a sphere of hair that flips towards the face from the front. It’s as if the wearer has the globe on their head. On the side are the familiar hanging tresses or braids. In the back, there could be a crest of hair. A style might be considered attractive with three levels of inner curled flips, in the back a hair arranged in an arch shape. In some places, there’s a type of uniform that is worn with a headdress or cap with a ponytail hanging out, the pointed bangs in the middle, on the sides are the hanging ax head-shaped style, no braids hanging down. This is a description of the few hairstyles in this part of the mythical world.
Children have simple hair; girls might fall to the shoulder part with simple braids, and boys’ hair is long with shorter braids or without elaborate. Hairstyles don’t become common until the teenager reaches the late teens, seventeen to nineteen. Their clothing is somewhat simple, with intricate patterns and relief. Girls wear short pants or leggings. Boys mainly wear leggings with elaborate relief patterns and various footwear patterns.
The dressing of hair is done mainly at home by family members, or there are organized hairdressers. Hair does go in trends there are ancient paintings, sculptures, drawings, photos, moving images, and written and voice-recorded records of hairstyles. Over the ages, there has been a lot of complaining about the hairstyles from moralists of the past. One style complained about ten thousand years ago. Women then wore their hair shaven in the back, a high crest in the front, with small pointed hair that flipped outward. There was much condemnation from the surviving records because women in those days wore their hair long until it reached down to the bottom of the back, a ruling female chief created that style century before that. It became a cultural custom, then young women broke (discontinued) with that style. Plus, women kept their shoulders bare above the breasts. Keeping the shoulders exposed was considered bad manners. No matter what people said, recorded, or wrote, styles came and went.
Did headdresses cover people’s heads? That is one of the most common styles in the mythical world, depending on the region. In the north, covering the head is expected because of the cold. A typical style is a head covering that resembles a helmet with a beak that extends out some inches from the front of the head. It’s to shade the wearer; there’s also a colored or smoke-gray transparent visor that can be pulled down when needed for protection from the sun. There’s a circular or U-shaped ear covering that might be used for communication or just keeping the ears warm. The helmet-like headdress comes in many styles and is at the whim of style changes. There’s an elaborate headdress with all kinds of things sticking or extending out of it; it looks like a device on their heads. That could be true; the ears are covered with elaborate stuff or left free; there are so many styles. The higher classes might wear a high arch-like crown on their heads with several decorations or devices, whatever they are or were. Hairstyles and headdresses are integrated along the tubular part of the headdress, reach to the shoulders, and are intertwined by the hair braids. On the sides with the circular ear headdress, hair extended in style outward creates a comic style that’s laughed at. What’s become popular is a dome-shaped with a high crown that flares out towards the ears like a brimmed hat. It has elaborations that look like devices at times, there were headdresses that resembled a hairstyle underneath, hair was contained or was cut short; it was like a wig headdress, it’s not a true wig. There are ceremonies and weddings where the woman wears an elaborate headdress in a way resembling the royalty of ancient China. But there are more ornate, with patterns and decorations, or what seem to be, devices for the bride to control the elements and situations around them. Sometimes they are so large, almost filling a whole room, that it had taken the bride prisoner. She looks as if she’s hooked up to an elaborate machine, which she is. Most headdresses look like a helmet probably a device for communication and other functions.
The question asked is, do people ever get bald in the mythical world? Yes, a hairstyle exists, for males, they clearly are bald on the top of the head, on the side, the remaining hair is long and put in elaborate techniques as custom in some of the types of the many cultures of the mythical world. People also shave their heads on the top. This style is too typical because people are more conscious of their hair. Men with these types of hairstyle seem to take care of the people of the council and attend to a female chief. He appears to be a guard or something else.
There is a helmet that has a beak that has colored transparent material it extends out, covering the eyes, and the back extends down toward the shoulders. Hair is gathered up inside the helmet in the back, while in the front, the braids hang down to the shoulders. It’s to give protection in some regions when the sun is intense. This is a helmet when people enter through a door to another where that star has another companion. Thus, the intensity is too great on the eyes.
Traditional custom doesn’t always tell what sort of style people will wear is up to the individual, remember, people like to destroy tradition. A style where a large tube of thick hair falls to the shoulders, eventually became the style of the council.
There’s an exciting style a wide circular tubular headband in the front; another thin semi-circular tube is raised above the head with a transparent viewer for guarding against the sun. There are variations in this form, an oval shape with an extended visor-like a beak with transparent material. There’s a cap that reaches to the back of the neck. There are many styles and endless variety. The mythical could be a place of innovative styles.
Robert J. Matsunaga
