Are Guys Afraid of Short Hair?
While I love my long hair, I've always been secretly jealous of girls with super short cuts, like Michelle Williams or Emma Watson. To me, short hair is edgy, hip, and super stylish. And I thought everyone thought so too; After all, most of my girlfriends gush about Ginnifer Goodwin's newest crop or Ashlee Simpson's '20s-style hair. Then, I had a conversation with some guys at work …
Apparently, many guys don't like short hair. To get to the bottom of this, I marched down to our office's parking lot during lunchtime, clutching a picture of Michelle Williams with short and long hair (see images on the left). A slew of guys were standing around the food trucks waiting to order. "Which do you like better?" I asked as I made my way around the lot. You don't have to be a mind reader to guess which one won. "She looks like a dude" was the most frequent comment as to why long hair was winning.
Related: Beauty Riot's Gallery of Celebs with Short Hair
Of course, Williams already knows this. In an interview with Elle she said, "I feel like myself with short hair … Of course, the only people who like it are gay men and my girlfriends. Straight men across the board are not into this hair! I cut it for the one straight man who has ever liked short hair and I wear it in memorial of somebody who really loved it." (She was talking about Heath Ledger, FYI.)
But why don't straight men like short hair? According to one study done at the University of Pecs in Hungary, men overwhelming prefer long hair to short, and researchers think this may have something to do with the idea that long hair means good genes, since it takes years to grow healthy, long, thick hair.
Related: 13 Ways to Style Short Hair
Whether it's biological or not, I'm betting that there's also a masculinity issue here -- guys don't want their girl to look "like a guy." So, I want to know: Why do you think men prefer long hair? And for all the brave women with pixie cuts, what types of reactions do you get to your short hair?
More on BeautyRiot.com:
Dare: 7 Days of Short Hairstyles
What Guys Think of Your Haircut
