The Rapunzel Effect...or hairy and hairier

by Michelle Douglas

Reading: Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge

Watching: P!nk's Funhouse Tour DVD

Listening to: Bette Midler (have a crush on her bluegrass/gospel version of Delta Dawn)

Making me smile: Zumba for the Wii (I'm so bad at it!)

Rapunzel always kind of annoyed me. If her hair was long enough for the prince to climb up to the tower, then why on earth didn't she cut it off, plait it into some kind of rope and climb down the tower herself? Now, of course, it is possible that she might have been afraid of heights. It is also possible that was simply plain vain. After all, what if the prince didn't like her new hairstyle?

Passive heroines are no long in vogue (thank heavens!), but what about long hair?

Did you know that there is a 13-level categorisation system for hair length? At number 1 is chin level hair. Ankle/floor length hair is at number 12 with Fairy Tale Hair at 13 (in homage, I'm guessing,to Rapunzel).

When I was an undergraduate I let my hair grow. I had limited funds and hairdressing expeditions were an expense I decided to dispense with. This may also have been in rebellion to my childhood. We spent a lot of the summer at the beach and as a result my mother insisted I have super-short hair. And, honestly, false modesty aside, I wasn't a pretty child. I remember having arguments with people who thought I was a boy (and ordering me out of the ladies toilets!).

I finished university, I met the man who has since become my dh, and he LOVED my long hair. So I let it be... and it continued to grow - to level 8 Classic length (see below).

I got a lot of comments and people would want to touch it, but hey, it was just hair, right?

Throughout the ages, however, hair has not always been just hair. Hair length has often been freighted with significance. In ancient Greece, long hair was a symbol of wealth and power, while a shaven head was appropriate for a slave. In the Middle Ages in Europe, short hair often indicated peasantry or servitude. In the English civil war of the 1600s hair length could indicate whether one was a roundhead (short hair) or a cavalier (long hair). Hair length even gets a mention in the bible: "Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering" (1 Corinthians 11: 14-15). Short hair has been enforced as a form of control in the military and police forces. In the 1960s, a lot of men wore their hair long as a political or counterculture form of protest.

But sometimes hair is just for fun!

When I started working fulltime in a corporate environment, I did cut my hair - to level 4 (midback level). It's been at that length or thereabouts for the last 8 or so years. A week ago, however, I took the plunge and I'm now at level 2 - flip level. My hair feels so light! I spent the first hour after my haircut tossing my head so I could feel my hair bounce and swish (and probably looking like an absolute lunatic in the process).

Here are the before and after shots:

Remember the movie Sliding Doors? Remember the moment when Gwyneth Paltrow's character lopped her luscious dark locks for that super-short, super-blonde, super-funky cut? Women the world over loved it. How we wear our hair is one of the most important ways we have of presenting ourselves to the world. So, do we really think women with long hair are more beautiful than women with short hair? And tell me - now that regular hair saloon visits are going to become a must for me - have you ever had the haircut from hell?