Thursday, November 02, 2006

Longing for an answer

I was just wondering over a trivial question, Why do men generally have shorter head hair and women longer head hair in Human societies. I tried to find the answer but couldn't find anything satisfactory than shorter hair for man are proscribed in military services just for the purpose of maintaining discipline.

In Indian context, i can't find any specific reason for this practice. i'm not saying that this is something horribly wrong happenning with our society, still just for a curiosity. One thing about men and women hair i know for sure - only men become bald, not the women. Women's head hair density becomes low but they don't become bald. Is that got something to do with shorter hair for men.

The only reason i've been able to conjure up is, it just started somewhere as a tradition and since then, its been continuing without anybody ever questioning it. Well, The Great Indian culture!!

Note: I understand that sikhs have long hairs, but again that's for a traditional reason. Similarly, the dudes having pony tails or boys who keep long hairs nowadays are doing it just for the sake of individuality (read - for pretending to be hip and followers of western values) So, somewhere in our society, it's not natural for men to have longer hairs. The same kind of argument will apply to women also. They do have bob cuts, etc. but still the ratio is heavily skewed in favour of long haired woman.

huh.. In the end, what a silly question when Indian Economy is growing and india's youth (i'm surely not one of them, according to the surveys done by business magazines all over india. Though i've never met even one person who personifies the ideal indian youth presented in these magazines) are sucking the lifelines of the West with their firang accent, writing software codes and by answering one or two profound questions of the world in BPO call centres? I should better get going to get a haircut. At least it will help to beat the mumbai humidity.