Longhaired dudes unite: The Longhairs community is here for you

T’was but a few years ago men feared sporting long hair lest society accuse them of being effeminate, a hippy or a metal head. Then came Game of Thrones in 2011, with it’s sizzling cast of long-haired kings and warlords. Fast forward a couple of years growth time and by 2013, ‘hipsters’ of the western world had given birth to a new species of updo: the man bun.

As with most things hipster-led, the man bun was received by some with scorn. Hipster bashers labelled the look “pretentious” and “girly”. Now it’s 2017 and we’ve had rainbow bagels and deconstructed coffee to get annoyed about. Man bun beef is well past it’s sell-by date and long hair has grown mainstream. Swathes of men have now experienced the heady scent of freshly washed tresses and the joy of accidentally being whipped in the eyeball on a windy day.

Despite the growing number of guys unleashing their mighty manes, there’s little haircare advice geared towards dudes. Enter The Longhairs, “a global community for men with long hair”, founded in 2014 by business partners Chris Healy and Lindsay Barto. Having grown their hair out at the same time, the pair were frustrated by the lack of guidance available for men and launched The Longhairs as an antidote. A year later they were selling Hair Ties for Guys.

The site’s bursting with handy tips like how to tackle frizz to thoughtful tutorials such as “how to make it through the awkward stage” and “5 critical tactics for camping with long hair”. They’ve also reclaimed the man bun, rebranding it the far more bro-worthy, highball. But there’s more to The Longhairs than tips and tutorials, Healy and Barto are proudly empowering men to express themselves as they wish, to shrug off criticism and “rock that sh*t proudly”.

‘Before The Longhairs, there were no advocates for men with long hair. If you had long hair you were called “slacker” or “hippy”,’ says Healy. ‘You were considered unprofessional and if you were looking for a job there was a good chance you would have to choose between your hair or the job.”

Healy and Barto are right on for tackling this double standard. If a woman were deprived of a job on account of her hair, there’d be uproar.

The Longhairs community is founded on three principals: advocate, educate and celebrate.

‘If you wanted to upgrade from that $1 shampoo, where did you go?’ says Barto. ‘You went to the women’s haircare aisle and stood there awkwardly reading product descriptions on pastel packaging about volume, sheen – there’s no aisle for men with long hair.’

This may seem far fetched; there’s nothing wrong with using shampoo marketed at women, it’s designed to work on human hair. Women regularly use mens shaving products (they’re cheaper and better). But there’s a deeper level of intention here, Healy and Barto are confronting gender branding. The distinct lack of haircare range for men enforces the societal norm that it’s not okay for guys to have long hair. And it is okay. It’s more than okay. It’s awesome.

Here’s how Emma Watson grooms her pubic hair

People who have orgasms every day are ‘more likely to get promoted at work’