Haircuts!

[Spoon]

I want to hear everyone's ideas about Zalanthan hairstyles. Are there any traditional regional haircuts? Are there any traditional to certain races/cultures?

For example, for some reason, I've always seen mohawks as elven haircuts. This is probably because a large number of NPC elves I've noticed have them.

Also, lets keep this from being a RP Nazi rally.

And no saying that dwarfs are traditionally slap-heads.

[Maybe42or54]

I would expect northern haircuts to be more flashy and artistic.

then the south would have more buzzcuts, buns, and more ptractical haircuts.

[amoeba]

I've noticed a lot of dreadlocks. Of course in a world where probably no one ever washes thier hair, this makes sense.

[Larrath]

In Tuluk, I'd see more casual normal haircuts, not extremely simple and not very fancy, even with the nobility.
In Allanak, this would vary like the clothes do: commoners will have extremely simple haircuts, while nobles will have ridiculously complicated and hard to maintain haircuts.

This is how clothing fashion works in both places, pretty much, and I expect that haircuts would be very similar.

[Cuusardo]

I've been wondering about the oiled hairstyles myself.  Being a child of the eighties, I can't help but automatically picture anyone with oiled hair to have a jerry curl.  (Glistening curly hair leaving grease on their collars, hoods, chairs, etc.  I cringe everytime I see a PC with oiled hair touching their hair, because I picture the hand coming away full of greasy mess!)

If anyone can guide me to any pictures that can help me to stop picturing everyone with oiled hairstyles to have a jerry curl, that would be awesome.

[Rhyden]

Since I've never seen any sign of a barber/grooming shop in any city/town, I'd probably say most commoners have long shags, female or male. Of course, those creative enough would probably brush their long hair, dread, pony-tail or braid their long hair. Others might just take out a knife and cut away and live with the results.

With nobles, templars, and higher-class citizens, I could see personal servants grooming with scissors or whatever.

The thing with mohawks and crazy hair like that is it requires a certain amount of careful grooming, which may not be ideal to most Zalanthians' style standards. Then again, you may come across the rare elf who trims their slim, greasy mowhawk every day.

[Anonymous]

Hair you are...

http://www.slickville.com/sections/residents/residents_menu.html

[Cuusardo]

That's a great site for men's slick hairstyles, but what about women's?  There are a fair number of females on Zalanthas with oiled hairstyles.

[Bestatte]

I imagine them to be the same. Males and females being equal (but not identical) in Zalanthas, men wear their hair in every conceivable style, from short and greased to long and curled, dredlocks to mohawks - so wouldn't women have the same variety?

[Cuusardo]

I personally haven't seen a female PC with short, slicked down hair.  It's always been in curls, or in an updo.  I just can't picture hairdos like that being oiled, with the exception of a jerry curl.

[Bestatte]

http://www.shootingstarhistory.com/hairstyles.html

Many of the womens' hairstyles of the 1800's involved oiling the hair. The first couple of photos shows the slicked straight look..

the center picture under the first line of photos shows the fancy updo, which required oiling the hair and plaiting it before pulling it into the actual style.

[Cuusardo]

Those hairstyles look FAR less greasy than I'd imagined.  I can certainly imagine some of the upper crust ladies of the cities wearing their hair in similar styles.

[Bestatte]

Most oiled hairstyles for women involved pulling the hair UP into buns and braids and fancy shapes wrapped around wire and mesh. I can't think of any era where oiled hair was worn down. Except possibly in ancient Rome, but even then it wouldn't have been dripping-greasy so much as brushed straight with lots of natural oils and perfumes (since bathing was more of a monthly thing than a daily thing like it is now).

[joyofdiscord]

(since bathing was more of a monthly thing than a daily thing like it is now)

:oops: Oops... that explains so much.

[Angela Christine]

Some people use oil instead of soap and water to clean their hair.  Massage some grease through your hair, comb it out, then use dry cloth or other absorbant material to absorb or rub off most of the oil.  The result might be as oily as someone who does no heavy work (so little sweat) but only washes their hair once a week.  In an arid environment, using a little oil will prevent your hair from getting frizzy or unpleasantly dry, flyaway hair.  It could be curly or straight, but not fluffy.  Braiding it would help keep the ends from looking lank.

To some extent it would be like modern styling waxes and gells, but not sticky.


Angela Christine

[Angela Christine]

Ok, here are a couple lousy pictures of women with oiled hair.


http://www.rootsweb.com/~afamerpl/hairstory.html
Go down to:  Traditional Two-Strand Twists

http://www.i-needtoknow.com/rick/update/Asia/1998_10_16.html
Butter oiled hair that doesn't look especially oily.


http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-ant1.htm
The terrible costs of oiled hair.

http://www.rediff.com/style/dec/05teejan.htm
Lots of pictures of a woman with "neatly oiled hair."


Lightly oiled hair just looks a little more shiny than dry hair, it doesn't have to look oily.


AC

[Anonymous]

The thing with mohawks and crazy hair like that is it requires a certain amount of careful grooming, which may not be ideal to most Zalanthians' style standards. Then again, you may come across the rare elf who trims their slim, greasy mowhawk every day.

I always picture a more tribal like mohawk, thats wider and shorter which isn't that hard to maintian as long as you shave often or have your hair plucked.

While a more punk rock Mohawk requires a lot of work and tends to fall limp by the end of the day.

Having experience both I find the tribal mohawk (the native american style) a lot easier to maintain.  So I don't see it being far fetched to have on Zalanthian.