Yes. Men do have preferences when it comes to women’s hair, though those preferences tend to give way when he deems a woman attractive.
Preferences aren’t anything more than a way for people to narrow the pool when it comes to potential mates. In the same manner a woman may have height/weight/body type requirements for men, men have the same type of “checklist” when it comes to women they may be interested in dating. More often than not, preferences tend to be fluid. I haven’t come across too many men who’ve simply outright refused to date a woman because she didn’t have a certain hair type.
There’s also a chance what wasn’t attractive or deemed problematic before, will not be problematic in the future. For example, while I was in undergrad I preferred for any woman I dated to not wear weave or heavy make-up. My dating preferences were pretty open then so I didn’t automatically turn down a woman who wore make-up or weave. If I was, however, deciding between two women, the woman I believed to be more attractive without weave/make-up was more than likely to be chosen over her counterpart. At that particular time, I had it in my mind that the way a woman wore her hair spoke to something about her personality.
Likewise, I currently have dreads that reach past the middle of my back. Depending on the woman I approach (or if I’m lucky, approaches me) her preferences will come into play. Some women think my locs are beautiful and would love nothing more than to spend half the day (and all night) running her fingers through my locs and counting each individual one. On the opposite end of the spectrum I’ve been turned down by women that preferred “clean cut” men with fades and thought men shouldn’t have hair that can’t be maintained by a brush. There is a certain stigma attached to men with locs (some believe the hair is dirty or can’t be managed) and it likely goes back to either what she has observed or where her standard of beauty is derived from.
As we all know, men are creatures who are more likely to judge based on appearances than anything else when dealing with the opposite sex. What a man uses to judge that standard of beauty can be based on any number of influences. Society tends to prefer that women look a certain way to be deemed attractive and if a man is heavily influenced by these outside factors, he’s more likely to find himself attracted to that standard. If a man has seen a variety of women with differing hairstyles who all look attractive, it’s likely he won’t make hair a determining factor when it comes to choosing a mate.
The preoccupation with women’s hair is mostly to determine if a woman is attractive. Meaning, as long as a woman looks good, a majority of men could really care less about the way a woman’s hair looks. You’d be hard pressed to find a man who found Halle Berry attractive when she had long hair saying she’s no longer attractive because she started rocking the short cut. Preferences for women’s hair aren’t set in stone, so if a man believes an attractive woman would look better rocking long/short/permed/weaved hair, he’s still more than likely to at least approach said woman, even if her hair isn’t styled to his preference.
In conclusion, yes, men do have hair preferences but those preferences moreso tend to be tied to appearance. Not just the hair itself.
So I want to hear from you. Do you find that men approach you more when you’re wearing a certain hairstyle? Has a man ever taken issue with your hair because of the way it was styled or stated he wanted you to go back to a certain hairstyle?
Hit the comment box and let me know.
Peace.
For more on RealGoesRight’s opinions on men and women, be sure to check him out with the all-star collective of black men writers over on SingleBlackMale.Org. If you prefer something a bit more direct, feel free to follow him on Twitter at @RealGoesRight and subscribe to his blog at RealGoesRight.Com
