What's with feudal Japanese guys and the "bald look"?

[redmetal]

from what I've been told, it was basically a way of masking hair loss...

 

[Aristotle]

You would have to look this up to verify it, the far east isn't really an area I study with any regularity, but I think it had something to do with a caste system for the most part. Different casts would wear different hairstyles.

Of course there were other reasons to shave ones head outside of the caste system (at least I presume they are ouside of the system). I know some monastic orders (the shaolin maybe?) kept their heads shaved as a religous rite.

 

[Angcuru]

You know something is awry when you spend a good portion of the day making life easier for the guy who kills you.

Umm, I think the little guys in pyjamas won that pretty decisively.

Nah. Had to send the troops home to quell the hippies.

The military significance of a short haircut is uniformity. The most equal haircut is...you guessed it! None at all! Or at least just a bit of peachfuz.

 

[D-rock]

I assume that I am probably wrong, but it could be they didn't want the opponent to get a handfull of hair. If you are in close combat fighting, with weapons no less, it could be the difference between life and death. Most professional fighers cut it short for similar reasons. Then again they did have pony tails so who knows.

Maybe it was just the style. Or it could of been something that was once practical, that then ended up having cultural or religious significance later. Those are my best guesses.

 

[Maldur]

and wearing a helmet is more comfertable with short or no hair, but long in the back so you can look cool

 

[Desdichado]

People always say things like that, but I'm guessing that it is mostly rationalization. Because at various times, military men have had everything from shaved heads to long hair braided or tied back. And nobody's ever made a solid connection between the military hairstyle and unit performance.

I think the choice of hairstyle is pretty arbitrary. The important thing is not the specifics of the hairstyle, so long as there is a particular style chosen for the military. The point is the same as having soldiers all dress alike - to make them uniform. If they all have that similarity, they feel more tightly bonded into a group, and work together as a unit. Hairstyle isn't about the mechanics of war, it's about the psychology.

That's not entirely true. There were some cultures, particularly of Central Asia, who had thick, long hair behind their heads as a form of armor for the neck.

 

[Krieg]

The military significance of a short haircut is uniformity.

Hygiene

 

[driver8]

I think the ideas about helmets and such arent really true. Like the west, hairstyles changed and developed over time, for the same puzzling reasons. Usually because it looked good to them. I mean in the 16 the century, noble women in the court of Edo had blackened teeth because that was an aesthetic ideal. Go figure.

In earlier periods, the Japanese wore hair long and in "ponytails" similar to the mainland Chinese. Later the shaved pate became popular, maybe because of sanitary reasons, and for aesthetic reasons as well. Peasants and commoners adopted this style as well. But there are many hairstyles associated with pre meiji Japan, and the style we attribute to samurai happened later in fuedal Japans history.

Heres a chart of various hairstyles in Japan's history. Its in Japanese but can be translated with google or bable fish:

http://www.cosmo.ne.jp/~barber/kamigata.html

 

[Prince of Happiness]

It's so they can hide the AC adaptors for their iPods.

 

[silentspace]

That's not entirely true. There were some cultures, particularly of Central Asia, who had thick, long hair behind their heads as a form of armor for the neck.

what?