Althouse: "I have so many more part-related questions, but I’ll limit it to just a few for the sake of my word count (and your time)..."

January 17, 2019

"I have so many more part-related questions, but I’ll limit it to just a few for the sake of my word count (and your time)..."

"Do you think about where you part your hair, or do you just allow your hair to fall where it may, willy nilly? Do you agree with my mom that middle parts are 'less flattering'?..."

From "How, When and Why Did Middle Parts Become Cool?" by Harling Ross (at Man Repeller).

For the record, her mom's position was: "I’m just saying, I’ve always heard the philosophy that wearing your part in the middle emphasizes the asymmetries of your face, which is why side parts are more flattering. And I believe that’s true."

I was reading Man Repeller because I'd clicked through to "Menocore is the New Normcore, and It’s a Lot More Comfortable" while reading a NYT article, "The New Mom Uniform of Park Slope/It involves clompy ol’ clogs and a mysterious strap." "Menocore" is, according to the NYT, "a hateful takeoff on normcore, celebrated mostly by women in their 20s on Instagram who haven’t even started going through perimenopause yet."

46 comments:

Henry said...: Well hm. I just learned there's a handbag slump.; 1/17/19, 2:34 PM
rhhardin said...: Hit me with your midpoint, she said meanly.
- computer generated Tom Swifty; 1/17/19, 2:34 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: Dilberts from 2003 are relevant: this one and this one.; 1/17/19, 2:39 PM
bagoh20 said...: WWJD?; 1/17/19, 2:40 PM
Fernandinande said...: When Did Middle Parts Become Cool?

72,000 years ago and never.; 1/17/19, 2:47 PM
TestTube said...: The NYT article reads like a gently re-written press release for #6 clogs and and Salt Straps.

Because that is what it is.

Some team of PR flacks just got a LOT of money for getting these two products spotlighted in the New York Times.

(Cue Paul Graham's essay "The Submarine"); 1/17/19, 2:52 PM
TestTube said...: Oh, and the "trends" they write about? Totally astroturfed.; 1/17/19, 2:54 PM
Fernandinande said...: "Unlike dadcore or normcore, however, menocore is a lifestyle, one that prioritizes wellness, an appreciation of the arts and an empowered disinterest in the overtly sexy."

I'm stickin' with the Original Goofcore™.; 1/17/19, 2:54 PM
Fernandinande said...: Even Nazis do it!

"Was verbirgt sich hinter dem Styling-Trend „Menocore“?"; 1/17/19, 2:56 PM
Wince said...: Shemp doing Moe's part.; 1/17/19, 3:05 PM
Unknown said...: John's photo insert in The White Album?; 1/17/19, 3:12 PM
Jim at said...: Middle parts were cool in the late '70s and early '80s. The 'feathered' look. I hated it.

Much easier now using a Wahl #2, some gel and shop rag.; 1/17/19, 3:21 PM
tim maguire said...: Middle part for longer hair, side part for shorter.

I don’t think a lot about it, but from day to day it falls best in a different place, so I have to think a little about it.; 1/17/19, 3:27 PM
MadisonMan said...: I have unkempt curly hair. I never have to worry about a part.

Middle parts make me think of this guy.; 1/17/19, 3:41 PM
The Vault Dweller said...: I'm guessing there are differences on the part between men and women, but generally for me, as a man, I've always kind of parted my hair where the part naturally formed. As the day goes on, and the effect of product wanes, I have found that if the part is where it naturally forms on its own, your hair is more likely to stay somewhat nicely groomed.

Also Man Repeller is a great name and actually made me laugh out loud.; 1/17/19, 3:47 PM
Michael said...: I have absolutely no idea what any of that means. Is that my problem or theirs?; 1/17/19, 4:12 PM
tcrosse said...: I got your middle parts right here.; 1/17/19, 4:14 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: The strap reminds me of local friends who only buy accessories made at foreign missions. (The foreign missions stuff won't set you back $100 though.) All the NYC pictures thus to me look like highly dedicated churchgoers!; 1/17/19, 4:20 PM
Gospace said...: In high school (1970s) middle part on a male meant druggie. Especially if combined with wire rim glasses with colored lenses.

Parts for female hair? Never noticed. I assume each women does what they think looks best. I've been married 40 years. Don't have a clue where my wife's hair is parted. Maybe I'll look later, but I'll probably continue not caring.; 1/17/19, 4:21 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Maybe they're all headed to hear Tim Keller. That would be worthwhile.; 1/17/19, 4:21 PM
n.n said...: A hairstyle difference, or envy across the ages, which is uniquely feminine female.; 1/17/19, 4:31 PM
Yancey Ward said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/17/19, 4:48 PM
Yancey Ward said...: When I was growing up, I parted my hair on the left, but I hate wearing any kind of hair product, and parts like that are quickly undone without it. I started parting it in the middle when I was in my 20s and never stopped. It probably looked better parted on the left when I was younger, but just wasn't worth the hassle. Since I haven't lost my hair, I don't need a part on one side or the other for a combover.

1/17/19, 4:48 PM Delete; 1/17/19, 4:49 PM
RK said...: I see a lot of young white women on campus with Swiss Miss braids, which forces hair-parting in the middle. It's cute.; 1/17/19, 4:50 PM
Robert Cook said...: As a young man in the early 70's I had my hair at one point nearly as long as Ali McGraw's in the photo in the linked article. At that length (or any other) I always wore my hair with a part on the left side...never a center part.; 1/17/19, 5:10 PM
Tom T. said...: I don’t think a lot about it, but from day to day it falls best in a different place, so I have to think a little about it.

Mine always falls slightly to the left. I still think about it all the time, though.; 1/17/19, 5:13 PM
Sarah from VA said...: I also vividly remember my mother's opinions about parting hair. She took me to get a haircut and when the stylist asked where I parted my hair, Mom rolled her eyes and said, "Wherever it falls when she gets out of the shower" in a tone that clearly indicated that a person ought to have the decency to pick a part and stick with it.

I now do actually part my hair (and even blow dry it, some days) and a cowlick makes it so I basically have to part just slightly on the right. All but one of my children have strong natural parts on the left side of their heads. My son will be like his father and unable to part his hair at all unless he grows it long or uses an unseemly amount of product. It just sticks up.; 1/17/19, 5:15 PM
Tom T. said...: Mine sticks up sometimes, too; often in inconvenient situations.; 1/17/19, 5:46 PM
reader said...: With a widow's peak I have an easier time working with a side part. It has been thirty years - so in fashion or not it is a side part. My son, who also has a widow's peak, wears it so short there is no part.; 1/17/19, 5:52 PM
Ann Althouse said...: In the mid-60s all the women I looked to as style icons had a middle part — Cher, Michelle Philips, Peggy Lipton, Judy Collins....; 1/17/19, 5:53 PM
Mark said...: A number 3 all over and you don't need to worry about the part.; 1/17/19, 6:08 PM
stephen cooper said...: When women (excessively) talk about "style", the point of their excessive talk is not that they are interested in what style is best for them, or what style is not quite the best fro them, the point is that they like to talk about looks, because the average woman has about ten times as much power by dint of her good looks as an equivalent man would. And talking about that puts them in a comfort zone, and that is a good thing.

People in prison like to talk about how they have found God, not because they have found God, most of the time (sad to say), but because the sort of people who get out of prison early have found God, and the foremost thing on the mind of those prisoners is getting out of prison early.

OK, leaving aside prison analogies, let's go on. For young men who are the same age as the women who spend so much time talking about where to part their hair, the incentives are different. Young men consider themselves indestructible (hence their high rates of death from violence and lack of common sense) because they look back at the millions of males who through the years were their linear ancestors and all of whom eventually impregnated someone, no matter what they had done previously. So men like to talk about how cool and brave they are.

Most women are attractive in their 20s no matter how bad their hair style choices are.

And most men, in a way that is amusing to some and not so amusing to others, get away with being braggarts and lying about their exploits, and get away with doing stupid reckless things again and again, and go on to impregnate women.

Some people understand that, although all of our ancestors had children (that is the good news), every single one of our direct ancestors had trillions of relatives who did not have children, and .....

As Shakespeare used to say, the real story is more than human, more than reasoned words.; 1/17/19, 6:10 PM
Known Unknown said...: I bet those women are all yentas, or a good majority.; 1/17/19, 6:11 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: parting is such sweet sorrow

( see ya all tomorrow!); 1/17/19, 6:12 PM
stephen cooper said...: As for me, I think it is best, in the long run, to be a friend to angels.
People talk a lot about how this or that (known or unknown) angel helped them out, and that is all to the good, but even angels get the feeling, once in a while, that it would be nice if someone thought about them as creatures that like to be thought about, and cared for, and prayed for. There is no rule against praying for angels.; 1/17/19, 6:13 PM
etbass said...: Just curious, what would you ask for for an angel?; 1/17/19, 9:21 PM
JMS said...: I’ve read—I can’t remember where—that before Wallis Simpson, no respectable woman parted her hair in the middle. After Edward VIII abdicated for her, the center part became fashionable. And supposedly a round face looks better with a center part.; 1/17/19, 9:36 PM
Milwaukie Guy said...: Man Repeller was hilarious some dozen years ago when it started as commentary on how women dress to repell men. It quickly morphed into just another NYC fashion blog. So sad.; 1/17/19, 10:15 PM
Unknown said...: When I was in college, wearing a slightly-left-of-center part, my professors assured me that writers for The New York Times knew better than to rotate something "between" more than two items. And my clever mother taught me that "button-down" did not mean the same thing as "button-front." Sheesh. At least we're talking about parts and not those jagged non-parts that lasted far too long.; 1/17/19, 10:28 PM
JMW Turner said...: When I was young in the seventies and wore my hair very long, it would depend on who you would want to identify with, side part:Jimmy Paige, middle part:Gregg Allman or Mark Farner.; 1/18/19, 12:31 AM
policraticus said...: Emily Dickinson rocked the middle part. That was the 1860’s.

As a teen man in the late 70’s/early 80’s, male classmates who were cool always had middle parted hair. Inspired, at least subconsciously I assume, by the popularity of middle parted rock stars with our female counterparts. (Rick Springfield, I’m looking at you.) Despite my best efforts, the middle part eluded me, foiled by a cowlick that made any attempt at “cool” profoundly uncool. So, I went with a boring, traditional side part until genetics made all hair style choices moot.; 1/18/19, 5:38 AM
Phil 314 said...: “Ms. Martin owns four pairs of No. 6 clogs; she keeps two in her Manhattan apartment, the other two she keeps at her house in Sag Harbor.”

I can relate.; 1/18/19, 7:02 AM
Jaq said...: Nothing makes a man look more beta than a middle part. IMHO, though I am sure there are guys who can pull it off.

Like Archie.; 1/18/19, 10:44 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: A young man parts his hair; an older man parts with his hair.

I still have a full head of hair, but I suppose I should start saying age-appropriate things like that. A0C would approve.; 1/18/19, 11:43 AM
stephen cooper said...: etbass - in a hundred words or less - and with the condition that before reading you understand that I am a sinner, and have little experience with angels (although once or twice or ten or twenty times in my life - well, twenty is an exaggeration, but ten is not, at least ten times in my life I have been willing to give my life for a friend, and "there is no greater love than that", and so, while I do not understand angels all that well at this present moment, I have understood them in the past, because with "great love" we are accompanied by great understanding ---

...the hundred words (give or take one or two) start now:

Pray for those angels who were, in earlier days, best of friends with fallen angels, and pray they will see the joy of the repentance of those fallen angels (31 words)
Pray for those angels whose fate was to be guardian angels of those creatures who would have been my friends, my spouse, and God help us all, maybe even my own children, if unfortunate Death hadn't early intervened - such prayers will bring Joy to those angels, a Joy that you can easily give ( 52 words)
Pray for those angels who, despite their angelic intelligence, desire to rejoice, just as much as the most intelligent animal or human would, to hear these words (27 words):

these words, these beautiful words, which if you say them with true meaning in your heart will make you one whom the angels remember forever: it is no small thing to love a creature who never had a friend in this world.

I could go on, but you get the gist.; 1/18/19, 7:08 PM
stephen cooper said...: and if you read this, etbass, please let me know you have read it.
I wrote that comment only for you, and would like to delete it once I know you have read it.

Why?

Because I prefer to help people with prayer, rather than with my words, which are - when I get the words right - almost always bought with years of pain, years of experiencing my own suffering and lamenting the suffering of others.

Prayer is free, which is a good thing. I rely on prayer not on words, and; 1/18/19, 8:17 PM