PC Hair Length

[EltanimRas]

Important things to keep in mind - your character isn't of a wealthy background unless otherwise permitted via your RPP role, it is expensive to maintain hair and would likely not have hair below the shoulders due to the costly factor of not only keeping it clean but pest-free. We do ask our players to respect the realism factor in this and you may find your application declined should your description step outside of realm of realistic in this game's setting.

Braiding one’s hair is a common sight amongst women and generally has meaning. Younger and unmarried women generally wear their hair in long plaits down their back, with the style of braiding showing a woman's work. Herringbone braids being most common for those in the fishing industries, and the most elaborate generally found by those who work in weaving or the textile arts. Married women will wear their hair braided up off their neck in various patterns of wreaths, bands, buns, or knots. To be promised or betrothed and to wear your hair already in such a fashion can get the tongues of local older women flapping in your earnestness.

Easterlings all tend to wear their hair long - and many either braid it or matt it into dreadlocks.

Personally, I have known plenty of people in serious, third-world, no running water poverty with perfectly decent long hair. That having been said, I find many people do tend to keep it braided - and sometimes covered as well.

Various sources (check Wikipedia for some examples, if you like) suggest that long has not been uncommon in pre-modern cultures, either. And even if that long hair has sometimes been oily, dirty, or lice-infested, this doesn't seem to have been as noteworthy - or off-putting! - then as it would be nowadays. (While it's not a particularly scholarly source, there's a fun Atlas Obscura page on fancy lice combs, for those of us who like that sort of thing.)

I suspect that while Pantene model PCs with loose, flowing, glossy waves of hair that swing past the hip may be unrealistic (and in some cases annoying), there's really nothing unreasonable about long hair per se, especially when it's worn in braids, buns, or (as suggested in the Easterling documentation) dreadlocks.

In any case, since the documentation as it stands is contradictory, some clarification seems to be in order.

[Sage]

We're currently working to decrease the amount of restrictions placed on PC's and this is just one example of that. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I will have it fixed hopefully by the end of the weekend.

Sage

[Rivean]

Personally, I have known plenty of people in serious, third-world, no running water poverty with perfectly decent long hair. That having been said, I find many people do tend to keep it braided - and sometimes covered as well.

Various sources (check Wikipedia for some examples, if you like) suggest that long has not been uncommon in pre-modern cultures, either. And even if that long hair has sometimes been oily, dirty, or lice-infested, this doesn't seem to have been as noteworthy - or off-putting! - then as it would be nowadays. (While it's not a particularly scholarly source, there's a fun Atlas Obscura page on fancy lice combs, for those of us who like that sort of thing.)

I suspect that while Pantene model PCs with loose, flowing, glossy waves of hair that swing past the hip may be unrealistic (and in some cases annoying), there's really nothing unreasonable about long hair per se, especially when it's worn in braids, buns, or (as suggested in the Easterling documentation) dreadlocks.

In any case, since the documentation as it stands is contradictory, some clarification seems to be in order.

My name is Rivean, this is my hair, and I endorse this message.



... I also must confess that I wash my hair maybe once a week, and Eltanimras brushes it maybe twice a month - which is the only time it gets brushed. Also, I'm poor enough to be comparable to a medieval peasant so I find the idea that you can't have long hair because you're not rich enough somewhat implausible

[Zargen]

Photobucket doesnt allow hotlinking anymore unless you pay chief

[Rivean]

Dangit, I'm old! Fixed:

[Zargen]

Jeez id kill for a mane like that

[Rivean]

Jeez id kill for a mane like that

Yikes! I shall be sure to bring my bodyguard when I come to visit you.

[Bones]

I think this is one of those things that should be hand-waived. If you want to have long hair, it's assumed you take pains to clean your hair (if you want clean) or not.

While it might be expensive for the population at large, we are PCs. We are hero-characters in our own right. I would think that you should be able to choose something as simple as hair length and keeping it clean, especially as we have bath-houses in game.

[PhocsM]

PCs with long hair are not going to break my immersion unless they have extremely long, flowing elf-like hair.

[Bones]

PCs with long hair are not going to break my immersion unless they have extremely long, flowing elf-like hair.

So Rivean the player breaks out immersion, but not Rivean's character.

Kill the immersion breaker!

[EltanimRas]

especially as we have bath-houses in game.

Not to mention a (free!) river which the (v)NPCs are specifically described as finding clean enough for laundry purposes.

Tolkien isn't really a "gritty realism" style of fantasy, anyway, is it?

[Rivean]

PCs with long hair are not going to break my immersion unless they have extremely long, flowing elf-like hair.

So Rivean the player breaks out immersion, but not Rivean's character.

Kill the immersion breaker!

What if I'm an elf? Betcha didn't think of that!