So after years of fussing with my thick, wavy hair and styling it with mostly my hands + some product I've recently switched over to more of a comb-over look. Since this was the first time I'd ever bothered to style my hair using an actual brush (combs don't do much with my thick hair), I found myself trying to figure out on which side I should part my hair. After messing around with parting it on both sides, parting in on the right seemed to work the best since it laid more flat on top and held more firmly once combed over toward my left in the front. I looked in the mirror and thought it looked good, so I ran with it.
Then I came across some articles online about a supposed "hair part theory," concocted by some husband/wife duo. Naturally, the theory has little-to-no scientific backing and mostly uses anecdotal evidence to make its case. It argues that a left-side part is seen subconsciously by people as more confident, dominant, and manly while a right-side part is viewed as unusual, feminine, and sensitive. I was skeptical, so I started searching around for pictures of male celebrities with comb-over hairstyles.
Clark Kent has his hair parted on the right while Superman parts on the left. This was apparently deliberate.
What I found was... confusing. Most male celebrities do indeed part their hair on the left side, but then again most right-handed men do so. There are also a few successful male celebrities who are considered to be good looking but happen to rock a right-side part most of the time. Despite the lack of a consistent through-line in my observations, I couldn't help but feel like the celebrities with a left-side part did, in fact, come off as more confident and masculine. It sounds ridiculous and is probably heavily influenced by my exposure to the "theory" beforehand, but I can't shake that perception now.
Now everywhere I go I notice which side guys part their hair on and I find myself evaluating them. I also realized that the way that I see myself in the mirror is actually the inverse image of how I actually look to people, so I decided to take a selfie of myself to see the "real me." I was horrified. I looked friggin' weird, I tell ya! Granted, I think it might be universally off-putting to most people to see themselves in selfies in that manner, but it was enough to stoke my curiosity.
So I decided to part my hair on the left for a few days instead of the right. You know, call me crazy but I kind of think it does make me look a little more masculine somehow. Problem is my hair is much more stubborn when parted in that direction and doesn't lay as flat on my head. I think that a cowlick on my left temple is the root cause of the styling difficulty when parting from the left. So alas, I ended up returning to the right-side part because it is just easier to maintain for the way my hair grows.
So... yeah. Don't look at me like that! I'm not weird, I swear. I'd bet after reading this and thinking it over you'll start noticing how people all around you part their hair too. Just you wait.
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