Petition: Floor + hair to be called Rapunzel or Fantasy Length

[Bat]

As your hair gets longer you will probably have people calling you "Rapunzel" anyway, I have been called that by a mother and her little girl. Maybe it helped that I was standing at the foot of a medieval tower at the time

maybe from the back! maybe i'll be called boypunzel

[gossamer]

I had floor+ length hair for a few years (back at mid/low calf now). Sometimes people on the boards would jokingly call it "epic length" but "floor+" is still probably the best neutral descriptor.

I know others don't mind the term "Rapunzel" used to describe their hair (or their identity as someone with long hair), but it's always rubbed me the wrong way. I realize this is a personal preference, so usually when people call me "Rapunzel" I try to gently tell them I don't like being called that in the hopes they'll respect my feelings.

I think maybe others use it as a catch-all term for long hair? Maybe because not everyone remembers the part about an older woman locking a young woman up in a tower to keep her from independent adulthood until a man saves her?

But I can't separate it from that whenever I hear it.

Kids, of course, get a pass if they see my braid and call me "Rapunzel," and I have a cute set response about "Nah, her hair was WAYYYY longer, this wouldn't reach out the window very far now would it??"

But the thing is I've seen that there is a subset of people (not you, or most people really) who use that term for long haired women specifically because they do want a world where a very specific kind of "traditional" gender roles are strictly monitored.

For example, I once got in an argument in comments on a hair photo I posted on instagram with a dude who told me about how I was like a princess stuck up in a tower and he wanted to come save me, and when I told him I could save myself just fine he got really mad, told me that I had to appreciate his compliments, and then went into some rant how heteronormative strict gender roles are "natural and right" because I couldn't lift a sword with my girl arms or something before blocking me. but also... such cringe. Same deal with dudes who sent me PMs on instagram about how much they love how I am "a Rapunzel" who clearly supports old fashioned femininity which, um no I'm not? Usually really easy to rattle them when I turn the conversation into trying to convince them that long hair can be for everyone, including them, and so are skirts and dresses, and so are any kinds of expression of personal style...

Anyway, just as someone who's had hair below knee length for like 9 years now, and ~4 years of that it was at floor+, I am awfully tired of being called "Rapunzel."

[MusicalSpoons]

I was once called Rapunzel as an insult at school (teen years), when I had hip~tbl hair. It was hilarious though because the boy got his fairy tales mixed up and called me Cinderella instead since then kids I worked with occasionally called me Rapunzel when they saw the length of my hair (between tbl and mid-thigh) and so yeah they get a pass. I do think most people just use it as a term for what's very long hair in their eyes, but gossamer your comment is very interesting, I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I'd not thought of it like that but when you've been faced with people who LIKE the idea of a maiden needing a man to rescue her, yikes! That puts a whole extra layer of really creepy meaning to it I really like your response for when kids say it - I shall be borrowing that if you don't mind!

I personally don't see the need for any description for floor+ length - the only non-body-part milestone we currently have is classic, and that's not something that LHC coined as far as I understand. I get the idea of making it extra-special, but I do think any other name for it should arise organically. The ones proposed in the poll, none of them work for me. 'Epic length' already having been used around the boards is a description I feel neutral about (i.e., I'd be perfectly happy to see it used and to use it, but at the same time I'm not advocating that it *should* be used).

[GoatLady]

I'd go with fantasy length.... because I'll never get there.

[Peony91]

I vote fantasy length. It’s cute and sweet.

I worry sometimes that the word “terminal” has morbid connotations. I understand the necessity of having that word to describe hair that’s as long as that person can grow it. But nonetheless, it does sound a bit dark. Having the term “fantasy length” on a hair length chart might balance that out.

[MusicalSpoons]

I worry sometimes that the word “terminal” has morbid connotations. I understand the necessity of having that word to describe hair that’s as long as that person can grow it. But nonetheless, it does sound a bit dark. Having the term “fantasy length” on a hair length chart might balance that out.

Maybe 'ultimate' or 'pinnacle' or similar might convey the meaning of 'this is it, the end length' but without the morbid connotations of 'terminal'.

[Bat]

I have to admit I like the word Terminal cause of its dark sounding I guess it's the Goth in me

[SandyBottom]

Aren't Terminal and Floor+ two different things? I thought Terminal was just the longest your hair could grow (where growth terminates), which might be at Classic for one person and Ankle for someone else.

[lapis_lazuli]

Aren't Terminal and Floor+ two different things? I thought Terminal was just the longest your hair could grow (where growth terminates), which might be at Classic for one person and Ankle for someone else.

They are, just as you said

-

I think fantasy length sounds very nice, but would probably have a hard time catching on due to the rarity of it and that it would encompass too wide a range of lengths. Usually people specify how far past floor they are (two inches beyond is quite a bit different than two feet beyond) and I think that's probably easiest.

[lapushka]

Yeah... let's not fall over words. It's difficult enough keeping track with all the acronyms and such, just let a word be a word, what emotional attachment each of us has with it, is our thing.