Would a feminine long or short hairstyle be an inconvenience in battle?

(My post is basically referring to "white" hair. Kinky hair that can be braided tightly and securely, as in cornrows, is MUCH more secure and stable than anything achievable with white hair without lots of supporting product.)


This goes for men and women. In shows like Game of Thrones, or films like Lord of the Rings, we often see male heroes with long hair. These things a apply to them too!

Long hair, loose, fully or partially: yes. Movement would send hair flying in the face. Wind would send hair flying in the face. There is the danger that the hair would get caught in armor or pulled.

Long hair pulled back: yes, with caveats. While long hair that is pulled back is a much better solution, there are always bound to be flyaways. The movement of battle can loosen the hair binds, making it insecure and then leading to the problems with long hair above.

Short hair with bangs: yes, see above.

Anything that has the possibility of getting loose or flying in the face is bad. It's bad for vision and has the possibility to get caught or pulled in battle.

Now, it wasn't too common for people in those time periods to wash their hair frequently. Even if they brushed it regularly, it would still be greasy. Greasy hair does work better for tying because there is less danger for flyaways.

There have also been hair products since ancient times, whether that is animal fat or various oils, which would also help dramatically to make more secure hair.

The types of pretty, feminine hair that many people want? No way. But in the end, it's a video game, so who cares? I personally would not use such hairstyles, but I don't care if other players do.


Source: my experience as a woman that has had long hair for most of my life, through all sorts of experience and physical activity. If I ever joined the military, I would get a man's haircut without a single hesitation. I would not be bothering with hair during training and combat, especially when my male comrades don't have to. I need to wash it every other day or else it becomes a greasy hellscape. Hair = maintenance, even just washing longer hair.

Not a fan of elaborately-braided, taint-encrusted face squirrels?


I was making a point, not commenting on anyone's particular taste.

Spartans regularly went into battle lightly armored or naked, Romans favored the mobility of light armor and legs were often mostly unprotected, Chinese were known to go into battle naked to shame the opposing army and cause confusion. The heavy plate armor of the middle ages was extremely expensive. It was mainly reserved for kings, generals, and knights (nobles). A lot of it was impractical and decorative. Gilded with gold and silver, soft metals that did nothing other than increase the weight. There are few examples of female warrior who wore plate, but the few examples we DO have actually have boob plates. Look up Joan of Arc's armor...

So yeah, even if you want to argue the "practicality" or "realism" side of things in a fantasy game, the argument fails.

Indeed. Women belong in the kitchen, men belong on the battlefield.

Realistically men or women with long hair would have it tied up.

I have, and I didn't find boob plates. Historians who have pored through thousands of different armours unearthed over the years have stated they have never found a piece of boob plate. Not even the armour people claimed to be Joan of Arc's had boob plates. It's not a matter of practicality, it's a matter of compromising the armour. Joan of Arc was said to have warn very plain armour without any decorative or enhancing effects, according to testimony. Boob plate doesn't really fit the bill.

So, this for example was said to be Joan of Arc's armour. No boob plates.


www.stjoan-center.com/topics/armor.html

Or maybe it's this, again no boob plate:

Sure they had long hair but they tied back or braided it up before going into battle. 

The idea that Vikings had long hair may very well be a myth. Danish people of the time period tended to have short hair at the back:

“From picture sources we know that the Vikings had well-groomed beards and hair. The men had long fringes and short hair on the back of the head," she says, adding that the beard could be short or long, but it was always well-groomed. Further down on the neck, the skin was shaved.

Two sources support this view:

One is a three-dimensional carved male head on a wagon in the Oseberg ship burial mound in Norway. The man’s hair is well groomed and he has an elegant long moustache and a chin beard that reaches up to his moustache, but apparently not out to the cheeks.

The second source is an anonymous Old English letter in which a man admonishes his brother to follow the Anglo-Saxon practice and not give in to ‘Danish fashion with a shaved neck and blinded eyes’. Blinded eyes probably meant a long fringe.

The women’s hair was usually long. It was probably tied into a knot on the back of the head, and the knot may have been decorated with coloured tape, which was braided into the hair. The women also wore a bonnet or a scarf around their heads.

sciencenordic.com/what-vikings-really-looked

Someone in the DA writer group did their research. Always nice to see

Here's a question... would wearing plate even be "practical" if you're regularly fighting enemies that can breathe or throw fire? The idea of being slowly cooked in a metal oven would probably dissuade that. If BW cared about practicality, the Templars would wear lots of flame/frost resistant padded armor.

But then if they didn't do that, they wouldn't like Knights Templar from the middle ages... clearly aesthetic choices are made when making a video game, and squabbling over if it's practical or not is pretty stupid.

I remember in Dark Souls looking at this dude in plate armour face a giant about 40 feet tall wielding a massive club. And considering plate had a weakness to blunt heavy weapons because it broke bones underneath, I thought you shouldn't be wearing that armour in the first place xD. Let's see if I can find the image ... this'll do. I mean, I hope you feel safe with that breast plate and shield, lol

I'm no expert, but isn't their hair like super thick, straight, and unlikely to tangle? Not this baby fine stuff most americans got that tangles itself from nothing.

This is a fantasy roleplaying game, convenience doesn't matter. If I want to wear stripper armor and have long loong hair, I should be able to, just as much as convenient sturdy armor that looks ugly, but practical, and a bald head.

But I'm pretty sure BW has chosen their design philosophy, and they'll stick to that. But I do personally believe that the lack of long hair isn't some kind of a political stance or a design philosophy, but rather lack of experience and competence when it comes to modeling and animating long hair. It isn't ez pz.. Making games is expensive as well, and the time used on long hair can be used to something more important.