DOGGIE DO'S #2 (AFGHANS AND SPANIELS!):

LONG HAIR FOR MEN

     Let us leave behind the opulent curls of the poodle and concentrate on long, straight hair—with a bit of a tousle—for men.  Here is where the original influence of long male hairstyles becomes obscured and indefinite.  We all know that hippies of the ‘60’s, and later Fabio enjoyed this wind-blown coif, but did this long, straight style arise from the Afghan hound or the Swedish Viking? 

     When you study an Afghan’s hair, you will notice a straight part in the middle of the head.  Try parting it to the side and see what happens.  It won’t last for long.  Plunk.  The canine hair (or fur) falls directly back into a center part.  Try the same thing with a Swedish Viking—though this would be a difficult task considering these Thor-like men don’t exist anymore.  But, after painstaking study of historic pictures and working with manikin wigs, scientists have found the same relentless center part on the heads of Viking men.  So who began to sport this lavish style first, or did they both happen to fall on it simultaneously? 

     As history has it, the Afghan hound was “discovered” by Europeans in the 1800’s in Afghanistan.  But wait!  The Vikings (guys like Thor) were carousing around and raiding villages from 800AD through the 11^th Century—probably even longer than that.  So, were these elegant, spindly dogs impressed with what they viewed on the pages of Viking magazine ads, featuring the latest leather boots and horned hats of the time?  But wait, again!  Just because the Western World “claims” to have discovered Afghan dogs in the 19^th Century, how can we be so egocentric to believe that these creatures could not have existed before setting our Western eyes on them?  Couldn’t the Afghan have originated earlier than that?  Scientists now theorize the Afghan trotted amongst the ancient Egyptians.  Could it have been that Vikings got a hold of Afghan dog magazines and spotted the long, flowing blonde hair in some of their fashion ads featuring collars and water bowls?  It is such a befuddling mystery that consumes us all!

    Our next mystery involves balding longhaired men and dogs with the same hairstyle tastes.  Take the example of Benjamin Franklin and the Cocker Spaniel.  Now we know for a fact that Benjamin Franklin was around in the 1700’s, working on his almanac, creating hoaxes for his brother’s newspaper, flying kites in the rain, and wooing wealthy French women to convince their husbands to aid in the Revolutionary War effort.  But when did the Cocker Spaniel first come under the radar?  I have a strong feeling Ben Franklin was under the influence of these bouncy canines.  The Spaniel family goes back as far as the 14^th Century.  (For all us Americans, take the number with the “th” after it, and revert back one more number.  14^th Century becomes 1300’s.  Wow, that’s a long time ago!)

     Balding has been a problem since the beginning of time.  A way to trick an onlooker’s eye into seeing vast quantities of hair would be to grow the sides into long locks: Cocker Spaniels…Benjamin Franklin…Richard O’Brien of the Rocky Horror Show...  And though the Cocker Spaniel is not literally bald on top of it’s cranium, it still has very, very short fur.  The comb-over, with lots of hairspray, is another fine trick to obscure baldness, but dogs seem not to have been influenced by this human deception in the least.  (Scientists and zoologists are still searching the globe for evidence of the mysterious “comb-over dog.”) 

     And there you have it.  The wind-blown center part and the longhaired balding look are historic marvels indeed.  Human men and dogs have both donned these hairstyles for eons and will find reassurance in them for years to come.  This is why dogs continue to be man’s best friend!