Classic Left Part on Men

When men part their hari on the left, its a classic look for them, and leads to classic male personalites.  Its a look that has a lot of history, and is the powerful look of the man who is running things in a typical male fashion.

To start, look at the TV series Mad Men

classic look, classic behavior, and fits our image of what this era was like

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John Wayne – does it get any more archetypical?john wayne

Tom Brokaw ( compare to Ted Koppel, Dan Rather, both right parters)

tom-brokaw

 

more coming soon

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Miller Light Man Up Commercial

This set of commercials gets men doing “unmanly” things, like wearing a skirt, or skinny jeans.   This one below has a guy getting beads at Mardi Gras by exposing his chest – much like women do…and he’s kind of clueless overall.  They use a good looking guy with a right hair part to emphasize the point

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Superman’s Hair Part through the years

The first time I saw the first Superman Movie (with Christopher Reeve), I almost fell out of my seat – the film director or someone in makeup decided to switch his hair part from right to left when going from weak and bumbling Clark Kent, to strong and perfect Superman.

Now it turns out that the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, keeps superman’s hair on the right, which according to the Hair Part Theory isnt as strong and will probably lead to a more feeling and thoughtful Superman. The plot summaries I have seen so far have to do with struggle with ultimate questions like “what is my destiny”…not exactly typical Superman. May make interesting drama, but audiences will want to see the Super part of Superman, and the right part makes that harder.

The last big Superman movie, Superman Returns, with Brandon Routh also had this same right hair part, and while the movie did ok commercially and critically, the franchise sort of died out after that one. It also was noted that the movie “isn’t about a savior returning to Earth to protect us from evil (sound familiar?). No, this Superman film has as much to do with romance and self-discovery as it does with combating evil. There’s a lot of heart and soul in the story of Superman Returns, and the hero feels real pain and isolation in being the only one of his kind in existence.” (http://movies.about.com/od/superman/fr/superman062706.htm ). So the same kind of theme as the new Man of Steel movie.

Other roles typically have Clark Kent and Superman both with left parts, and only the glasses and maybe a hat forming the disguise. I wonder how no one figured it out that Clark was Superman?

here are pictures of the Superman through the ages.

Man of Steel:

MAN OF STEEL CLARK KENT

Clark Kent – right part

MAN O STEEL

MAN OF STEEL

Superman keeps right part

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Smallville

smallville clark kent

Clark Kent with left part

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Superman Returns

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Clark Kent and Superman both with right parts (Brandon Routh)

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Superman Movies (1-4)

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Clark Kent, right part, Superman Left part (Christopher Reeve)

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Superman TV Series

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Clark Kent – mostly straight back or slightly left (but does he wear the hat to the right?)  George Reeves

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Superman has left part or straight back  (George Reeves)

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Superman in the comics

clark kent comics

Clark Kent, left part


superman Comic2Superman Comic

Most comic book Supermen have a left part

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Subway Commercial Do You Want to be my Boyfriend

great example of a right parting man getting taken advantage of…this Subway commerrcial is followed this year with a new version and pretty much the same result for the poor guy!

here is the full link:

and

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Hair switcheroo at the debates

One of the quick viral photos that happened from the recent Presidential Debates was one that flipped the hair style on both candidates:

from the original post: The debates have started, which means it’s time to extract something meaningful and intelligent out of it, like a hair swap!

But in fact, whoever made this photoshop didnt get the hair part right – Romney is on the left. If we flip the image, note how the left part makes Obama look stronger? Another example of the signalling that goes on with a left and right hair part!

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Hillary Clinton switches to a right part

Update 2015: She is back wearing a left part.

Hillary Clinton, who has strong credentials in the world of politics and statesmanship, has both taken advantage of and been criticized for her strong image, often being accused of not being “feminine”. We think her left hair part is a key part of that strong image, and only rarely does she sport a right part. But it looks like shes definitely switched now, as all the images post 6/13 are showing:

See the difference between the above look vs her other images? Not just the physical difference, but the impression she gives:

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Hair Part Statistics

The left part on both men and women is much more standard than the right part – although in sampling large groups of people, the “no part” or center part beats both. Rough statistics from many observations show
about 50% no part,

  • 5-10% bald,
  • 30-40% left part,
  • and less than 5% right part.What I find interesting is that in business, politics and entertainment, the percentages are much different:
  • about 20% middle or no part
  • 5-10% bald,
  • 50-60% left part,
  • and almost 20% right part(!)

What makes the right part so popular in these influential fields?  My belief is that the atypical nature of the right parter’s personality will generate a lot more interest at the beginning – people stand out well if they are interested in standing out. So they get promoted, elected, and swooned over in these fields.

But the old standard still holds strong – a clear majority of influential people are those with left parts – they are traditionally more reliable and “knowable”. Check out this table of newscasters, left vs right – can you see how traditional the left parters are, and how non-traditional the right parters are?

(images coming soon:

left right Tom Brokaw Ted Koppel Brian Williams Anderson Cooper Walter Cronkite Dan Rather Harry Reasoner
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Rush Limbaugh – Ex Right Parter

Rush Limbaugh is in the news again, and not for very good reasons. Well, maybe for his ratings – he loves to stir the pot. But I think that his truly rabid and highly antisocial rants and raves comes from that atypical place that a right part creates. These days, Rush combs straight back, but when he started out, and probably since his childhood days, he clearly was a right parter

Once again, the right part doesn’t define any particular behavior, it just qualifies it as being atypical. Is there anyone at all like Rush Limbaugh out there?

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Crystal Lite Commercial – head tilt showing emphasis

Great new ad that illustrates Catherine Walter’s later addition to the Hair Part Theory … the head tilt emphasizing which hemisphere is drawing the focus …

At the end of ad – Girl Power to Go, her right eye is way higher, and then she tilts so her left is higher and the two guys run in fear of her power to beat them up! (“masculine” …). The one on tv is edited differently, where they show her holding the right side up for longer, during which they say, Girl Power to Go, and then she shifts to the left eye higher and they run!

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Subway commercials – right part sample

Here is a classic TV commercial that shows how the right part is shown as a total patsy:
Subway commercial – will you be my girlfriend?

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