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Vulcan and Romulan hair

TOS Romulans did not have bowl cuts. They all had curly hair, except the female commander, and she had long straight hair, not a bowl cut. I think TNG (which was the first major showing of them since TAS), decided to pattern their hair after their TOS helmets/Spock’s hair, and couldn’t ever shake that style.
 
If you think about it, the writers needed something to connect these two species, who were actually one and the same, so that they had a visual ‘onscreen’ common heritage despite their differences in cultural, social and moral behaviours. Also, seeing as the Romulans had subtle ridges, this hairstyle helped to ‘associate’ the two species to the audience.

Alternatively, Star Fleet could have left a copy of a Beetles album on both the planets Vulcan and Romulus? A bit like when they left that gangster book behind in ‘A Piece of the Action’. I’m not sure what book, if any, was left behind on the planet in the episode ‘Patterns of Force’, but something from Earth and humanity must have influenced that alien culture too? :shrug:
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Cue up unfunny "we're talking about hairstyles, not hats" jokes.
 
It's a discussion board. Respectfully, y'gotta be prepared for someone to disagree with you on stuff.
I don't believe my replies were hostile in any way, but maybe I'm wrong on that. :shrug:

Well, the next time I get involved in a chat about Romulan hair, I’ll be more precise and state that I was referring to “The Enterprise Incident.”
 
You've put me in an odd position now. Do I continue to engage even though you're clearly miffed at me, or do I bow out?
 
I wonder if the hairstyle could have drawn inspiration from Frank Frazetta's Conan the Cimmerian paintings and Conan's wonderful and luxurious bangs. I don't just mean visually, either. In the original books, a big theme is the tension in a person's character between civilisation and barbarism, and that in a way barbarism is the honest element while civilisation is more of a lie we all agree to tell each other. That could tie in with varying Vulcan/Romulan philosophies.

1wfrank-frazetta-conan-the-barbarian-poster.jpg
 
I assume the bowl cut is supposed to be something like an utilitarian choice for both Vulcans and Romulans. I think it was someone here on this board who mentioned years ago that in case of the Romulans it could also be a nod to how in communist North Korea there’s allegedly only a limited amount of state-sanctioned haircuts that people can choose from, and I kind of like that explanation. Vulcans on the other hands could just be super uninspired when it comes to fashion choices and thus all default to some basic “Vulcan standard style”.
 
Maybe one day when humans are a truly logical species we'll all cut our hair like that

TOS Romulans did not have bowl cuts. They all had curly hair, except the female commander, and she had long straight hair, not a bowl cut. I think TNG (which was the first major showing of them since TAS), decided to pattern their hair after their TOS helmets/Spock’s hair, and couldn’t ever shake that style.

Which is annoying since they added the bumpy foreheads since the audience was apparently too stupid to know the difference otherwise, but then gave them the same haircut. It makes sense for Vulcans as a simple utilitarian thing but no reason Romulans wouldn't have normal varying haircuts.
 
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