Why the Tolkien Elves are thought to have a long hair by many

Hairstyles and Hair Length of Elves and Men in LOTR

I decided to examine the hair length and hairstyles, especially of male characters, in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and other First Age materials.

Elves

Whenever Tolkien specifies hair length, he says that it is long. In LOTR, Elven hair is described repeatedly as long. In the Silmarillion, most of the time only a hair colour is given, not length; the exception is Lúthien, who with magic makes her hair grow exceedingly long (The Silmarillion, Of Beren and Lúthien, p. 202).
Elrond is one of the few Elves who isn’t described as long-haired: “His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver” (LOTR, Many Meetings, p. 227)
However, the Elves, including male Elves, do seem to have long hair as a rule:

• “All the Eldar had beautiful hair (and were especially attracted by hair of exceptional loveliness), but the Ñoldor were not specially remarkable in this respect, and there is no reference to Finwë as having had hair of exceptional length, abundance or beauty beyond the measure of his people.” (HoME XII, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, p. 340–341)
  
  
• Which still means Finwë had long hair, just not excessively long: “Finwë (and Míriel) had long dark hair, so had Fëanor and all the Noldor, save by intermarriage” (NoME, Part Two, IV. Hair, p. 186).
  
  
• Galadriel and Celeborn: “Very tall they were, and the Lady no less tall than the Lord; and they were grave and beautiful. They were clad wholly in white; and the hair of the Lady was of deep gold, and the hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright” (LOTR, The Mirror of Galadriel, p. 354).
  
  
• Fingon: “he wore his long dark hair in great plaits braided with gold” (HoME XII, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, p. 345).
  
  
• Maedhros: called Russandol (“copper-top”), for his red-brown hair (HoME XII, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, p. 353); if somebody has people call him by reference to his hair and his beauty, it’s not a long leap to assume that he will have long hair.
  
  
• Celegorm: “golden was his long hair” (HoME V, Part Two, VI. Quenta Silmarillion, p. 299).
  
  
• Aegnor: “his hair was notable: golden like his brothers and sisters, but strong and stiff, rising upon his head like flames” (HoME XII, The Shibboleth of Fëanor, p. 347).
  
  
• Glorfindel: “his golden hair followed shimmering in the wind of his speed” (LOTR, Flight to the Ford, p. 209).
  
  
• Nimrodel: “Her hair was long, her limbs were white” (LOTR, Lothlórien, p. 339).
  
  
• Arwen: “The braids of her dark hair were touched by no frost” (LOTR, Many Meetings, p. 227).
  
  
• Idril: “her hair was a fountain of gold” (HoME IV, The Quenta, p. 148).
  
  
• Teleri: “walk in the waves upon the shore with their long hair gleaming like foam in the lights beyond the hill” (HoME X, Part Three: The Later Quenta Silmarillion, Of Eldanor and the Princes of the Eldalië, p. 178).
  
  
• Elwë: “Elwe himself had indeed long and beautiful hair of silver hue” (HoME XI, Part Four: Quendi and Eldar, p. 384).
  
  
• Elven bows: “strung with a string of elf-hair” (LOTR, Farewell to Lórien, p. 375).

“Long and white” is a phrase Tolkien seems to love:

• Elwë: “Elwë was their lord, and his hair was long and white.” (HoME IV, The Quenta, p. 86).
  
  
• Elwë: “Elwë was their lord, and his hair was long and white.” (HoME V, Part Two, VI. Quenta Silmarillion, p. 214).
  
  
• Olwë: “The hair of Olwë was long and white” (HoME X, Part Three: The Later Quenta Silmarillion, Of the Coming of the Elves, p. 163).
  
  
• Elwë: “the hair of Elwë was long and white” (HoME X, Part Three: The Later Quenta Silmarillion, Of the Coming of the Elves, p. 169).

Men

In general, Men seem to have long hair too:

• Tuor: “his hair streamed from his head” (UT, Part One, I. Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin, p. 32)
  
  
• Aragorn: “his dark hair was blowing in the wind” (LOTR, Great River, p. 393).
  
  
• Boromir: “They combed his long dark hair and arrayed it upon his shoulders.” (LOTR, The Departure of Boromir, p. 416). (I was going to ask who was carrying the comb, but probably everyone is the answer.)
  
  
• Riders of Rohan: “their hare, flaxen-pale, flowed under their light helms, and streamed in long braids behind them” (LOTR, The Riders of Rohan, p. 431); “Their golden hair was braided on their shoulders” (LOTR, The King of the Golden Hall, p. 510)
  
  
• Theoden: “but his white hair was long and thick and fell in great braids” (LOTR, The King of the Golden Hall, p. 512).
  
  
• Eowyn: “her long hair was like a river of gold” (LOTR, The King of the Golden Hall, p. 515).
  
  
• Gandalf (trying to blend in as not-an-angelic-being): “His snowy hair flew free in the wind” (LOTR, The King of the Golden Hall, p. 525).
  
  
• Man from the South: “his black plaits of hair braided with gold” (LOTR, Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit, p. 661).
  
  
• Eowyn and Faramir: “and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air” (LOTR, The Steward and the King, p. 963).
  
  
• (Húrin has long hair after his release from Angband but I don’t think that means much, given that he probably didn’t get the chance to cut his hair during his captivity and afterwards probably wouldn’t have cared (The Silmarillion, Of the Ruin of Doriath, p. 272).)

Further Thoughts

Long hair seems to be ubiquitous, for both male and female characters. There is also an abundance of braids – which makes sense for societies perpetually at war. I’d like to know just what Fingon’s hair looked like and what sort of braids were used in battle.

Sources:

The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien, HarperCollins 2007 (softcover) [cited as: LOTR].
The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien, ed Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 1999 (softcover) [cited as: Silmarillion].
Unfinished Tales of Númenor & Middle-earth, JRR Tolkien, ed Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2014 (softcover) [cited as: UT].
The Shaping of Middle-earth, JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2015 (softcover)[cited as: HoME IV].
The Lost Road and Other Writings, JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2015 (softcover) [cited as: HoME V].
Morgoth’s Ring, JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2015 (softcover) [cited as: HoME X].
The War of the Jewels, JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2015 (softcover) [cited as: HoME XI].
The Peoples of Middle-earth, JRR Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien, HarperCollins 2015 (softcover) [cited as: HoME XII].
The Nature of Middle-earth, JRR Tolkien, ed Carl F Hostetter, HarperCollins 2021 (hardcover) [cited as: NoME].