I agree, in Oblivion you can be whoever you want to be, so any length of hair is acceptable. Also, what about NPCs ? Not everyone there needs to fight, plenty of shopkeepers who wouldnt be bothered by long hair.

Unfortunately, longer hair than shoulder length tends to lead to clipping issues .
On the plus side, you can do a lot with hair, even if it's short-ish.
I mean, check out the Fallout: New Vegas http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35878. Before, I just used the default hairstyles, but the selection in the mod just blew me away . Including both male and female hairstyles, there are a total of 221 hairstyles!

What is this hair of which you speak?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrtwESnTOwY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrb8PSpkhkQ&feature=related

That is something I'd kill to see in TES game Not only the hair and clothing, but a female walk as well! *wishful sigh* It would be so cool to make game models with this kind of engine!

Modern? You do know that the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all cut their hair, right? Roman women took it a step further and put together some crazy styles--and you can see those by looking at sculptures of Imperial women. There is a tactical disadvantage to longer hair, the least of which is it provides an enemy with something to grab and take the initiative. To be a solid combatant, you must deprive your enemy of every advantage. Shorter hair is just one way to do that.

Oh, and you need perfect aim to block an incoming sword.

Hair styles is a different thing, they are done with long hair btw. As for long hair on warriors - Scottish highlanders come to mind, vikings did not have haircuts either as well as many other people and cultures that was very warrior orientated (Russian people did not cut their hair short, neither did majority of the medieval Europe). And no you don't have to have a perfect vision to block meter + metal rod coming your way It's veeery hard to miss form the close up distance it is used at.

While samurai kept shorter hair... I'd argue they were some of the fastest and most refined warriors out of necessity due to their weapons of choice. The point is, longer hair is not good for hand-to-hand combat (in ranged there is only one disadvantage). The Dark Ages present a unique situation where weapons became heavier and more blunt. Remember that most medieval warriors were wearing plate and chain armors as opposed to lighter ancient leathers and furs. Vikings were largely bandits and pirates known for shock and awe raids and not so much "warfare," though that did take place. In most cases, villages would flee at the sight of oncoming Viking ships--exactly how the Vikings wanted it since they could pillage without much resistance.

And I'm willing to bet you haven't done much hand-to-hand combat yourself as you'd know it isn't hard to miss. When people are swinging at you, be it with a fist or sword, you're thinking about a lot of things--balance, fatigue, how to overcome them before they overcome you, not getting hit yourself. I'm will to bet that the millions who have died in combat since the Egyptians until the present would disagree with you.

I guess what I'm saying is that from a tactical standpoint, longer hair doesn't make sense. From a gamer standpoint, I say give me as many options as you can and I'll overlook things like tactics.

It's a game. Who cares if it's practical or not? I just want my character to look good.

I remember reading about female warriors back in ancient times that would burn their briasts off so that they could fight better. Should we incorporate that into Skyrim also?

Unless there is a system in the game where opponents will grab your long hair, pin you in place, and cut your throat then it doesn't really matter what length of hair you have.

For RP/freedom purposes some longer hairstyles would be cool.

Nord woman's hair is likely the longest it will get, although you can't really tell how far down her back it goes.

[img]http://images.[censored].org/v/src/1312989604643.jpg[/img]

Oh, I use the modded hairs, but only the shorter and simpler ones. You just can't get those simpler hairstyles without the other few dozen feathered/beaded/braided/funny-shaped-bun'd hairstyles in the pack.

Wait, why only female hair? Why can't both male and female get all styles available?

Hell, if I want to make a character like Legolas, am I screwed or what?

Not if you play the PC version

I only want long hair if it isnt going to pierce through my armor. I want hair that doesn't break immersion or Id rather shave my female character's head and pretend she was going to deliver a sacred artifact with Monkey, Pigsy and a water demon...

Yea. Too bad that Bethesda won't make more use of updated technology more often. The game Aion was a crappy game, but I loved their character creation system. Plus, Aion had hair physics and I didn't remember any long hairs clipping through armors as well. If a crappy game such as Aion was able to make use of hair physics, I don't see why Bethesda can't.

Because Aion was solely a PC release and Skyrim is multi-platform. PS3's and Xbox 360's can't do hair physics.
Maybe for The Elder Scrolls VI?

Hair, that's hair not fur, has always been a weakness of Bethesda's. Hair has turned out to be more an exoskeleton than something soft and malleable. Thats why I always found tied up buns or short hair to be ideal. It didn't make my character look so obviously fake like long hair did.

I ended up using the vanilla styles because they were the ones that fitted best with the hats.