to have never before heard of the rule that girls and boys are supposed to part their hair on different sides?

[HugoTheHippo]

DH informed me yesterday that boys/men part their hair on the left and girls/women (should) part their hair on the right. Apparently 'everyone knows this'. I have literally never heard of this before but have been sneakily checking out the hair-dos of strangers since then and it seems to be true! Am I the only one who doesn't know this vitally important fact, and WIBU to deliberately style my hair on the left now?

I know buttons are different for men and women, positioned on left/right depending on gender.

Can't remember which is which.

Doesn't really matter though, being left handed I'm already wrong in the traditional way of thinking

Buttons are different as men buttoned themselves, whilst women (ladies) had it done for them.

I have never heard it. Mine is parted on the left, so I am 'wrong'. It parts naturally on the left.

Never heard of it either. When I get my haircut the hairdresser usually asks me which way I part it and I tend to put my hand up to push it and say 'that way' (parting on the right, left hand pushed it out of my eyes). dd has the same parting. dh and ds don't have partings at all. One of those weird artificial differentiation things I guess.

I'd forgoten about it but yes I was brought up with that rule, and I have always parted my hair on the 'boy' side. Real rebel I am.

I have a fringe with a centre parting does that make me intersex?!

It's another load of crap like saying only gay men wear an earring in the left ear. Or right ear. Oh I don't know!

Mine parts on the left. Guess I'm masculine then!

buttons but not hair. mine parts on the right but probably to do with being right handed.

I never used to part my hair until a few years ago when I decided I fancied a 'style' instead of plain old straight hair hanging however it falls. I parted it on the left, it's now back to just flopping down on one side or t'other.

DH has never mentioned this but his parting is on the left, DDs and step son don't have definite partings.

I fought my crazy crowns by shaving my hair up the back and having a left parting sort of above the crown. Much easier. Just messy it up and I have an easy peasy to look after hairstyle. Short hair is cool.

Oh you all need to read up on the Hair Part Theory. Facinating stuff:
www.radiolab.org/story/122613-mirror-mirror/

There's an actual theory on this?

There is! But it's late and I can't quite remember the whole thing. That link does not exactly elaborate but the segment in the RadioLab show was fascinating.

As far as a remember, this guy (who is pretty unpopular and has a miserable life) decides to test out the "hair part theory" and flipped is parting overnight and his life was transformed: friends, job, money, girls etc etc.

There is also something about Jimmy Carter - I think he flipped his hair parting overnight due to his advisors informing him of the theory.

I'd never heard of it before, and my hair really couldn't care less.

The buttons one originates from the days when naice ladies would have a maid assisting with dressing, and men dressed themselves. The buttons were the same size for the doer upper, not the dressee.

I still panic about it today!
Your side parting doesn't dictate your sexual preference I really really do know that, BUT...
My DS4 parts his the 'wrong' way and it stresses me out no end. I know it's ridiculous, who cares, just my mother who we never see.
I'm just going to sneak upstairs to check make sure he's out of bed. it is 7.20 here and he needs to study for his exams

Never heard of this. I have parted my hair slightly to the left my whole life, it's just the way it falls. Am I secretly a boy?

Never heard of it. I have a boys parting, nobody had ever mentioned it.

It now makes sense to me why a post office worker commented that my then 3mo DD "has a boy's hairdo" when one of her colleagues was asking whether she was a boy or girl (she is a very girly looking girl with a full head of dark hair, parted on the left as it doesn't lie properly any other way). I was a bit at the comment as I couldn't understand how a small baby's sex could be determined from hair alone (unless it was adorned with many a spangly clip, which it wasn't). Most odd.