Man and Woman Haircuts

Among those with short hair, Mayawati has company in names like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp's head Sheila Blair and PepsiCo's Indian origin Chief Indra Nooyi -- the three most powerful in the world.



In the latest list of 100 most powerful women in the world, compiled by US business magazine Forbes, close to two- third of them have short hair, including the Indian debutant Mayawati -- Bahujan Samaj Party President and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. 

Other such famous personalities, who are short on hair but long on power list, include American senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, US First Lady Laura Bush and 82-year Queen Elizabeth II of UK.

In addition, the likes of health insurance major WellPoint chief Angela Braly and Cynthia Carroll of mining giant Anglo-American have also opted for cropped-hair look.

In the top-ten of the 100 most powerful list itself, as many as nine have short hair, while as many as 75 of the total have their tresses falling up to or above shoulders.

However, presence of such a large number of short-hair women on the list might just be coincidental, as the measure of power has noting to do with tresses for this list. The US magazine has measured "power" as a composite of public profile, calculated using press mentions, and financial heft.

Those with long hair in the Forbes list include Argentina President Cristina Fernandez, Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon, Australian mining firm Hancock Prospecting's Chairman Georgina Rinehart, Rite Aid CEO May Sammons and Casablanca Stock Exchange Director General Hynd Bouhia.

Besides, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, India's Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi and Biocon CEO Kiran Mazumdar Shaw have hair touching to their shoulders.

The hair-length could not be ascertained for a few like Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust and Liberia President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, as either their pictures were not available or the head was covered on their photographs on Forbes website.

Generally, people associate long hair with beauty, as shown by most film actresses preferring such look, while many believe that some prefer to keep them short just for the sake of convenience. As long hair requires more maintenance, the women in corporate world and politics seem to prefer it short.

As per a German fairy tale, a prince was riding through a forest when he heard long-haired Rapunzel singing from her tower room, where she was kept captive by a witch. Finding no way to reach her, the price asked Rapunzel to let her hair down from the window of her room, climbed up on her tresses and asked her to marry him.

However, the power of Rapunzel's long hair proved short- lived as witch cut it short after finding about the prince.