Completely superficial:

[Flyaway]

I'm happy to see that the US women have abandoned the sloppy, half bun hairstyle. That's all.

 

[Empowered]

I too hate the sloppy bun. My daughter's team wears it. Drives me insane.

I think Madison Kocian wins the neatest award. Has she ever had a hair out of place?

 

[Mrs. Puma]

I too hate the sloppy bun. My daughter's team wears it. Drives me insane.

I think Madison Kocian wins the neatest award. Has she ever had a hair out of place?

You know I'm a fan!

 

[Flyaway]

I too hate the sloppy bun. My daughter's team wears it. Drives me insane.

I think Madison Kocian wins the neatest award. Has she ever had a hair out of place?

I adore Madison's hair. It's so neat and sharp.

 

[flowerchild]

Hated the " messy bun"!

 

[amiandjim]

Those Great Britain buns....just....no!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Those Great Britain buns....just....no!

horrid, my Pink said "that's not gym hair mummy"

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I don't have time to watch their hair. They are all so amazing and doing so amazing things that I'm happy when they are happy. If they feel themselves confined and good in a messy bun then they should be able to wear that. I hope that they don't hear the complaints about their hair. It's not a fashion show They are athletes. No one complains about men's hair cuts.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Oh I do

Louis' Man bun was a disaster ! But we forgive him his foibles !

 

[Empowered]

Louis's man bun gave quite a few people a bit of a giggle on social media. Brought back the man bun argument which was a nice break after 3 days of cargo shorts, yay or nay?

 

[2G1B]

We totally discussed to guys' hair - more than the girls'. DS needs a haircut and I suggested one, he said "no", then he started noticing all of them and saying if he would consider their haircut for himself.

 

[Flyaway]

I don't have time to watch their hair. They are all so amazing and doing so amazing things that I'm happy when they are happy. If they feel themselves confined and good in a messy bun then they should be able to wear that. I hope that they don't hear the complaints about their hair. It's not a fashion show They are athletes. No one complains about men's hair cuts.

Sigh. I said it was totally superficial. Thanks for the handslap.

 

[sce]

Sigh. I said it was totally superficial. Thanks for the handslap.

You did, and I think were treated a bit roughly in response.

I believe that appearance is a piece of the package. Gymnastics is a sport that involves performance, appearance effects how the performance is received. Messy bun at practice, okay, but at meets, not appropriate.

I also think anything that requires a gymnast to fiddle with their hair between performances can lead to distraction and the 2012 US team was messing with their hair a lot.

 

[twinmomma]

Gymnastics is a sport of presentation, which includes hair. Nobody's complaining about the swimmer's hair or the hair on the cyclists. It's not about their appearance, it's about understanding that gymnastics, like dance, or synchronized swimming, or ice skating, has a presentation factor that other sports do not. I once listened to a judge tell the girls, if your hair is loose it makes your whole body look loose. I don't think it's superficial at all. If two people come to a job interview equally qualified but one presents professionally and one presents sloppily, then 99x out of 100 the well presented candidate gets chosen. It shows you take your job seriously.

 

[Sasha]

I'll add in the defense of the OP's hair remarks that the population chatting here about gymnastics hairstyles are people who are responsible for creating, perfecting (and often cursing) suitable gymnastics hairstyles for our gymmies (or selves for you teens on here).

It makes sense we might want to talk about a relevant work topic

On the serious side, yes, women are subjected to much more critical and cruel appearance-judging on the whole. I think we are clear-minded enough to acknowledge this societal bias, judge and cheer a gymnast's abilities apart from her hair, and still be of the opinion that messy buns for a world stage are a poor choice.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

It's not a fashion show They are athletes. No one complains about men's hair cuts.

Actually the male gymnasts have received plenty of comments about hair too, 'Louis'a man bun', The length of Uchimura's at points and many of the other Japanese (long and distracting) the USA flag shaved on the side Mikulaks heads prior to Rio, and all the arm pit hair, and facial hair.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

Gymnastics is a sport of presentation, which includes hair.I once listened to a judge tell the girls, if your hair is loose it makes your whole body look loose.

Tight hair=tight gymnastics

 

[dancingimmie]

Tight hair=tight gymnastics

Yes, yes, yasssss!!!!!!

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I still respectfully disagree It's good to remind the young gymnasts that their hair is not supposed to be on their face during the competition, that's a safety issue yes. But if we tell them that the prettiest and neatest hair gets some extra points...

The world class gymnasts already know that their hair does not influence their scores in any way. But if they wear a hairstyle they don't find comfortable that can affect their performance.

I'm a judge and I have never ever deducted anyone for hair or heard any judge do that. Hairstyles are not mentioned in the COP so if a judge lets them affect the scores she/he is not making her/his job right.

 

[dancingimmie]

I still respectfully disagree It's good to remind the young gymnasts that their hair is not supposed to be on their face during the competition, that's a safety issue yes. But if we tell them that the prettiest and neatest hair gets some extra points...

The world class gymnasts already know that their hair does not influence their scores in any way. But if they wear a hairstyle they don't find comfortable that can affect their performance.

I'm a judge and I have never ever deducted anyone for hair or heard any judge do that. Hairstyles are not mentioned in the COP so if a judge lets them affect the scores she/he is not making her/his job right.

I'm not saying hair should be judged. I personally have noticed that when a gymnasts hair is tight she doesn't have that distraction. Tight hair = less distractions = (hopefully) a better practice.