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hair fetish gets a guy 8 years behind bars
this gives a whole new meaning to the term "a hair raising experience"
though he obviously has problems, does he really deserve 8 years in jail?
though he obviously has problems, does he really deserve 8 years in jail?
Hair-obsessed man gets 8 years in jail
‘Haircut Bandit’ sheared locks from women to fuel fetish
LOS ANGELES, April 4 — When police finally came to Michael Howard’s home, they discovered hair everywhere: a thin carpet of hair covering the floor, huge mounds on the bed and in the closet, plus photos of severed ponytails lined up as neatly as bodies in a morgue. The cops knew then that they had finally caught up with the notorious “Haircut Bandit.”
FOR THREE WEEKS in December of 2001, Howard cruised the streets of Los Angeles and Long Beach, casing bus stops and park benches for women with ultra-long tresses.
Before he was caught, Howard chopped hanks of hair or entire ponytails from the heads of nine victims, ages 12 to 45. Investigators began closing in on the bicycle repair shop owner on New Year’s Eve when a deputy sheriff saw him approach a woman at a bus stop and shear off her waist-length hair.
He escaped — dropping his scissors and his hair trophy — but police nabbed him the next day. On Thursday, Howard entered a surprise guilty plea and was sentenced to eight years in prison for his hair-razing rampage.
AROUSED BY CUTTING OF HAIR
His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Gregg Hayata, said Howard became fascinated with hair as a boy and that as an adult, the sound of scissors cutting hair sexually aroused him. But the lawyer said that lust never interfered with his leading a law-abiding life until Dec. 4, 2001, the first time he went into the street and attempted to shear a Rapunzel’s locks. His life had begun to spiral out of control after his father died and his business began to fail, Hayata said.
“I think the combination ... made him start experimenting with drugs, ... and he just lost control of it,” Hayata said.
Before his highly publicized foray into hair banditry, Howard was known as a cycling fanatic who had learned to fix and build custom bicycles as a youngster — a passion that led him to open a bike shop with a high school pal.
Howard, who was once married, owned a home in a suburb south of Los Angeles for about a decade before his arrest and was described by neighbors as quiet.
Family members said Howard underwent an extreme personality change in the weeks corresponding with his haircut spree that they attributed to cocaine addiction. Police also unearthed reports from friends that Howard had often paid women as much as $200 to let him cut their hair.
A ****GY HAIR STORY
A police search of Howard’s home turned up plenty of hirsute evidence. “There was hair everywhere — big piles of hair in the closet and all over the bed,” Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Laurie Trammell said.
Police confiscated more than 40 hair fetish videos depicting people getting haircuts. “There were naked women getting their hair cut, videos of (Howard) cutting women’s hair, some of a couple who had each cut each other’s hair and shaved each other’s heads,” Trammell said. “There was a Spanish game show where, if you answered the question wrong, they would cut your hair.”
They also seized photos of the apparently consensual bobbing of a woman’s long hair and of a row of about 15 neatly severed ponytails, Trammell said.
Because the case did not involve genital contact, prosecutors found themselves in a quandary over what charges to press against Howard. “Hair is property like anything else, and it was taken by force, so that’s robbery,” Trammell said. They added a child molestation charge “because one of the victims was 12, and it was done for a sexual purpose.”
Ted McIlvenna, president of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, performed tests on Howard and was prepared to testify as an expert witness in his trial.
‘A FETISH IS A FOCUS’
“A fetish is a focus,” McIlvenna, who has cataloged 200 fetishes, said. “Things turn us on, and we establish a ritual or a pattern or a story. Some people don’t manage it well.”
He said hair fetishes, in which people use hair as a masturbatory tool or involve it in sexual fantasies, are fairly common and usually begin in childhood.
Howard’s harmless fantasy life spun out of control when he began experimenting with drugs, McIlvenna said.
“The No. 1 thing that causes people grief in managing their sexuality is alcohol and drugs,” he said. Still, he added he does not consider Howard dangerous.
“If we put everybody in jail who has a fetish, we wouldn’t have anyone running our government. So many people have them.”
‘Haircut Bandit’ sheared locks from women to fuel fetish
LOS ANGELES, April 4 — When police finally came to Michael Howard’s home, they discovered hair everywhere: a thin carpet of hair covering the floor, huge mounds on the bed and in the closet, plus photos of severed ponytails lined up as neatly as bodies in a morgue. The cops knew then that they had finally caught up with the notorious “Haircut Bandit.”
FOR THREE WEEKS in December of 2001, Howard cruised the streets of Los Angeles and Long Beach, casing bus stops and park benches for women with ultra-long tresses.
Before he was caught, Howard chopped hanks of hair or entire ponytails from the heads of nine victims, ages 12 to 45. Investigators began closing in on the bicycle repair shop owner on New Year’s Eve when a deputy sheriff saw him approach a woman at a bus stop and shear off her waist-length hair.
He escaped — dropping his scissors and his hair trophy — but police nabbed him the next day. On Thursday, Howard entered a surprise guilty plea and was sentenced to eight years in prison for his hair-razing rampage.
AROUSED BY CUTTING OF HAIR
His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Gregg Hayata, said Howard became fascinated with hair as a boy and that as an adult, the sound of scissors cutting hair sexually aroused him. But the lawyer said that lust never interfered with his leading a law-abiding life until Dec. 4, 2001, the first time he went into the street and attempted to shear a Rapunzel’s locks. His life had begun to spiral out of control after his father died and his business began to fail, Hayata said.
“I think the combination ... made him start experimenting with drugs, ... and he just lost control of it,” Hayata said.
Before his highly publicized foray into hair banditry, Howard was known as a cycling fanatic who had learned to fix and build custom bicycles as a youngster — a passion that led him to open a bike shop with a high school pal.
Howard, who was once married, owned a home in a suburb south of Los Angeles for about a decade before his arrest and was described by neighbors as quiet.
Family members said Howard underwent an extreme personality change in the weeks corresponding with his haircut spree that they attributed to cocaine addiction. Police also unearthed reports from friends that Howard had often paid women as much as $200 to let him cut their hair.
A ****GY HAIR STORY
A police search of Howard’s home turned up plenty of hirsute evidence. “There was hair everywhere — big piles of hair in the closet and all over the bed,” Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Laurie Trammell said.
Police confiscated more than 40 hair fetish videos depicting people getting haircuts. “There were naked women getting their hair cut, videos of (Howard) cutting women’s hair, some of a couple who had each cut each other’s hair and shaved each other’s heads,” Trammell said. “There was a Spanish game show where, if you answered the question wrong, they would cut your hair.”
They also seized photos of the apparently consensual bobbing of a woman’s long hair and of a row of about 15 neatly severed ponytails, Trammell said.
Because the case did not involve genital contact, prosecutors found themselves in a quandary over what charges to press against Howard. “Hair is property like anything else, and it was taken by force, so that’s robbery,” Trammell said. They added a child molestation charge “because one of the victims was 12, and it was done for a sexual purpose.”
Ted McIlvenna, president of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, performed tests on Howard and was prepared to testify as an expert witness in his trial.
‘A FETISH IS A FOCUS’
“A fetish is a focus,” McIlvenna, who has cataloged 200 fetishes, said. “Things turn us on, and we establish a ritual or a pattern or a story. Some people don’t manage it well.”
He said hair fetishes, in which people use hair as a masturbatory tool or involve it in sexual fantasies, are fairly common and usually begin in childhood.
Howard’s harmless fantasy life spun out of control when he began experimenting with drugs, McIlvenna said.
“The No. 1 thing that causes people grief in managing their sexuality is alcohol and drugs,” he said. Still, he added he does not consider Howard dangerous.
“If we put everybody in jail who has a fetish, we wouldn’t have anyone running our government. So many people have them.”
Korn. I agree on all. What would be an appropriate crime. In Britain, assault does not necessarily mean jail time, and I would see this as a relatively minor assault. What do people think is fair for this? Is it even serious enough to be brought to court? (did the victims actually bring it, or was it just the prosecution service?)
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