It gets stuck in their teeth, their belt buckles, their car doors. It’s a hazard around fans, food processors and roller coasters. It elicits never-ending comments, questions and catcalls. And it takes forever to wash, dry and curl. Yet there are grwon women who happily put up with these hassles (and a lot more) for the sake of their long hair – even at a time when short hair is the height of fashion.

The advantages far outweigh the inconveniences, say the modern Rapunzels.

Long hair is an attention-getter. It’s memorable. It’s sexy.

Shor hair can be pert, cut, chic. But it can never be as totally, sensually feminine as long hair.

Consider: Would Botticelli’s Venus be as bewitching with a bob? Would Barbie continue to fascinate without her glistening mane? Would Cher be beautiful bald?

A century ago, it was most unusual for a woman to have short hair. Today, it’s almost as surprising to find one with really long hair.

But therein lies much of its attraction” It makes a woman unique.

“I like it because it’s unusual,” said Susan Marsh Perry, 31, of Bangor, whose golden tresses fall about 28 inches – six inches less than last month when her husband helped trim her hair to get rid of “straggly ends.”

“I’d feel like I lost a part of myself if I cut it short,” said Perry, whose always sported long hair. “My mother always said, “Don’t cut that hair. Don’t you ever cut that hair.”

Perry admits that the hair sometimes gets caught in the car door or even in the knobs of adjustable chairs at the clinic where the dental hygiene instructor works. Her two daughters – Rachel, 2 1/2, and Courtney, 7 months – also like to grab her hair and pull it, usually when they have sticky fingers.

“But it has a lot more advantaged,” said Perry. “When I talk to people with short hair, they’re always having to wash it and curl it and get it permed and fix it and spray it. God, I’ve got it easy. I just wash it twice a week and comb it out.”

Her husband, Dave, joked that it takes, “Oh about nine innings,” for her hair to dry, but Marsh Perry said it really takes only about 45 minutes to an hour to air dry it, and only 10 minutes to blow dry.

When it gets hot in the summer, Perry just pulls her hair back and braids it – “You can do a lot of things with it. You’re not just stuck with one hair style.”

For Debbie Hoffman, 37, of Orlando, Fla. long hair is her trademark. A personal banker with SunBank, she wears her dark, wavy tresses hanging loose to her waist.

“When I call customers on the phone, they’ll say, “Oh, yes, I remember you” You’re the one with the long hair.”

“Sometimes I wonder if they’d remember me if I didn’t have the long hair,” she added wryly. “I wish sometimes they’d comment on my great personality, not my hair.”

Still, she’s not about to cut it off to find out. “I thought I’d be too old for long hair when I reached my 30s, but now I don’t think so. Maybe I’ll cut it when I hit 40. You don’t see too many older women with long hair. But now that I’m almost there, I don’t know. It’s become a part of me. It would be hard to get rid of it.”

Earlier this spring, Hoffman developed a rash on her neck. “But I’ve been putting off going to the doctor. I’m sure he’ll say it’s a heat rash because of my hair. I’d rather have the rash than lose the hair.”

Noreen Aring, another lover of long hair, endures frequent headaches. Her doctor attributes them to the weight of her hair.

“But I don’t think I’ll ever cut it,” said Aring, 35, of Altamonte Springs, Fla.

She has worn her straight, brown hair to her waist or longer since she was in high school. At one point, it cascaded to her fingertips.

“but it was too much trouble. And I didn’t like the look. The hair took over. It was starting to look like Crystal Gayle’s – Kind of weird.”

Initially, shw grew her hair because she was too lazy to bother cutting it, my friends say, “You can’t do that. That’s you.”

Besides, having long hair maked life more interesting. It is a conversation piece in the ladies rom, Aring said. And it never fails toa ttract whistles from “the construction-site guys.”

On the down side, her hair does get caught in the car door if she doesn’t remember to scoop it up and bundle it in her lap. It snags in her belt buckles, jams in her dress zippers. and throws her off ballance when she’s dancing.

There’s no doubt many women have long hair because, to the men in their lives, it is the embodiment of femine beauty.