Another hair question: How old is too old for long hair?

[LibbyLA]

If you have long hair that is pretty, wear it long until you die.

Short hair does NOT have to be permed and teased! Think Jamie Lee Curtis. I keep my hair (which is very dark with a very few almost invisible strands of gray) short like hers because my hair is baby fine and a little bit wavy. It won't stay straight and it won't hold a curl (and I've only had one perm in my life that actually worked). There's plenty of it, but it's so fine that a pony tail just isn't very big around. It wasn't pretty when it was long when I was a teenager and the situation didn't get better as I aged.

There are many middle aged women who look a decade younger when they go short. I see that a lot in my fitness center classes. But women who have beautiful long hair should not cut it just because they reach a certain age...

liz

 

[ChristineRose]

When I was a kid I always heard that long hair makes a young woman look younger and an old woman look older. After I while I decided that it would mark an older woman as being born before 1900 because it was around 1920 when young women started cutting their hair and older women stayed with the once popular longer styles. Likewise it would mark a young woman as being born post-war as the baby boomers favored very long hair.

None of this applies now. The short permed hair marks you automatically as old. Young women now are opting for long and straight hair. You are probably best off looking at your hair type and face shape and going from there but if you really want to look younger, wear it long and straight if you can get away with it.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Circe had a thread on this a while back?

My feelings about longer hair have changed recently. Maybe because I am 35 now and have quite long hair now! My hair is about four inches below my shoulders. I haven't had hair this long in about 13 years. I grew it basically for no reason other than "why not?" And I get a tonne of compliments on it, especially from people who have not seen me in a while. Apparently it makes me look younger. I don't intend to cut it any time soon. I think longer hair has become quite acceptable for "older" women. Much more than in days of yore.

 

[packrat]

Pppffftt do what you want, I say! It's *your* hair, not society's. My hair is short now only b/c I can't "do" my hair when it's longer and I got sick of just pulling the front back in a little pinchy clip thing. It used to be fine and stick straight, so basically flatter than flat. Now it's fine, suddenly I have a ton of it, and it has a crazy wave, like a finger wave, to it, and is still flatter than flat.

If I could figure out how to make it long and lush like I just stepped out of the salon, I'd've kept it long. Mine was always stringy looking.

 

[Rosebloom]

But if I cut my hair now, how will I emulate Beatrix Ost in the fullness of my years?

P.S. - Partially inspired by Ost, I am currently dying my hair blue, despite the little voice saying that I'm "too old." Of course, I have less sack than she, as I'm only doing the last few inches. But, hey, I have to start somewhere if in thirty or forty years I'm planning to be the *awesome* kind of blue-haired old lady!

P.P.S. - Advanced Style is what introduced me to her, and a lot of other incredibly stylish women of an age mass media mysteriously ignores; as much as I like my students, no, I do not want to spend my life trying (and failing) to look like they do,or, somehow worse, like I did when I was their age, fifteen years ago. Trying and inevitably failing to recapture past glory is magnitudes worse than aging gracefully, though that's a weird phrase: for a lot of people, it seems to mean accepting a kind of granola naturalism that expects women to be sexless once they can't reproduce. No more fussing over your appearance! No more fun! Any fun you have is incidental to the fun you'll provide for others, apparently. Strikes me as being a lot like the definition of sex that ends with masculine emission: it implies that women are the means to an end for other people as opposed to having any agency of their own. Thanks, but no thanks - I'm keeping my hair and my lipstick and my tall boots and my short skirts, my steaks and my (electronic) smokes and my red wine and my chocolate, and I plan to bite anybody who implies otherwise. Even if I have to gum them.

I love Beatrix' look! Makes me look forward to getting old - I'm totally going to rock this look!

Had so much fun reading Advanced Style. Thanks for the tip!

 

[AGBF]

Kenny posted a photo of Audrey Hepburn with short hair. I am posting one of Mia Farrow. I think both women look spectacular with very short, boyish hair. I had a similar haircut myself this summer, just because I wanted to try it, and was told, 'it took years off (me)" by one person. I have to tell you, I did feel I looked like a sprite!

AGBF

 

[Sky56]

I've been told before that it's too long and I just ignore them. I have thick blonde/grey hair down to my waist and I am nearing age 58. If I cut it short, and stopped wearing contact lens and wore glasses, I'd look just like all those other older ladies. My hair gives my average looks pizzazz and people really notice it and complement me on it. ...oh, and it looks good with big hoop earrings, got to get in a jewelry angle.

 

[chrono]

Both my parents claim I look "more sickly" with long hair. DH thinks I look better with a pixie cut. In spite of everyone, I continue to maintain my hair past my collar bones although I caved in a few weeks ago cut cut over 6 inches off.

 

[missy]

I don't think long hair ages you and nor do I think short hair ages you. There are too many other variables to take into account.

I think you should do what you want to do-what makes you feel best-whatever your definition of best is. No matter how others think you look you should wear your hair the way you want to wear it. What fits best into your lifestyle or makes you feel pretty or strong or confident etc.

I would kill to look great in a pixie cut because if you have the features to carry it off there is no more feminine hairstyle IMO. I know that sounds crazy but if you look at the women who look amazing in a pixie cut (Audrey Hepburn, Mia Farrow, Beyonce- thanks for the pics Deb and Kenny) they look incredibly feminine. The combination of their delicate yet strong features with the short pixie cut is a beautiful juxtaposition IMO.

 

[Boatluvr]

I am so glad I saw this thread! I am 64 and my hair is down to my waist, very curly and kind of white/blonde/platinum. I get compliments from strangers but nothing except grief from my family. My mother is my biggest critic - she's 88 and thinks anyone over 50 should have short hair. So, about 5 years ago I cut mine off - it was about two inches all over my head. She hated it. Now that it's long again she keeps telling me to tie it up, pull it back, etc. etc. My sons prefer it a little shorter but I think they have finally given up. It definitely needs a trim - but go short again? Nope. I have wash and wear hair. I used to blow it dry and straighten it every day - it looked okay but it took an hour to do it.

I was at a flea market once, with one of my sons, and he told a vendor to look for the lady with the long, wild 'white' hair. They found me immediately.

 

[missy]

I am so glad I saw this thread! I am 64 and my hair is down to my waist, very curly and kind of white/blonde/platinum. I get compliments from strangers but nothing except grief from my family. My mother is my biggest critic - she's 88 and thinks anyone over 50 should have short hair. So, about 5 years ago I cut mine off - it was about two inches all over my head. She hated it. Now that it's long again she keeps telling me to tie it up, pull it back, etc. etc. My sons prefer it a little shorter but I think they have finally given up. It definitely needs a trim - but go short again? Nope. I have wash and wear hair. I used to blow it dry and straighten it every day - it looked okay but it took an hour to do it.

I was at a flea market once, with one of my sons, and he told a vendor to look for the lady with the long, wild 'white' hair. They found me immediately.

Good for you Boatluvr! My mom is 70 and her hair has never been colored (mix of gray and dark brown) and long. She usually wears it back either in a low bun or half up half down and she looks great IMO. At first I tried to get her to color her hair and now I am so glad she never did. It just suits her.

 

[SB621]

sorry I haven't read the responses so here is my .02 cents.

My mother used to cut my hair super short (like a boy) so until I was in HS I had a cropped head of hair. Since then I have had long hair my entire life. It has always been right around my shoulders blades or longer. I intend to keep it as long as possible until I just hate dealing with it. I find that the older I become the less I feel like messing with my hair. So if that day never comes I will have long grey/white hair. If I wake up one day and say I just hate having to care for it then it will probably get chopped right there and then.

 

[chrono]

To me, pixie cuts require more maintenance - I wake up with horrible bed hair every morning with strands going whichever way it wants. It also requires trimming every 4 weeks else it looks shapeless. With longer hair, I comb it and I'm all set. If it doesn't want to behave, a braid, ponytail or bun takes care of that. I can also go without a trim for months since I rarely get split ends. In my family, all the older generation kept their hair very long (never cut) but always put up in a tight neat bun, so who says one is too old for long hair?

 

[missy]

To me, pixie cuts require more maintenance - I wake up with horrible bed hair every morning with strands going whichever way it wants. It also requires trimming every 4 weeks else it looks shapeless. With longer hair, I comb it and I'm all set. If it doesn't want to behave, a braid, ponytail or bun takes care of that. I can also go without a trim for months since I rarely get split ends. In my family, all the older generation kept their hair very long (never cut) but always put up in a tight neat bun, so who says one is too old for long hair?

Absolutely true. Even with all that I would love to be able to pull it off. There is something about a pixie cut that is so romantic to me.

Right now my hair is past my shoulders and it is pretty easy to manage. On bad hair days I wear it in a ponytail and on other days I wear it down or half back. When I sleep I pin it to the top of my head (modified pineapple) because I get too hot to have it down. I would also love a pixie for the ease of coolness when sleeping now that I think about that.

 

[asscherisme]

I'm in my 40s and my hair is long and I have some white hair shining through. I did color my hair from age 35 until a little over a year ago when I let it go natural. Thankfully I'm still mostly dark so there was no painful growing out period. I will never dye it again.

My kids love my white "high lights" and tell me my hair looks better since I stopped coloring it. And they also like that I keep it long and not the typical "mom cut" that you see on many other of the moms at the high schools and jr highs around here.

My aunt and grandmother pressure me that no woman over 30 should have long hair and never let your whites show and that I'm breaking some hair law to have both long hair and whites showing proudly in my 40s. I look better with long hair and have no intention on cutting just because of my age.

 

[Laila619]

I plan to have longish hair until I'm at least 65.

 

[LibbyLA]

Depends on your definition of maintenance! You do have to get haircuts more frequently with short hair, but washing and drying it takes about two shakes of a lamb's tail and you don't need a lot of styling products or equipment. It's much cooler in the summer, too.

liz