...or is 'No woman over 40 should have hair past her shoulders' utter bollocks?

[bringincrazyback]

It's something a friend of mine says a lot. She's in her fifties and lucky enough to suit short hair, is always badgering me (50) and another friend who's in her 40s to wear ours shorter, which I just ignore because I like my hair long and don't believe age should dictate how people wear their hair.

Just curious, though, as to whether anyone still buys into this idea that women should wear their hair shorter simply because they're approaching, or have reached, middle age? And if so... why???

Eveline Hall
Yasmina Rossi

“Are you admitting to being the sort of person who nudges their neighbour and tuts because a far too ordinary looking 50 year old dares to break the rules and have silver curls tumbling down past her collar bone?”

Are you admitting to being the sort of poster who can’t stand when someone disagrees with them and starts aggressively throwing insults in response? What the actual fuck.

What on earth does it matter to anyone else?! I find your friend quite rude and bossy. I'm well over 40, lovely long hair and nobody is going to tell me to cut it!

Ignore your friend OP.
Long, short, mohawk, whatever have your hair the way you like it.

For what it's worth my mother is in her 60s and looks gorgeous with her lovely long hair!

It’s so dependant on whether you hair thins as you age I think. Though saying that I see plenty of older people with incredibly thick short hair abd I do wonder to myself why they just got it hacked off. I’m guessing because they don’t want to style it?

I do have pretty good hair in my early forties but it’s definitely got thinner and my mum’s is very thin (got so post menopause) so I suspect mine will do the same and I’ll be forced to cut it off.

I've never understood this statement. I know quite a few women in their 60/70s with long hair and they look fab.

Hair belongs to nobody but those whose head its on and imo they can do what they like!

Are you admitting to being the sort of poster who can’t stand when someone disagrees with them and starts aggressively throwing insults in response? What the actual fuck.

What a bizarrely aggressive post.

I’m approaching 30 so younger but I have almost waist length hair and if anyone tells me to cut it off when I get to 40 there’s no way. Have your hair however you want it. There are no rules. Some people’s hair does thin out as they get older but again, do what you want and what you think looks good.

Many years ago I used to care for a very elderly lady who’s hair was halfway down her back. In the morning I would help her French braid it and she looked beautiful. She had had long hair her entire life and wasn’t about to let that go just because she was now elderly.

Just do you. Your hair, your choice.

taco I don't think pick was insulting you at all. You did seem to be saying that only beautiful older women should have long hair, otherwise it will be 'ageing' them. The point is you should have whatever hair you like regardless of how old it does or doesn't make you look, and you shouldn't be judged for it.

The one thing I would disagree with is that greying hair is unflattering. On the contrary, the most flattering colour is your natural colour, be it, red, black, brown, blonde or grey.

3teenageboys It goes without saying that your hair looks beautiful and I lurve the colour.

“You did seem to be saying that only beautiful older women should have long hair, otherwise it will be 'ageing' them.”

And yet that’s not what I wrote. Those women are beautiful, full stop. They’re not beautiful because they have long grey hair. And suggesting that because celebs with extensions or models with grey hair can carry off a certain style doesn’t mean that style will be flattering for the general population.

Goes and looks in the mirror.

Fuck.

I guess I need a hair cut? I really can't be arsed, so I think I'll leave it just past my shoulders. In fact if I'm 'supposed' to have it cut short now I might just let it grow down to my waist

Women can do what they want at any age

But taco the point is who is judging whether it's 'flattering' or not to have long hair? Who is considered attractive enough? It shouldn't be the case that 'oh,I'm not attractive enough to have long hair'. Fuck that. Have the hair you like and want. I have my hair shorter, not because I think it ages me to have it long, or because I feel i'm not attractive enough to have it long. (Although I am off course totally stunning ).
It's purely because it's become thin and straggly as I've got older.

Likewise, I won't have hair down to my waist, even though it's still very thick, because it never grew that long when I was 20 so definitely won't, now.

I don't think my neck could cope with the weight, either.

I am 51 and have spent the last 3 years growing my hair out of a very short style. It is now a few inches below my shoulders and poker straight. I love they fact that I can roll it up into a "ballet bun maker" and it just stays clipped out of the way and tidy but I also have the option to have it long and straight and shiny if I wish.

I find it a lot easier now than when it was shorter.

But each to their own.

I had a friend a few years ago who was in her 70s and had silver grey hair to her waist. She usually kept it in a bun and looked amazing.

“But taco the point is who is judging whether it's 'flattering' or not to have long hair? Who is considered attractive enough? It shouldn't be the case that 'oh,I'm not attractive enough to have long hair'. Fuck that. Have the hair you like and want.“

Sure. Have the haircut you want. That’s not the same as saying the haircut suits you or flatters you.

Substitute long hair or grey hair for a pixie cut. A pixie cut doesn’t flatter a lot of women. Me included. I could wear my hair like that, but I wouldn’t be also claiming it’s a flattering haircut for all round faced women and anyone who says otherwise is trying to fat shame women who want a pixie cut.

I am 50 in December, I have waist length red (and I mean scarlet) hair. Not cutting it, also not going to start wearing twinsets & pearls.

I'm 53 and have had longish hair (usually around shoulder length) for most of my adulthood. My DH likes it and so do I. My parents both hate it and always have done, not because of my age, but because it's curly, and in their generation you were supposed to hate having curly hair and keep it very short to disguise it. To them, my long curly hair is "a bush" or "a mess" and something to be discouraged, although they've more or less stopped nagging me about it now as it's obvious I'm no going to change it. They used to accuse me of only having it like that to please DH, which makes me think they just couldn't believe, or accept, that I could possibly like something they didn't like.

I have always said I'll have shorter hair when my colour fades (it doesn't really go grey in my family) but as that time gets closer, I'm not even sure I will.

I think older women, just like younger women, vary a lot in what sort of hairstyle suits them, I don't think long thinning hair looks good on anyone.

People cut their hair short thinking it will be a breeze, but's it's actually a pain in the ass to maintain!

I'm 40, and I have stereotypical thick, curly Jewish hair (aka a 'Jewfro'), which I used to spend hours straightening, but now I embrace my natural hair. That means I have to keep it long, because if I cut it above my shoulders, I end up looking like a mop head. When it's long, it tumbles nicely down my back, even if it's a bit wild!

I think it’s equally ageist to suggest that short hair is just for old people and anyone under 70 with hair shorter than shoulder length is already booking their place in the care home. Long hair isn’t automatically youthful and short hair isn’t automatically ageing. All depends on the hair and the face.

Longer hair is the only thing feminising me. I dont have a pretty face, im overweight. But with straightened hair and makeup, im passable.
I look butch and fat and ugly with short hair. And feel it as well

My DM has always put subtle pressure on me to keep it short. Although I do understand what a pain my hair must have been for her to look after when I was a child in the 1970s (which was why my hair was kept short)

Same here, and also because I apparently caught nits once. Oops.

I'm 50 next month and I'm growing my hair. I'll never have short hair. I'll look terrible