The Queen's Hair

[learieonthewildmoor]

The Queen stopped changing her hairstyle in the 70's, I think.
I have long wondered about it, because hair was really really bad in the 70's.
Did she just stop caring about what other people thought - "Fuck it, I'm the Queen"?

Or has it got to do with being recognisable? She on all the money, can hardly have a pixie cut on the 5 cent piece and a long bob on the 20c, can she.

Princess Anne has also been wearing the same hairstyle for decades. Is that's what's in store for Kate and Meghan?
I'd go mad if I couldn't change my hairstyle every now and again. But I don't have dozens of news outlets waiting to unleash their criticism of it.

God it’s an awful, unflattering, old-fashioned hairdo isn’t it? I’ve never thought about it before but now I’m wondering wtf she has it like that.

I’ve had the same do for 20 years though. It’s a short style that I’ve had since I chopped all my long hair off in my early 20s. It’s easy to maintain, suits me and I’ve never thought to change it or grow it again.

My DM has had the same style since before I was born, nearly 51 years ago. What annoyed me most was when I decided to grow my hair long after years of perming, growing it out, having it cut, having a perm etc etc she would say "do something about your hair".

I've noticed women tend to stick with the style they associate with a time they felt most attractive and confident, which usually occurs around our late 20's/early 30's.

As a result it's easy to "date" women based on their hairstyle.

The queen was born around the same time as my grans and they had very similar hairstyles all my life. My mum and her generation (boomers) tend to have bobs, my aunts (generation in between the 2) tend to pixie cuts, my lot (Gen X) seem to have more variety but generally even though perms were big for us in the 80's we tend to straight styles, but the length varies from Bob to top of chest length - I'm an oddity as mines waist length. But we do seem to like "easy up dos" with accessories so butterfly and crocodile clips feature a lot.

Dds generation are currently favouring very long and straight. Whether they'll stick to that once they're dealing with being busy wives and mothers and workers I don't know. Will be interesting to observe.

I don’t think it’a unflattering at all, it auits her face. Also i don’t know many people that regularly change their hairstyles, if at all much!

I've still got a 'Rachel' (the long version).

Both my grandmothers, who died a couple of years ago but if they were alive would be the same age as the queen, had the same style. It's a thing for women of that era.

“It suits her face”

That do doesn’t suit anyone’s face. You’re just accustomed to seeing her with it. She’d suit something (anything) else much better.

Princess Margaret experimented a bit more with her hair didn't she? Started off with the poodle cut in the 50s but had some really lovely 60s updos. I suppose she had more freedom to change her hair. And to divorce!

I'm sure it is a wig. And it looks lovely!

“It looks lovely!”

On what planet?!

I don't think it's anything to do with what suits her. I do think it's a deliberate image though.

I think she is famously known for her sense of duty, what her unchanging style ( clothes and hair) represents is her desire to provide and represent safe consistency in the eyes of her subjects.

I suspect she is keeping her iconic image the same to represent continuity in her reigning era, which has seen rapid and tumultuous change.

She is the same age as Marilyn Monroe and her hairstyle is not dissimilar to Marilyn's most famous look. The Queen's is more symmetrical though as it works better with tiaras.

I don’t think you can judge the Queen by normal standards - she is an icon and her look is part of who she is. For the same reason she usually dresses top to toes in the same colour - so she is instantly recognisable and stands out from the crowd. It is her signature style and she has been perfecting it for a lifetime. It’s not that she has the same style as other old ladies, it is they who are copying her. More inexplicable is someone like say Anna Wintour with her “trademark” bob - how can the editor in chief of Vogue make a living out telling people to keep up with the times and then so spectacularly fail to do herself?

Most of the 70-90 year olds that I know have lovely thick silver-white bum length hair that’s usually worn back buns. No woman of that age in my culture would ever look to the queen as a style icon!

I think their is a lot of psychology in hair though.

My Grandmas and Great Aunts who were born in the 1890s all had long hair pinned up in a “back bun” except for the “racey” one who had worked in theatre and had short hair that was shampooed and set a la the Queen and Marilyn.

DM and Aunts born between 1915 and 1937 all had the Queen do. For these women it was the modern style and a world away from their Mother’s hair.

My generation had curly 80s permed bobs in our youth. We nearly all have short hair now and not a perm in sight. Our Daughters mostly have long, usually straightened hair.

So the Queen had the modern style for her generation. And kept it.

LadyBrienne that is amazing. I don't think I would recognise the Queen with either of those two styles if I saw her walking down the street.

My mother is several years older than the Queen and has had the exact same hairstyle as the Queen for all her adult life. When she was younger she experimented with colour but never the style. She has recently gone into a nursing home and only now has the style changed and softened because she's not able to maintain it. It looks so much better.

birdsgottafly: I am in the middle of The Change. My hair is really thick and wavy still, grey/nearly white. I’m hoping it will still be thick like my mum’s was when she hit Old Lady.

ladybrienne: that is hilarious! Also better! How would she look with a side part?

chottie: I forgot about needing tiara friendly hair. Also hats.

The point about old lady perms is persuasive, but no one really does them anymore, do they? Except the Queen and Princess Anne

I was a teen in the 80s when the longer styles were layered and "scrunched" with a diffuser within an inch of their lives. There was also plenty of girls with short and mid-length styles.

My 18 yr old was just saying last night how strange it was to see teens with short hair dos and very fussy clothes in 1980s movies. I find it so strange that in virtually her entire school the vast majority of the girls wear their hair long and it hasn't changed for the four years she's been in High School. I was wondering out loud with her if it's the effect of Social Media: Conformity.

lady what a revelation. Turns out my friend Elaine is secretly the Queen!

I would love Princess Anne to change her hairstyle. We have somewhat similar hair, thick , rampant and a bit wavy, but my hairdresser introduced me to a good medium length bob , conditioning , GHD and changed my life. give it a go Anne.

LadyBrienne

She looks like Deidre Barlow might look at that age. But posher, like.

My husband's ex has been putting her hair up in a highly tteased "French Roll " since she was 16. He says she has never been outside the house without this exact hairdo , not even when she had new babies . She is in her 60's now and still looks like Marge Simpson.

Love the very idea of her thinking 'fuck it'

I’ve had the same hair do for the last 28 years since I was a teenager. It’s thick and curly so I’m a bit limited to what I can do with it - short would be awful with my big head so it’s always shoulder length & any longer pisses me off. Always wonder what I’m going to do as I get older. Will I always have this long hair?