To wonder why do few girls have short hair nowadays

[Chewystick]

That’s it really. When I was at high school (80s), half the girls had short hair. However, I can only think of one girl my DDs (who have long hair) have known through school who had short hair and she has long hair now. When did short hair fall out of favour?

My DM cut my hair herself in a horrible pudding bowl style until I was old enough as a teen to refuse it - she herself had long hair. I was an awkward looking chubby child anyway and I hated it as shopkeepers would call me sonny.

It was something to do with rejecting female stereotypes that was popular in the 70s but it would have been better had my DPs actually listened to what I wanted rather than enforcing it on me.

As a result I've always had at least shoulder length hair as an adult.

I had short hair in the 80s because my mum didn't want the hassle of sorting out long hair. I hated it, was mistaken for a boy constantly. Always envied other girls beautiful long hair. As soon as I was old enough, I grew it long.

We're going ing backwards with regard to girls and women not being treated as objects. Same as OP, school photos early to mid eighties show a few girls with long hair, lots of girls with short hair, and many in between, girls with wavy hair and girls with curly hair.

There have been many threads on here before where the general consensus seems to be that no woman looks good with short hair .

But men and boys on the other hand, seem to be lauded for having long hair. Or short hair. Or anything in between.

It's depressing. 90% of girls at the local high school wear tiny skirts and have long, straightened hair. They seem to spend most of their time pulling at their skirts to stop their underwear showing - they look incredibly uncomfortable. So why the tiny skirts and the long, straight hair - conformity? So the boys will notice them? Dunno, but it definitely feels retrogressive.

I’m smiling a bit wryly at the harking back to the 80s as a time of incredible personal freedom, where boys and girls and men and women could have the same hairstyle.

Same 80s where gay men couldn’t get a mortgage, gay people couldn’t marry, section 28 was around, I got threatened at school because I looked in the mirror when changing after PE (I was straightening my school tie) ‘gay’ was a derogatory adjective about anything.

That’s not even starting on racism and sexism and corporal punishment and child abuse.

I’ll stay in 2021 thanks. Long hair and all!

People talking about bobs and shoulder length hair- even these are not acceptable to most of today's teenage girls. We are taking LONG LONG hair down to mid back/lower back/bum

@CountessOlenka

Girls are much fatter these days. You need cheekbones to look good with short hair.

Nice. Nothing to do with fashion trends then?

@EIIa

You’re all looking at this the wrong way - everyone had short hairs in the 80s because Of Princess Diana.

Celebs (media types not pop stars 😂) would copy that then we would follow suit

I found a class photo- ALL the girls had proper short hair

I definitely agree that Diana was a huge influence. I turned 10 the year of Charles and Di’s wedding and you can see from all the photos that my hair was very similar to hers un to about age 14. But not really because I was that interested in her- it was definitely all my Mum’s doing! My best friend had identical hair. My hair was very fine and didn’t really sit well short, I definitely remember being addressed as “son” a lot when I was out and I didn’t like it much. By the time I turned 14 the fashion had changed to spiral perm made crispy with mousse and heavily hairsprayed stand up quiff- anyone remember that?

(Though to the person who said that there were not many styling products about- yes, there were fewer than there are now but mousse was invented in the 80s! That was a huge moment . )

It's depressing. 90% of girls at the local high school wear tiny skirts and have long, straightened hair. They seem to spend most of their time pulling at their skirts to stop their underwear showing - they look incredibly uncomfortable. So why the tiny skirts and the long, straight hair - conformity? So the boys will notice them? Dunno, but it definitely feels retrogressive.

Yes I’m amazed at the skirts. It used to be that they’d wear normal length skirts and roll them up on the way to school, but now it seems they are actually allowed to leave the house in tiny skirts and no one seems to care.

My mum insisted I get hair cut short several times during the 80's 90's. I hated it. It was social suicide in the playground. I'd never put my kids through that unless it was their choice to keep their hair short.

@NoddyMcdoddy

Hair styles follow trends. Long hair is the current trend. You don’t tend to see mojawks, perms or mullets these days either.

Mullets are making a comeback. Quite a few young fellas are now sporting them.

My dd has short hair, she is 19. Many in this age group are going with shorter cuts now.

But we don't live in UK but from pics I have seen of her cousins who are in the UK, they do all seem to have the same look, long hair with extensions, usually with an ombre coloring.

It's is hot here and this is a factor as well, long hair is hot, even when tied up.

I've had a pixie crop for probably the last ten years. Sadly finances dictate I cant afford to keep it up any more so it's now bob length.
I loved my short hair, so much easier than long and because my hairs pretty thick so much quicker to dry.

But men and boys on the other hand, seem to be lauded for having long hair. Or short hair. Or anything in between.

Not true when it comes to boys and men with long hair. Constant questions on when I was going to cut both of my sons long, curly hair so they looked more like “boys”. The way people apologised for mistaking them for girls as if it was such a great offence was annoying and eye-rolling,

People talking about bobs and shoulder length hair- even these are not acceptable to most of today's teenage girls. We are taking LONG LONG hair down to mid back/lower back/bum
I work with kids age 11-19 and that’s just not true at all, I see more girls with bobs/shoulder length hair than I do with hair down to their lower back/bum. It’s a perfectly acceptable hairstyle and I also see many people encouraging girls with long hair to try shoulder length hair aswell.

I agree with pp- Diana was a huge 1980s influence. Twiggy in the 1960s. I'm always surprised how many woman had ( in my view unflattering cut) short hair in the 80s.

I think social media has left less room for experimentation though and more pressure.

Blue mascara and make up from the market caked on was the norm in the 90s in my school and no one batted an eyelid.

Short hair on girls has not been a trend in my lifetime (born mid 90s). I know it was popular in the 80s and 20s. Short hair looks like it would take so much effort. I can just brush my long hair and go.

"It's depressing. 90% of girls at the local high school wear tiny skirts and have long, straightened hair. They seem to spend most of their time pulling at their skirts to stop their underwear showing - they look incredibly uncomfortable. So why the tiny skirts and the long, straight hair - conformity? So the boys will notice them? Dunno, but it definitely feels retrogressive"

Absolute bollocks. I remember in the 90s wearing a miniscule skirt for school and getting a spiral perm. What about in the 60s when miniskirts and beehives were in fashion? Everyone had the same uniform look then. If you actually look at young women on a night out now, most of them are wearing trainers/flats, unlike the high heels we used to totter about in back in the day, so if anything girls are now putting comfort first.

I live in Portugal and so many girls have long, straight black hair parted in the centre. As many have very high foreheads (not sure if this is a genetic thing in this area) it really is not very flattering. Most of them dye their hair black (as opposed to their natural nearly black colour) and the hair looks odd and unhealthy. I hate it. It looks a mess 99% of the time unless they have just washed it, and there is long hair left everywhere! They would look so pretty with hair that was looked after better and slightly shorter. And less samey. OK - so this is proof I am getting old. When I see one of them with shorter or curly hair, it looks amazing.

I agree with the poster who said girls all look the same nowadays. In the 70s there were many different looks and hair colours and styles. Just look like clones now.

I think it was more normal in the 60s to have shorter styled hair as most women, even very poor women, visited the hairdresser for a wash and set every week. I think short hair needs more styling than long hair which is easy in my opinion.

I especially loved the glamorous short Italian look hair of the 60s.

Long hair is nice if you have the right hair for it.My baby fine hair would look crap long not everyone is blessed with thick hair.
Plus I have a long face shape so long hair makes my face look even longer.
A bob makes my hair look thicker even if it isn't in trend it's the cut that suits me best.

Long hair has been in for a while. When I began teaching in the 90s most girls had long hair although not the ultra long hair seen now. In the early 80s most had short hair. I had a my mums 70s basin cut which I grew out at secondary school. We couldn't afford the hairdressers so long was the only option to not look ridiculous as a teenager. By the time I left school long curly perms were in and I had some home perms.

I’m also not seeing the teenage girls in tiny skirts. A lot of uniforms at academies are very strict, with kilts and pinafores favoured sober ordinary skirts.

@Changecountetextraordinaire It's depressing. 90% of girls at the local high school wear tiny skirts and have long, straightened hair. They seem to spend most of their time pulling at their skirts to stop their underwear showing - they look incredibly uncomfortable. So why the tiny skirts and the long, straight hair - conformity? So the boys will notice them? Dunno, but it definitely feels retrogressive.

Secondary school girls have been dressing like this for decades. Before SM.

I would say it’s all to do with the Rachel Haircut in Friends.

Before then women had a variety of styles; curly, short, bobs, etc. Even at the beginning of Friends you can see this in the hairstyles of Monica (short bob), Phoebe (curly) and many of the extras. Kylie, Madonna all had curly or shortish hair in bedhead styles.

But then Rachel had her hair straightened in the 2nd/3rd episode and it became a cultural phenomenon. Even Phoebe with her boho vibe ended up with straight hair.

Messy was out and sleekness was in. Curly hair was suppressed.

The End

Girls fashion at the moment is all cropped tops with your belly out - that doesn't really fit with fashion changing because girls are getting fatter! To find a top with the bottom half still there is a challenge in itself 😂 I don't think fashion trends are changing to accommodate larger bodies at all.