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?

(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 grin. )

Sugar water starch was used by punks, that has been around for decades and possible 100+ years.

I think electric styling products changes in the 1980s, as a child my mum would put my hair in rags or use curling tongs heated on the gas ring.

For one of my birthdays in my teens I got a hairdryer with lots of attachments, then heated brushes came out, when Braun brought out the gas ones you could take them out with you.

Does anyone else remember the trend of drying your hair upside down?

So why the tiny skirts and the long, straight hair - conformity? So the boys will notice them? Dunno, but it definitely feels retrogressive.

Isn’t it normal and ok for them to want boys to notice them?

It’s sucky though that showing off your knickers and being uncomfortable is the way to do that.

It’s also weird that putting on makeup and making yourself sexy is seen as a form of rebellion in your teen years.

When really it’s just same-old same-old.

It’s not just boys growing mullets…

They had short hair in the 1980s because it was fashionable- lots of the popstars and actresses had short hair too. Now most female stars look the same- they look like caricatures of women with exaggerated femininity being the norm.

Looking back at those re-runs of TOTP, where men could wear makeup and dress flamboyantly and girls could wear trouser-suits and have short hair, and they didn't have to change sex or claim to actually be the opposite sex to do so, I wonder where it all went wrong? We seem to have taken a backwards step!

These days, among teens, having short hair seems to be an indication that you've jumped on the bandwagon of declaring you are non-binary or trans. Therefore any girl who doesn't want to do that wouldn't have short hair because of what it would imply to others. It's really sad that we are returning to old fashioned stereotyping "girls have long hair and wear skirts".

Just had a thought. Why did Diana have short hair? She was only 19 when she came into the public eye and hardly brimming with confidence. No way would she have had a stylist in those days. I wonder what trend she was following?

Perhaps she was just a sheltered young girl whose parents/nanny encouraged her to have practical hair!

@yaldy

My dd got a pixie cut in the summer and is growing it out because she's absolutely sick to death of people assuming she is trans (a boy transitioning into being a girl). She's 11. The 'woke' crowd constantly ask for pronouns / assume she's NB and then the opposite of the woke crowd bully her.

She's been close to tears a few times with how much she regrets it and asks me every couple of weeks if its long enough for extensions.

You have to wonder what this utter nonsense is achieving. There were two 'tomboys' in my school in the 00s with short hair and neither were bullied or repeatedly accused of having gender dysphoria...

My daughter (aged 9) got a fab pixie cut that makes her look amazing and full of personality. She doesn't get asked if she's trans but she does constantly get mistaken for a boy (in shops, on outings etc). She's so fed up with it that now she wants to grow it out again.

Frustrating really that we seem to have become so wedded to long hair = girl, short hair = boy. No wonder kids are confused about gender with all the excessive gender conformity that's impressed on them.

@fluffythedragonslayer

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.

I think that it's becoming more accepted that all fashion can be worn by all sizes. Places like boohoo make crop tops and short skirt, bodycon dresses for size 16+

It's not fashion. I have been sorting out our family photos, going back to the beginning of photography. All the way from the 1880s up to the 90s there are girls and women with short hair.
In the seventies, my schoolteacher urged us to get our hair cut short "so much more practical". She taught us to swim, and we all swam often.
When I was a teenager, I looked like a boy - muscles, narrow hips, 'tache. I got asked often if I was a boy or a girl, and sometimes if I was a dike. I grew my hair and waxed my face as a signal that I am female. (Makeup and pretty frocks make me look like a man in drag.)
When my DD was born she looked like a bald boy. Pink headband with sparkly bow, flowery top. Still got adult women stalking up to me demanding to know why I had dressed my little boy as a girl. WTAF?
When DD started preschool, the little girls who had been egged on by their nasty mums kept asking DD if she was a boy or a girl, shoved and pushed her. The kids of nice mums hilariously insisted that "she" was obviously a boy "look at her!" The play assistants did a lot of work with the whole group, pointing out that, to a woman, they had short hair.
Funnily enough, poor DD refused haircuts throughout ks1 and lived in princess dresses to "prove" her femaleness.
I blame the nasty bitchy women. No man ever once commented. This stereotyping has been done by women to women, and it is much more sinister than fashion. I have no clue why though.

Cost maybe? Shorter hair is more costly to keep in style

Girls are expect to fit "gender norms" in a way that we weren't back in the 70s and 80s

Also agree with this premise. Of course the 70’s and 80’s weren’t the heyday of freedom and acceptance for anyone not straight heterosexual . That’s not what’s being argued or suggested.

However it’s indisputable that sexual stereotyping and so-called ‘gender norms’ are more strongly enforced now than then. Go into any toy shop like Smyths and look at the ‘girls’ aisle vs the ‘boys’ aisle. Utterly depressing. And from what I see from DC’s school, if a girl doesn’t conform to those norms, they themselves start to question either their gender or their sexuality.

The former is understandable as gender is only ever socially constructed, the latter more of a puzzle but think it speaks to the power of social media. MS’s chat bot Tay tells us everything about the massive harms social media is doing to our children.

@CountessOlenka

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

That's really not true. I officiate at athletics events full of fit, lean teenage girls and they all have long hair. It's just the fashion - I also think it looks nice and you can do a lot more with your hair.

Ahhhh, I obviously live in a rough area - no academies or private schools round here. Yes, girls have worn short skirts to school (or found ways to shorten skirts) for decades, but the skirts at the local school are basically so short they barely cover underwear. Now, sure, girls can wear whatever they like, but it's just that they all look so uncomfortable all the time - they are continually pulling their skirts down and walking with a sort of shuffle. My point is, the seeming wish to conform over-rides any nod to comfort - I suppose it's always been the same (foot binding, make up containing lead etc, Gwyneth Paltrow's tottering shoes). I keep hoping we've moved away from fashion ridiculousness but obviously not.

@EdenFlower

They had short hair in the 1980s because it was fashionable- lots of the popstars and actresses had short hair too. Now most female stars look the same- they look like caricatures of women with exaggerated femininity being the norm.

Looking back at those re-runs of TOTP, where men could wear makeup and dress flamboyantly and girls could wear trouser-suits and have short hair, and they didn't have to change sex or claim to actually be the opposite sex to do so, I wonder where it all went wrong? We seem to have taken a backwards step!

This is also true - we wouldn't be in the pickle we are in with the trans issue if we just let people be, and didn't make them conform to what "we" think is normal for their biological sex.

at academies only appearing in affluent areas!

According to the young girls I work with long hair is sexy, short hair isn’t! 😳😳😳😳

Agree that social media has played a huge part in dictating what is considered normal appearance and doesn't just apply to teen girls. Look at the number of selfies that even grown women in their 30s, 40s and 50s post on facebook/Insta, often with photo shopping to enhance their features. And the obsession with youthfulness and looking your best, the fear of actually looking your age. Also think porn has subtly influenced the desire to look feminine, hypersexualised, pouty lips, big eyes and if you don't conform you won't seem attractive or desirable to the opposite sex. Agree that it's ironic that whilst women are pushing the boundaries in the workplace, in other respects things are going backwards.

Yeh bring back the wedge hair cut and along with it the ra ra skirts and pixie boots! Don't you want me baby, come on Eileen, Robert De Niro's waiting........

@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 was born in the late 60s. Girls and boys had similar haircuts then. Very few girls I was at school with had long hair. Diana had short hair because it was fashionable. Her particular styles were copied, yes, but by girls and women whose hair was already short.

And no, short hair did not take less styling! We used mouse, gel, and curling tongs in the 80s. Previous generations used to go to the hairdressers weekly to get their hair “set”.

It’s about fashion, and rigid gender roles. Probably more of the latter. Girls have long hair, boys have short hair. Girls wear pink, boys wear blue. And on it goes.

I’m seriously not seeing the 80s as a time of great personal freedom and ability not to conform. Maybe fashion wise but in terms of anything real.

Imagine choosing to be a single parent in the 80s, or being gay, or whatever.

By “then”, I mean the 70s as well as the 80s.

@Backtodecemberagain

I’m seriously not seeing the 80s as a time of great personal freedom and ability not to conform. Maybe fashion wise but in terms of anything real.

Imagine choosing to be a single parent in the 80s, or being gay, or whatever.

Fair enough, but in terms of clothing, make-up and hairstyles, their was much more freedom and fluidity. It’s quite bizarre how things have turned out.

There seems to be a lot less variation in hair length/ styles at present.

I dislike the drive for very young girls to have long hair ASAP as it often doesn't thicken up and stop looking wispy and endy until they're about 4-6. Cutting it neatly then letting it grow would look tidier and be easier to care for with less tangly ends.

I tend to have hair that alternates from shoulder length to bra strap as I CBA with maintainence and it's a length range that I can tie up easily, but doesn't get too unkempt. It's its natural colour and allowed to wave/curl/ hang straight depending on its mood so it doesn't have the uniform look that women in their 20s-30s have.
As a 90s teenager, I did get it down to my waist which was unusually long. Shoulder length-shoulder blades was more popular at that point.

There is a lot of pressure on children to conform to gender stereotypes. DS has "long hair" in a shoulder length bob way. He gets comments about long hair and looking like a girl. I wouldn't put it past people to moan about a girl looking like a boy with the same style! In the last few years there's the added pressure of being "non-binary" if you don't conform.
In y6 at the start of the 90s, one of my classmates wore trousers and got a pixie crop which she found very practical for playing football. There was no doubt that she was a girl. Possibly a tomboy, but there was something empowering about a girl taking on "masculine" traits. Now she's be pressured to identify as a trans boy and change her pronouns.
In this way we've regressed, and while hyper-feminine fashions aren't a problem in their own right, they can be a symptom of a deeper social issue. If girls/ women lose their choice to behave in a more unisex way and are defeminised for it, it gets harder to call out the inequalities that still exist and stall the progress made since the 70s/80s.

@NothingIsForever

I think children in the 80’s had less say (on average) over their haircut. Parents often got their child’s hair cut shortish for practical reasons. Nowadays children are much more likely to be able to chose what hairstyle they prefer. Most chose long hair - so it’s harder to ‘chose’ short hair without it being seems as a statement or causing you to stick out and be commented on.

This. I had mine short (traditional boy cut) at one point and I had no say in it whatsoever; my mum got the hairdresser to do it without any warning because my curly hair was too difficult for her to manage - it’s time consuming to look after compared to hers and she had no idea what to do with it. Children have much more say in things like that nowadays. Also agree with it being seen as a statement nowadays.

I also agree with the poster who mentioned it isn’t just hair; boys and girls wore standard baggy t-shirts; there were no fitted ones for girls like there are now.