To think not many women have short hair

[Zoooooom]

I know there will be posters on here who have, but just thinking of people I know in real life.
Thinking of a group of 7 friends I've had since school, not one of them has above shoulder length hair. One tried a pixie about a decade ago, but grew it straight out and none have ever had anything less than a very very long bob.
I vaguely know of 2 women with buzz cuts, which suit them, they're my partner's colleagues, but otherwise I know nobody.
Working across secondary schools, it's very very rare to see girls with short hair. Maybe 2 in the whole year group.
I may be wrong but I've never seen anybody on a show like Love Island with short hair, always flowing extensions.
I have it, but sometimes wonder if I'm considered more unattractive for it, not that it matters, I do it for me.
Does anybody else notice this?

I think shorter hair is harder to pull off and only really suits women with great bone structure and very pretty faces. I have an oval shaped face and it looks fatter when I have short hair so I avoid it. I prefer a mid length tbh bit dh likes my hair long. I have a wedding coming up so after that will go for a good chop.

I would love short hair but the texture of it means it would be a lot of upkeep. It's long completely for convenience as I can just chuck it up.

I was told by a hairdresser at a new salon I was trying out, that I should go shorter because of my age! I walked out - why?
Since I was a child and a younger sibling was born, my DM refused to let me grow my hair (her reasoning was that she wouldn’t have time to care for it!) so at school I stood out like a sore thumb as the only child without plaits or ponytails .
Obviously this was something that affected me, and since I moved out of my DParent’s home, I have kept my hair long.
If I lost lots of weight I might reconsider trying to go short again, but I’m comfortable with my long hair and certainly wouldn’t cut it short until it felt like the right thing to do.

I think shorter hair is harder to pull off and only really suits women with great bone structure and very pretty faces.

What rubbish!

I'd have walked out too.

I've had short hair, long hair and in between hair. At the moment, I have long hair because I have small children and it's easier to throw it up in a bun/ponytail with some dry shampoo than it is styling a short hair doo.

Women should do whatever they want with their hair at any age, the fashion at the moment does appear to be ultra feminine, I'm sure the bob/pixie will come back around at some point.

I'm loving short hair in my early 50s. It's been hugely liberating after decades of long hair.

I had mine cut because mine was thinning, tended to separate into rats tails, and being brutal, I think thin long hair looks bloody awful.

I hate to say it, but men in general definitely prefer long hair.. So I'm sure that plays a part in it - sorry 🤐

I've said this before in other threads, but the difference in reaction I get from random men in the street when I have my hair down versus up is massive. So as with all the other stereotypical things (big boobs, slim, young) they're preferred by the majority of 'vocal' men that's for sure. But who wants one of those cat calling wolf whistling white van men anyway?! I certainly don't.

My dp loves my hair, and I like the styling options with long hair, but honestly if I was with someone who preferred short hair, I'd definitely try it short because I've always been curious!

I find it odd that people say short hair is a Bob or shoulder length (I googled the love Island girl mentioned a few pages back) and that’s not what I’d term as short. Short to me is cut above the ears…

It's all relative? My teenage daughter has extremely long mid-thigh length hair (she nearly always wears it in a plait) and she would describe bobs and shoulder length hair as short, a pixie being 'very short.

People are always asking her if she's going to get it cut or donate it! She has no plans to do either.

I hate to say it, but men in general definitely prefer long hair.. So I'm sure that plays a part in it - sorry

Do they? I've never really thought about it, as I've never heard anyone (men) specifically mention hair. I'm not saying you're wrong as I have no idea.

Though I've just posted about my daughter's mid-thigh length hair. That's extremely long, and when she has it out or is brushing it somewhere (after one of her extra curricular classes) it's all the women who stare or admire it!

There was a guardian article comparing the fashion for long balayage and waved ends to the old perm and set. I don't know how true that is, and can't remember the age range discussed, and I haven't seen as much of the balayage recently.

I'd love to see a thread of people's buzzcuts and short dos. I'd love to cut my hair off someday but I suppose I think it wouldn't suit me due to a couple of horrific dos I had as a teen and I've had my present umm non-style for years so I'd feel self conscious changing. So maybe the brave remarks are more about this. Shy people often prefer a curtain of hair to hide behind! I know I did when I was younger.

Yes it's just fashion and we are in an age of being marketed extreme gender signals I think. It's no coincidence you're mentioning love island in your post which is the extreme of that.

Also once something is in fashion it's hard to go against the in styles. Hairdressers etc are just into the one or two highly fashionable cuts and styles. So you have to really know what you want to go against the grain. It also becomes harder to point at something and go I want that. Like the princess Dianas shortish do was copied everywhere in the 80s. Or people pointed at the Rachael mid-length do at the height of Friends. Most popular hairstyle ever wasn't it? People copy celebrities.

But hair also signifies different things at different times. There are some really interesting videos about the history of changing hair online. Short hair seems so incredibly progressive and cutting-edge and forward looking in the twenties comparison to the burdensome Victorian styles. It goes with more liberating clothes and flappers and the idea of women getting out there. They are seen by many to be dangerously sexy even because it was bold and out there and the demure Victorian style by that time appears to signal adherence to Victorian values (although obviously there had been amazing kickass women who had dressed in those styles in their era). There is nothing less feminine about short hair in the twenties. But it is about context of what went before. The sixties brings a bit of that back again doesn't it with the geometric short dos. But the flower power long hippy hair of the seventies didn't have the same conventional connotations of the long hair of the Victorians. It was counter culture and back to nature and anti war etc. It was the sort of hair that wasnt neat and tidy and bound for the office. It was natural and anti establishment. So long hair and short hair really can signal very different things at different times and contexts. And short hair isn't always the statement hair.

The short styles of the 80s for women were more prevalent and signalled different things. I don't think it was quite like the twenties though. There was the ubiquitous princess Diana cut which was a very conventional and very super layered but neat and quite demure. It was as super conventional then for youngsters and teens as the long and middle parted is now. But there was also Annie Lennox and grace Jones looking amazing and bold and not demure at all and both style icons. Then there was the clubbers and new romantic types where if the hair was long it certainly wasn't glamorously or conventionally coiffed!

in terms of people on about long hair being more 'feminine' they often forget that Marilyn and Elizabeth Taylor and all sorts of screen sirens had short hair for much of their heyday. Because those particular styles are not around now and include lots of styled waves or whatever I wonder if people even think of them as short. But they are mainly short styles. Monroe has short hair.

What I've found is how 'out' curly hair had been for ages and ages. And yet there were some amazing short curly styles in the twenties. I'd love to try one as I have curly hair but no idea how to get one that suited and don't think most hairdressers now would have a clue either. And I suspect there's more work than meets the eye to achieve one of those twenties chaotic curly looks.

basically it's all about fashion and what things mean at different times.

Short hair is really high maintenance. It needs regular cuts and styling to look nice. I prefer short hair but I can't be arsed with the faff. Long hair, I just wash it twice a week and that's that. Just a couple of cuts a year is fine. I usually wear it in a messy bun, a low ponytail or just down if it's freshly washed. Much easier.

50 and the “wrong side” of 13 stone. Zero fucks given.

I couldn't agree more. So what if I want to look good and be attractive to my husband? If others want to buzz cut their own hair, crack on but hell would freeze over before I'd do this.

A PP mentioned it being considered 'giving up' with the implication this was if a woman had short hair. Surely the woman with long hair, split ends and/or a hacked off fringe adding in not washing said hair more than once a week so screwing it back into a ponytail could be considered to have given up. Throw in a fringe spiked into a fascinator with pureed banana and baby sick and voila you have many Mumsnetters it appears.

It's all subjective anyway. I like my hair shorter at the moment and others like theirs long. I have a large collection of earrings and it's nice to be able to show them off instead of them peeping through a curtain of hair. I also enjoy seeing how other women do their hair, if they want to have it long good luck to them

I’m 49 and I’d say friends of my age mostly have short hair. My DCs female friends all have long hair with the exception of one (non-male friend) who identifies as non-binary.

@hangrylady and middle-aged women also want to look attractive. But for women like me long hair will always be seen as old fashioned once a girl hits her teen years. I feel the same about it as I feel seeing young women wearing praire dresses. Up to them, but terribly unmodern.

I’m 50 and have always had long hair, it was bum length until my 20’s then waist length for about 10 years, now it’s bra strap length. I wear it up all time time but would never get it cut. My mum is in her 70’s and has short hair, all of her friends do too. My daughter is 16 and has long dark hair parted in the middle the same as 90% of the girls in her year. I couldn’t pick her out in a crowd 😂. You’re right though apart from my mum and one friend I don’t know anyone with short hair.

Also, what is an Irish Mammy hairstyle? Is it something like Brendan Carroll as Agnes in Mrs Brown's Boys?

I dont know but when i was young, to my shame, we used to laugh at women who go a nice lady's do

Women should do whatever they want with their hair at any age

They do. Like everything it’s says something about you though. Whether people think the same thing ie that looks rough as toe nails or that looks fantastic and edgy is another thing.

Long hair is in fashion. That’s all.

I’m under 50 and have short hair, had it like that for years. It’s so much more managable. Started growing it a bit and I’m already annoyed with it. So much hotter especially with all the warm weather we’re having.

Too much maintanance with long hair.

I would disagree with that. I have it cut short and can go months without getting it cut. When it’s time for a cut get it cut short again.

I have shorter than average hair! But only because my hair is really fine and just looks really unhealthy past my shoulder. I wish I had longer hair but it's not possible with my hair type