To wonder why all girls have long hair?

[Mightymoog]

Just driving past the secondary school at home time and every single girl had long hair. Different colours, some wavy, some straight, but every last one of them had long hair.
Where are all the short cuts or even mid length.
when I was at school (admittedly many moons ago )there was a huge range from short and spiky to mid length bobs to long.
just a little something I've been musing on for a while and prepared for people to tell me the local school is an aberration of long hair lovers

I think it’s also a much more global world.

back when I was young you could spot the French exchange students a mile off. Same for Italians, Americans etc. the fashions were different from country to country.

you’d travel to the US and stock up on all the clothes you couldn’t get here, same in a trip to France, get the shirt all the French kids were wearing.

now with global manufacturing and shipping it’s the same everywhere. Us malls are Claire’s accessories and H&M, Sephora, Nike, all the stuff we get here.

I suppose it's the global village of the internet but it does seem to be resulting in a more firmly established clonified look than would happen decades ago?

I get mine cut every eight weeks. It has a curl/wave to it so doesn't always sit straight. I just run my fingers through it now and again. Even when my hair was chin length I had to faff around with it much more, and growing it long just wouldn't work. It would take forever to dry and would drive me mad. No-one has ever thought I was a man - and I have a name which is usually used for males!

Fashion! It’s a very 70s girls look… remember the 80s when BIG hair was all the rage, and perms??
Never mind the girls - have you seen all the teen boys look like llamas??

My hair is really thick and coarse textured and I would look like a haystack on legs if I grew it really long. Much easier to keep its good condition with the mid neck length bob I have now.

Yep, I too would look like a haystack on legs with long hair 😂 It's not really thick but has a weird texture.

Hair cuts are expensive, happened in the 70s as well

I wonder why all old people have shorter hair.

Exactly. Many years ago there was hit song called "I'm a dedicated follower of fashion". And people have always wanted to fit in with the latest. Always will, too.

these were, pretty much word for word, the rules in my secondary school handbook in 1998. I don’t think schools ‘approving’ hairstyles is a recent thing!

They don't. I'm 67 and have waist length hair. My best friend is a year younger and her hair is midway down her back. I know quite a few older people who don't have short hair. My husband's hair is below his shoulders and he's older than me.

I’m late 40s. As a child o had a bob with fringe, cut it all off into a pixie cut at some point. Then grew it back and had a perm. Had perm cut out by 13 back into a bob which I then just grew out. Have had it long ever since. My DM kept telling me at one point that now I’m over 40 I should have it all cut off. That’s her generation. The boomer women all have short hair. My friend a similar age had a long dark goth style down to her bum but decided to grow the grey out properly so had it radically cut into a pixie style.

I’ve 2 teens. Both have generally had longish hair since they were young. They wanted to be like Rapunzel. My eldest is autistic though and has sensory issues around hair washing so decided to have it cut short with an undercut. Short as in sitting on shoulder so it could still be tied back for PE and dance and also when it’s not as clean!! Youngest has curly hair that’s hard to manage. It got really long but there was an issue which require it being cut into a very short bob towards y5 at primary. She has since front back out and wants to keep it long. She wears it straight and curly and I’m jealous she has the choice. The curly style is really hard to maintain well though.

The long straight look definitely seems to be the ‘fashion’ though. My autistic teen won’t follow fashion at all and wears totally their own style. There are a bunch of girls though who do have short pixie cuts and random other styles. They tend to be involved in the drama department I’ve noticed!!

Edited to add. I’ve noticed a lot of boy have longer hair these days. It seems to be a good chunk but not a majority. I’d say (from attending school shows) that these are boys heavily into music or drama. Many are rocking out the old 80s rock star look!!

Most women in general seem to be leaning towards longer hair. Even older ladies. Sometimes short styles are quite hard to maintain as well 😔

It’s maybe a bit to do with all the recent sexual identity stuff. Maybe to cut your hair short as a girl these days means you’d rather be a boy.

My daughter (aged 12) had her hair cut short and has been bullied pretty badly over it. Gets misgendered a lot (occasionally accidentally but generally deliberately). She’s now trying to grow it back, and is getting very upset over how long it will take. So yeah pressure for girls to have long hair is definitely a thing. Pretty crap, really. :(

Sorry to hear about all your daughters being bullied over their appearance, it’s so shit.

My daughter (v long hair mentioned upthread) has red hair, she desperately wanted to dye it a few years ago but luckily didn’t get it done. Now she loves her hair, it is truly magnificent but I she also went through her share of being bullied for her hair. Kids can be so
mean.

She identifies as a boy because she was misgendered as a child? Obviously I don't know your child but that seems a stretch...

Mainly fashion but long hair is considered stereotypically female.
In contrast my youngest is a boy and has long hair. He is only 2 and a half but gets mistook for a girl a lot, which I expected even though he wears very typical boys clothes, dinosaur backpack etc.

If I child prefers her hair short and gets constantly told she’s a boy because of it- can you not see that the child may then interpret that as perhaps she is a boy? Especially in this current climate where not sticking to rigid gender roles does get you told you are “born in the wrong body”.

imo that’s pretty much the whole trans issue- gender is being defined by stereotypes, not biology. So if you like football and short hair, you’re a boy. If you like nail varnish and painting, you’re a girl.

Do boys get bullied in school and told they must be a girl if they have long hair? Do they then think that they must be a girl?

Interesting conversation. I'm appalled the world for our girls has got more misogynistic instead of less and really peed off for the girls who have been bullied for something so petty. The primary aged kids following the girl at the swimming pool fgs. Pathetic and so rude.

I have seen this happen in primary school.

For boys at secondary school a wider range of hair styles seem to be 'in' - or at least at DC's school. Far more long haired boys than short haired girls.

DS (15) has long hair and doesn't seem to have got any hassle; though he's so laid back I'm not entirely sure he'd notice if someone did try to hassle him.

That long haired boys aren't accused of being trans may be to do with other options for signalling. The male 'trans girls' or 'nonbinaries' wear skirts to signal. Whereas most girls wear trousers, so girls who want to signal 'trans boy' or 'NB' are often relying on hairstyles. It's a funny old business.

It was a factor. There were many complex circumstances obviously. She has autism she's gay she was isolated etc etc.

The point is it is a relatively new phenomenon that girls (or boys) who deviate from gender norms are now judged in a different way.

My personal view is that this is a negative development.

If it’s ‘fashion’ why has it been the fashion for twenty years? That would be unusual.

Every single girl in my town appears to have long straight hair not to mention teeny tiny skirts. I see hundreds every day. They all look the same (not a diverse area.) My girls prefer joggers and hoodies and they colour their hair but they go to school outside the area. The schools in question are very academic and maybe there is more pressure to conform and it’s also interesting to hear what people are saying about male attitudes to girls.

I think what others have said about gender id/trans may be relevant but has that been prevalent in schools for twenty years?

Maybe this may be the case with older children, but my GD likes her hair long, she's 9 and it has absolutely nothing to do with social media or influencers. She doesn't do social media, watch TV or read magazines and newspapers. Most of the girls in her class also have long hair, unless their hair is very curly and difficult to manage.