Preteen girls and hairstyle conformity

[Contraryish]

I went for an open morning at my son's secondary school recently. During the tour we were given, we looked in on a year 7 girls PE class of around 40 to 50 girls. It is a rural school with low levels of ethnic diversity, but I was struck by how similar all the girls looked. All had straight hair, from somewhere below the shoulders down, tied back in a pony tail. Very few even had fringes. I saw one girl with short hair.

When I look back to when I was the same age, hairstyles came in all shapes and sizes. Long, short, straight, curly, bobs, mullets. So I was wondering whether what I saw was typical, and whether this means girls of that kind of age are more concerned about complying with a stereotype and fitting in?

Or is there a more simple explanation, like haircare products have developed making it easier to have long hair? Or are girls these days given more choice by their parents and are naturally more norm-compliant than their parents?

Answers on a postcard please!

Don't know but my dd's is long, naturally straight and needs tying back for a few of classes at school (home economics, tech, science, etc). She doesn't want it cut. I do see that most girls her age have pretty much the same hairstyle too

Curly hair is just beginning to show itself again, after the long reign of straighteners. OK, that's mainly adults and older teens, but it's been such a dominant look for so long that it's filtered to all ages meaning that naturally curly girls tame it by putting in pony tails or plaits (so it's at least flat by their faces).

And of course, this is a time before furrowed foreheads strike, so you can escape the tyranny of fringe trimming.

Nearly all my DDs friends have long hair tied back in pony tails and have done for at least a couple of years - she's Y7 now.
She was in a big dance show in July with lots of girls - maybe 100 or so aged from about 7 to 18. All the older girls (11+) had to have their hair up in buns. They all had huge buns because their hair was so long - apart from one older girl who had a lovely pixie cut.
I've been trying to persuade DD to get hers cut but it's not happening anytime soon.
I agree when I was at school we all had completely different styles until the ridiculous shaggy perm appeared

When did was 6 she begged me to let her grow Her lovely bob with fringe out becsuse itvwas harder to get into a bun for ballet with a fringe.

My year 9 dd has beautiful natural curly hair that is currently just below her shoulders (thanks to her dad - mine has more of a rebellious wave..).

When she moved to high school she suffered merciless teasing by a group of girls who all followed the "straighten within an inch of it's life" school of hair styling. This went on until the middle of year 8 and got to the point where student support were involved and we were on the verge of moving DD to another school (the girls were in pretty much every class with dd so no escape, staff were useless ). DD tried everything to tame her curls - straightening it etc and ended up tying it back every day.

Then all of a sudden dd decided she'd had enough and started to take better care of the curls (so they looked less frizzy) and now wears her hair down. The teasing stopped (the girls probably moved on to a new victim) and I've noticed that more girls are wearing their hair more wavy/curly (including some of the bullies...)

Gotta love teen girls...

Feathers your poor girl. People can be so mean. When I was her age I would have killed for curls (still would mind, dead straight is so boring!).

Seems its just little girls are more involved with fashion and styling these days. My daughter is only 9 but still loves plaiting her hair at night to give her 'curls' in the morning. I'm hoping a bit of individuality comes into fashion soon!

My dd has her hair short at age 10. She begged me to let her do it for months as I was really unsure. She really suits it and it's massively easier to deal with. I'm not sure where the obsession with ultra long, straight hair has come from but it does seem quite a conformist thing to do. Most kids ARE pretty conformist though especially pre-teens.

I think it's a few things. Long hair is definitely fashionable atm even amongst grown women, I'd say. I suspect perhaps it has something to do with the recession.

Not-at-all-fashionable DD has her hair cut quite short (a bit like Tris from Divergent if anyone knows the film), and while she did get 'you look like a boy' a bit when it was first cut, she says on the whole even the popular crowd are generally positive about it.

According to her 90% of the girls in her year including those who wear makeup, do their eyebrows etc just have a non-style style IYKWIM - so not long and cut by a hairdresser, just trimmed by a parent. Should say they all look very nice and definitely make an effort with it, but it is going to be cheaper, isn't it.