Should you cut your hair short when you are 40? 50? 60? 70? .....

[Greengardenpixie]

My hair is past my shoulders. A lot of people say i suit it. I am 46. I wear it up most of the time but do on occasion wear it down. A lot of people have commented about how i suit it down. I do have a young looking face and all my life people have been astounded that i tell them my oldest son is 27. What i want to know is, do you think that long hair should be chopped when you get older? generally, do people look better with short hair as they age? Just curious!

I think you should definitely cut off your long hair when..............

...........you want to! And not before

I think if long hair is in good condition it looks great at any age. And 46 is hardly ancient. Only cut your hair if you fancy a new look or you can't be doing with the faff of long hair any more. If you enjoy it, keep it

I'm 55 and have shoulder length hair. I do pin it up a lot. I cut it off at 50 and looked absolutely hideous, so for now, it stays shoulder length.

The only "should" with hair length is whether or not you like it.

And I say that as someone who has had short hair for most of my life, simply because I don't like it long.

Thats the thing isnt it? I think some people suit it long. For me, having shorter hair is a faf. I can easily shove it up and not bother with it!!
As for condition...well...it can be quite dry but it can also be very shiny strangely enough!

A lot of women seem to cut it when they have the menopause and get the hot flushes. IMHO it just makes them look older and part of the menopause gang. There is a particular short haircut that my mum and all her friends have got.

I think long hair on an older woman looks incredibly elegant, even if it is grey.

I think it's need cutting short when it gets too thin and brittle to look good long. I don't think age is that important. I bobbed mine at 45 as I started to look like a witch with my long hair getting all thin and flat.
It looks great now.

You do whatever you want, whatever style you find easiest to maintain and whatever you think suits you best. Your age is irrelevant.

One should definitely have one's hair cut short at 83 years 4 months 10 days 6 hours 3 minutes and 45 seconds old. There's no other appropriate time. Obviously! In fact, hairdressers will miraculously appear in your house at the appointed moment to give you the state-determined appropriate hairdo whether you like it or not.

'There is a particular short haircut that my mum and all her friends have got.'

Yes, short hair can look very 'mum-like', although of course some short haircuts are very cool, particularly the sharper kind of cut. LOL at 'menopause gang'!

Splodge: my mum has been rocking 'mum hair' for a while now. I have no idea why.

You should only cut it if you want to.

My mum is 62 and has long hair - and she looks great!
When she was in her 40s she had a nice classic bob, but she seems much happier with the long hair. She has had long hair for probably 10 years and she doesn't seem to even consider cutting it.
She always has her hair up in a ballet bun or using a large hair claw or similar - a bit like Meryl Streep here: static.bafta.org/images/700x510/meryl-streep-17-01-09-10-2876.jpg

No! I am 49 soon and am never cutting mine

I have a pic of mine on my profile its up like that too!

I cut mine short at 42 just because I really fancied a change. Not because I thought, right that's it for me, short hair. I really like it for a while but interestingly my mother commented that it was about time (as though it had been long overdue. I'm 43 now and it's down to my shoulders again and I'm growing it. Much to my mother's confusion. But it's not grey yet, and even if it were, I actually like long grey hair! I don't mean half way down a frail old lady's back, but I think just past the shoulder grey/silver/white hair would look fantastic. I might do that.

Calamitous: that is the exact hair my mum has got. V funny article!

I had my very long hair cut off late thirties. I am very tall. I looked like a matchstick. People in the shops called me sir. I just dont suit short hair. I am very ancient now, with more than a splash of grey. My hair is still past my shoulders but in excellent condition. No plans ever to get an old lady haircut.

My hair is WAY to thick to put up unfortunately. I was sort of hoping my hair would become thinner. I have enough hair for two people.

That's very funny, the designed to ward off men bit is so true because when my female friends complimented my cheekbones and told me it showed off my neck or my eyes, the few comments I got from men were more along the lines of 'holy moly, well, it will grow?'.

That short hair is so horrible and unflattering

It depends what condition your hair is and body type.

There is a lady in my road that's in her seventies and she has long white/yellow thick scraggly hair. I think she looks like a witch!

She certainly doesn't look like a graceful older lady out of a dove advert!

I have a slim small face so when the time comes an going to have a pixi cut!!

I'm overdue a haircut - mine's turning into mum hair. I love it short short. It ages me when it's not short short, more than its salt and pepper does (the salt and pepper actually looks lovely when I have a sharp short cut). I did dye it for a few years, but that became ageing as the underlying grey increased and made the colour look harsher.

MIL has a classic granny perm and DH can't remember when she didn't.

ouryve I'm exactly the same, I love my hair really short, and have given up on highlights - they get cut out six weeks later so there's no point really. I'm 'salt & pepper' but it's OK as long as my hair is kept short. DH prefers it short too and everyone says it suits me.

I'm almost 60 but have had it shortish most of my life as it grows fairly wild if it gets past my shoulders. My age has nothing to do with it.

I had mine short all the way through childhood, so rebelled, when I left home, and grew it long. Apart from growing out, rather than down, it didn't get far past my shoulders (coarse and wavy) and I couldn't grow my fringe past the tip of my nose. It's so thick and wiry that it broke anything I tried to use to tame it, so I ended up either pulling just the top of it back with a scrunchie (it was the early 90s) or piling it up into the messiest topknot which needed constant readjustment.

My ex was cross with me when I got sick of it and cut it into a bob and even more cross when I had it cropped much, much shorter, but I was rather relieved to be rid of it.

I grew it briefly, when I was pregnant with DS1, as it became properly curly, for a while, but any temptation to maybe have a longer soft fringe has been quashed as soon as I've gone out on a foggy morning and watched it go off in its own random directions.

I agree its not an age thing its more about what suits