Why did Golden Age actresses choose short hair over long hair?

[RealVegetarianShark]

I'm scrolling through old black and white pics of Hollywood's Golden girls and it just hit me - women we still consider to be some of the most beautiful of all time like Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Austrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman had short hair. Even the long hair starlets had fairly short long hair like Lauren Bacall and Rita Hayworth. Given that there seems to be a strong bias towards long hair being more attractive on women across space and time, it's strikes me a bit interesting that some of the most iconic beauties had hair cut to their ears.

I think it had to do with societal changes and the idea that it was "daring" to rebel against long haired tradition.

I think also they did quite a lot of damage to their hair through bleaching and heat styling - which probably meant they couldn't grow their hair that long and still have it look good.

Even when women had long hair in the centuries before that, it was always tied up in some sort of do.
Long hair down your back would be seen as childish and marked you out for being a girl, not a woman.

They also had great bone stucture and more “ individual” looking faces so they looked stunning with shorter hair.

It was fashionable.

Look at pictures of models and "society beauties" from the 1920s onward, in Europe as well as the US.

As @EineReiseDurchDieZeit says, the fashion in haircuts was a reaction against the previous vogue for long hair pinned up, as fashions in clothes were a reaction to long skirts and a corseted shape.

My gran who was a young woman in the 1930s and 40s said that long hair looked frumpy and old fashioned ( probably thinking of her own victorian grandmother) while short hair was modern and chic

Was it also partly do with hair generally being worn shorter during the WW2 years, with more women working in factories? Veronica Lake's long sweeping hair do was considered something of a Health and Safety hazard, and she had to do some publicity shots wearing it tied back.

Hair was worn shorter long before WW2. It became fashionable in the 1920s.

I suspect most of the long-haired celebrities now have extensions and would not look half as glamorous with thinner hair!

It just wasn’t fashionable in the 20s and 30s and young women at the time were choosing not to grow their hair as their mothers and grandmothers did. I have a photo of my great grandmother from the 1930s, but being around 60 then she still had her long, dark red hair in a bun styled from a previous era.

In the 40s, hairstyles became longer for women, but it involved a lot of elaborate pinning and cut into a U shape at the back or placed into a low bun, fastened at the back. Straight hair was unfashionable at this time.

I the 50s, the poodle cut, as worn by Lucille Ball was popular as was the Italian bob and the gamine cut as seen on Audrey Hepburn. It’s really only in the mid 60s that long hair makes a comeback and straight hair becomes fashionable.

Probably easier to care for

No hair dryers

Fashion. It all comes around.

It was seen as both daring and sophisticated to have short hair and much easier to form into the waves of the 20s and 30s or even the rolled styles of wartime. It accentuated the stars exquisite bone structures , was quicker to do and made wearing elaborate wigs more bearable

It's a plot point in Roman Holiday, Audrey Hepburn rebels against her traditional family by getting that short hair and great pair of gladiator sandals.

I agree it's just cyclical, then the long hippie hair with no "set" came into fashion in the 60s.

Fashion

Dh had long hair in the 60s and tells me he used to iron it to keep it straight.

I think short hair frames a face better, better for all those publicity shots

I remember my mum going on about how long hair was aging and old fashioned (this was in the 70ss) and sh ewas a bit scornful of older women who had long hair, apparently this was not appropriate!!

She grew up in the golden age so she woujld have got her fashion views from that, but she had short hair when young, then when I was very young she had long hair, then had very short hair I think mid 70s onward, and its been short ever since.

There is still a real judgement from many much older women, my mother and MIL both in their 80's have many vocal opinions about long hair on women over the age of 30.
If queried they will both reference Diana.

Or they were just out of/nearly in bed. Which was too risque once the Hays Code came into effect in 1930 - no more longhaired beauties in tents with Valentino - and the longer hair of Veronica Lake and Lana Turner in film noir nearer 1940 were all part of their 'not a particularly good girl' image.

I've never had hair past shoulder length so I've got a stake here

It was just fashion in the 1920s, more or less through to the 1960s and against in the 1980s. Princess Diana never had long hair. Even Barbie had short hair at first. There's no (longer ) a rule for long hair being the default most attractive option.

There are probably some practicalities to do with washing , colouring and styling. Also hair extensions now mean celebrities can boost their natural hair so it looks good long.

I think the lurch back to gender stereotypes since 2000 means little girls are socialised into a standardized feminine look, I've seen threads on here where little girls beg to have a short style and aren't allowed for fear of bullying .

Enjoy your long hair but don't make it the only option!

PS the ins and outs of curls are interesting too, I was a teen in the perm era but straight has ruled for at least 3 decades.

Yes we did that in the 60s. If you were sensible you used brown paper so your hair wasn't totally frazzled.

Long hair is high maintenance and at the present time young women are more high maintenance looks-wise than ever in their history. It's not just long hair, it's false nails and eyelashes, fake tan, make-up that takes at least half an hour every day to put on, lip filler, every other kind of filler, botox, plastic surgery, 10 different products for daily skin care, and all while being a dedicated gym bunny wearing leggings that go up your bum crack and making healthy smoothies for breakfast and never eating a single carb or drinking a single drop of alcohol. Not to mention being utterly hair free on every single inch of your body apart from head (where it must be abundant) and eyebrows and lashes.

Fuck knows what happened to feminism.

Ha ha, I agree with @LindorDoubleChoc!
I’ve had short hair most of my life (sometimes, really short ‘pixie cuts’) and it is SO much easier!! Just wash it and leave to dry naturally. It also suits my face, so I’ve been told.
Once or twice I’ve grown it out, and the faff and bother of it! Can’t be arsed, as they say.

I often wonder why so many young women these days choose to have long hair, all over their faces, with stray hairs coming out on their clothes and constantly having to scrape their hair back. Or have it in a ponytail when they go running and have it swinging about all over the place. Mystifying!

I had long hair when I was at secondary school in the mid 80s. I remember asked why I had 'hippy hair' most other girls had short hair.