The history of your hair

[Echobelly]

Are you a long-hair-for-life girl or have you switched it around? Did you cut it short once and then never have it long again (or grew it ASAP and never cut it short again?)

I'm 48, with pretty straight boring light-brown hair. Was quite a tomboy kid and had long hair until I was 6 or 7, when I got a chin length bob with a fringe. Then aged about 8 had it cropped really short, which I loved and it basically remained that way much of the time until I was nearly 35.

I did grow it to my shoulders aged 13-16 when I didn't fit in at secondary with all the super girly girls, but hair didn't make any difference and at around 16 I cropped it again having found my friend group and myself. In 6th form I bleached it. End of A-levels I bleached and dyed it pink, uni I had it either cropped or in a very short bob, bleached it with dip-dye pink just after I left uni. It was also bleached and blue at one point.

Then cropped it again and variously had dark red bob/bowl cut with thick bleach streaks (when that sort of thing was a thing for a bit) cropped and dyed it ginger, had purple extensions sticking out at the back, dark purple all over (as it was when I met now DH), crop, grown out crop (which I had when I married). Got a short bob after I was married, cropped before I had my kids and dyed my fringe pink during second mat leave.

Then bobbed and finally grew it out and had long hair for the first time in my adult life aged 36-45. Never really knew what to do with it, though - it was a ponytail or a messy bun, everything else was far too complicated for me!

3 years ago, cut to chin length bob with undercut on one side when I decided I wanted to have short hair again - next haircut going to change again and get it shorter with more visible undercut.

When I was very small, I had hair down to my waist. I then had it chopped to my shoulders, and remember the worried hairdressers asking my mother if she was sure that was the right thing to do! In secondary school, I tried out blonde dye, but got fed up of the maintenance (my appearance isn't my top interest), though I briefly wondered about trying out blue and pink, but have stuck with brown since I was 14/15. I grew it out and it usually hovers around bra strap-length if it's straight, or shoulder-length at best if it's left wild and free (at the moment, it's curly enough to make me look like a Victorian schoolgirl, just without a hair ribbon and the white apron... which is preferable to looking like a windswept Shetland pony/a 1980's newsreader/a cross between Brian May and Hagrid). I fear that if I cut it off, it would just look wilder and more stubbornly untamed than usual!

If you put hairdryers or straighteners near it, my hair just laughs and runs amok, screaming, "You can't tame the mane!" while getting bigger, curlier, drier, frizzier and wilder. My favourite hairdresser once exclaimed, "You have very fine hair, but there is a LOT of it, and all of this blow-drying is making my arms ache!" 😂She should have felt honoured that she only had to do it occasionally. I have since gratefully abandoned hairdryers and straighteners.

My hair does not react well with heat, wind, sweat, rain or The Great Outdoors in general. It doesn't hold its curls properly, so it ends up looking more like a bale of hay. I am very fortunate that I can hide it under a hat for half of the year (farm worker), where it lurks in a bun. While I can do French plaits and more exotic styles on others, I can't do anything like that on my own, so I'm clearly destined to look at least partially unkempt forever... but the few people that have seen it in its full curly glory just grin, because such curls are rarely seen outside of sepia photographs from the Victorian age.

I have considered keratin, Olaplex and a glass hair treatment, but I'm worried about how my hair will react!

I've always had fine hair and theres not been alot of it, its dead straight too. My natural colour is a dirty blonde, but had a lot of dimension with red and orange undertones (my family tree has strawberry blonde and ginger running through it)

Through school mum embraced the short choppy look for me due to the lack of volume and amount. So my hair was always very textured to create the impression of thickness.

Secondary I went through a stage of letting it be long and didnt style it much... looking back at photos I understand mums desire for me to have shorter textured cuts.

My 20s were littered with experimentation, I had it long, short, mid length, undercuts, short back and sides etc. Spent a lot of time platinum blonde but then that then went through a multitude of crazy colours and directions tubs because I wanted colours. Worst choice I made was blue, it took 6 months and a drastic colour change to eventually remove.

At 35, I've settled on a chin length messy layered bob (full circle to late primary, early secondary) with whatever shade of red takes my fancy. Currently a more coppery brown, but it varies from postbox to rosé shades of strawberry blonde. I use a lot of mousse, dry shampoo and hairspray to give it a bit more life, or wear it half up/half down.

My hair has always been a big part of my identity, so I've really enjoyed changing my colours and cuts frequently.

My hairs been most lengths and colours. My favourite was the purple mullet, but dh hated it.

70s childhood - the standard one-length helmet with a straight blocky fringe (lego hair). Brief foray into short hair when I was 8.

80s teens - spotted a fetching mullet for a while, layered short on top, discovered hairgel and scrunch drying. Tried henna (fetching auburn) and Sun-In (nasty yellow).

90s pre-kids - pretty boring short-ish layered cut. Flirted briefly with a side parting, but realised my forehead was best kept hidden under a fringe (where it has been ever since).

00s/10s the mummy years - still with the pretty boring short-ish layered cut. At one point I decided I would like to try long hair for the first time in my life, so grew it down to the middle of my back. Realised it was too fine and straggly to ever look good, so cut it back to shoulder length.

20s - the bob years. A bit shorter and choppier, going nicely silver, which ironically has given it more body than it ever had in the past. Never going to dye it though!

It was an article I read about 'Are you a "same hairstyle" or "changing style all the time" person?' that spurred me to get the chop again 3 years ago, as i missed being a changing my hair person. Hence me going shorter again soon - a bit nervous as I have not had properly short hair now since I was a few stone lighter and about 20 years younger! So not sure how flattering it will be... but the good thing about having had very short hair is you're never really anxious about it being 'too short'

I find it really funny when some women who have had long hair all their lives talk about cutting their hair to jaw length or even shoulder length as 'cutting all my hair off'

I was a tomboy growing up and would have had it all chopped off if I could. I compromised and settled for a chin length bob with a fringe. I had long hair with a slight natural wave all through my teens and most of my twenties. I spend a lot of my time in the gym, or out climbing, running etc so have a slightly longer than shoulder length layered cut now which I can still pin up if I'm not wearing a hat and which is really easy to care for.

I wasn't allowed long hair as a child. DM didn't want to have to manage our hair, so we all had very short pixie style cuts until we were teens and rebelled by growing our hair. Since then its been long, very short and most often shoulder length. My mother was right long hair is a pain to manage, but so is very short hair.