Beauty magazines routinely recommend older women snip their locks, some going so far as to asign an arbitrary age – 40 or even 30 – after which long hair becomes a fashion no-no. Besides keeping hairdressers in business, however, what merit do these statements have?
Myth – Long Hair Drags the Face Down
One oft-cited factoid is that long hair drags the face dwm, accentuating droopiness and sagging and thus causing a woman to look older. This argument ignores two points. Firstly, long hair is not always worn down. A woman who chooses to wear updos such as crown braids or French twists uses her hair to frame her face. Secondly, lengthening a face is not always a bad thing. Women with round faces often benefit from a longer cut which distracts from the roundness of the face.
Myth – Long Hair on Older Women is Untidy
While it is true that unkempt long hair on women of any age looks messy, older women can still look sleek and professional with lon hair. Again, updos are an excellent way of maintaining a clean and tidy look. Buns, braided buns, crown braids and other updos can be worn to the office or on a ballroom floor without looking inappropriate.
Short Hair Is Associated with Older Women
When teenagers get their hair cut, a common reaction is “You look so much more grown-up!”. Strangely, a few decades on these girls are told by beauty magazines that long hair will age them. While the effect of a haircut obviously differs from person to person, it's worth noticing that at least one type of short haircut, the low-maintenance “poodle perm” is so strongly associated with older women that getting the cut may make a middle-aged woman suddenly shift demographics. Long hair, on the other hand, is associated with youth, which can fool some people into thinking a long-haired woman must be younger than she is.
Short Hair on Older Women is a Modern Concept
Historically – and still today in many parts of the world – women did not automatically cut their hair once they reached a certain age. Indian women traditionally sport thick, lustrous braids throughout old age. If long hair really made women look older, one would expect more societies to have caught on to the fact.
In short, as long as a woman enjoys her long hair and is able to take care of it, she isn't “too old” to wear it with grace and confidence. Some older women do report getting the occasional offensive “Aren't you too old for long hair?” comment; on the other hand, they also report plenty of compliments!
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