Is short hair on women deeply out of fashion now? [Exhibit A: female Olympians]

In My Humble Opinion
81

Ten years ago, I used to have super-short, dark hair. I never really liked it so short, but I was so inept at hair care (really, I still am. I’ve learned by trial and error and some excellent hairdresser tips. And differing hair products, too.) that I didn’t want to bother with it very much.

Then I met the DiveMaster, and over time, he convinced me to let my hair grow out because he wasn’t a fan of short hair on women. I didn’t care one way or the other, but okay, for him I decided to do it. Frankly, I’m of the opinion that with a few exceptions out there, the boys are just simply hard-wired to prefer long hair on women. It’s the way of the world. YMMV.

Along the way as it grew out, I had to figure out how to deal with a gradual increase of thick, naturally-curly hair and what style and cut looked best on me. I have strong features and very high cheekbones, so the longer hair helped to soften my look. MUCH more feminine.

Thanks to good hair management by my hairdresser, Bridget the Magnificent, today it’s halfway down my back and a glorious riot of curls - at the ripe old age of 56! :eek: Thankfully, I look far younger than my actual age, which is fortunate. And I’ve never had anyone tell me I’m too old to wear it like this. Believe me, the ‘Piranha pack’ that makes up my circle of close friends would tell me to my face. :smiley:

I straighten it more in the winter than the summer because of humidity issues (great og, but I hate Indiana summers!), but everybody seems to prefer it all curly, so curly it usually is.

Oh, and I changed to blonde for a stage role (community theater) about five years ago and never went back to dark. In a decade I’ve done a complete 180 on my hair.

Anyway, regardless of whether my hair is short or long, I still have to rewet it to style it properly. A night’s sleep on long (or short) hair makes me look like a escaped inmate.

So the morning routine is wet, semi-dry with a towel, comb in conditioner, crunch styling mousse in to start it curling, flip my hair upside down and blow-dry. A little hairspray around my face to keep the curls at bay and I’m good to go.

It all takes about ten minutes. If I decided flat-iron it instead, it’s a good 45 minutes from start to finish.

82

I think Alessan nailed it: Short hair is seen as an old lady haircut. Mom and Grandma have short haircuts, so the majority of younger women avoid them like the Ebola virus.

83

Unfortunately, I can see my comments make me come across as sexist, which I’d like to think I’m not, but be that as it may, I do like long hair over short on most every woman I meet. I’m not familiar with this fine, stringy, “looks like crap” hair that I am assured exists based on comments from Alice the Goon and others, but perhaps that is a self selecting group that gets their hair cut short so I never will. I will give a pass to African American women because I know that hair is very unmanageable and thus must be kept short and/or tightly braided as a result.

I am curious though for the women who once had long hair and then went short and say it looks great (and maybe it really does), did you decide to do that yourself, or did your female friends suggest it? I ask because I’d really like to know if anyone in a heterosexual relationship specifically had their husband/boyfriend suggest it to them. The guys I know either like long hair over short, or else don’t care, but I have never met one personally that prefers short hair on a woman. I’m sure they are out there, but I don’t know them.

So how does that decision come about?

84

I will agree that there are some women that look better with short hair or can pull off both, but I think they’re particularly rare. Then again, I think pretty much everyone, men included, would look better with longer hair. I particularly hate the crew cut military look, unless you’re in the military, THAT is low maintainence hair, buzz it every week or two and you’re done. A shaved head requires a full shave every few days, which is time consuming, and slightly longer hair requires real washing and at least some brushing. But I’m getting a little off topic here.

Even looking at someone like Halle Berry, I think she can pull off the short hair look, but I still think she looks at least as beautiful with long hair. The only thing that makes it really seem any better is that it’s different and the shorter hair doesn’t reveal any unattractive features that long hair might cover up, while her particularly attractive features, like her eyes and cheek bones, are equally visible with long hair unless she were to do a crap job styling it. I just don’t find her any more or less attractive because she has short hair simply because it’s different. In short, she’s equally beautiful in both despite the length of her hair and her nearly flawless facial features, not because of it.

Obviously, all of this is within the context of how someone takes care of their hair, style, and all of that. Obviously a bald man who has unwashed, unbrushed hair will look awful and, because he’s bald, will almost certainly look better with short hair. Similarly, a woman who has stringy greasy hair or whatever might look better with short hair because we really see how bad it might look long. But the thing is, when I and most other men look at a woman with short hair, we’re not imagining it would be stringy and greasy, we’re imagining it would be beautiful. And, quite simply, any woman who has short beautiful hair will look better with long beautiful hair because, well, she has more of a beautiful feature, and she then, of course, would still style it in a way that accentuates her best features. Yeah, it’s certainly unrealistic, but it’s what happens when we compare what’s not there with what could be there rather than what would be there.

And, of course, on top of that is all the social baggage that goes with hairstyles. Short hair is just generally more practical, and it’s basically soccer-mom and granny hair, not young beautiful woman hair. It’s not surprising that young women are vastly prefering long hair these days.

85

I decided to cut my hair short because I was growing out some layers and wanted it all the same length.

I didn’t ask my husband’s opinion because I care way more about my hairstyle than he does. We’ve been married seven years; he probably doesn’t even notice what I do with it anymore! :smiley:

86

Then you should meet my husband. He loves short hair, and would adore it, if I cut mine off tomorrow!

But I don’t wear my hair to please him, I wear my hair to please me. And I love the lazy long hair. No expensive haircuts every 6 wks, no expensive product, no roots coming in. Wash, comb, tie back, and go.

I am a tiny slip of a woman, and as a girl my mother kept my hair in a perpetual pixie cut, that made me look, ‘too cute and too young’. (I was struggling to become an adult woman and had always hated that haircut.) It’s just possible, I initially grew it long, as a preteen, just to piss her off!:smiley:

87

There are loads of young women around Dublin these days with short haircuts. My impression is that short hair is now more popular than it has been in over 20 years. It’s especially common amongst hipster women but short, sometimes angular, assymetric cuts are a common sight across women in different subcultures under 35 anyway. La Roux seems to have been a bit of a trend setter (pic). Pixie cuts are also a not-uncommon sight, especially with that severe frosted bleaching.

88

Most likely it is selection bias. Women with hair that doesn’t look good long, or for which is takes an inordinate amount of time and supplies to make it look good long, most likely either cut their hair or wear it in a ponytail or clip it up most of the time. Also, a lot of women with hair that wouldn’t look so good long (below the shoulder, mid-back or longer), would probably look good with medium length hair (between chin and shoulder length) as long as it is styled with good products.

Random google search results for examples of long hair that I would consider to be nice looking (note that some of these are celebrities, and I would bet some of them have added hair extensions to amp up the thickness and volume): One Two Three Four Five

Examples of not-so-nice looking long hair that is thin/flat seem to be really hard to find on Google. I search for long hair thin flat limp and get tons of pictures of long, thick, curly hair. WTF? I did find one good example of thinning, fine hair here.

I had a little better luck when I decided to search for hair extension “before and after” pictures. I tried to choose pictures where the extensions seemed to be used mostly to add fullness/volume, rather than just adding length. One Two Three Four

89

Those “before” pictures are exactly what I’m talking about when I say that some hair just doesn’t look very good if it’s grown long. Now #3 has OK long hair in the before pic, but her hair does look better with extensions.

I have no idea how much extensions cost, or how much maintenance they require. I can state with certainty that it’s more than I’m willing to pay, and more than I’m willing to do, though.

90

My Wife wears her hair short. Mostly, I think, because she’s a triathlete, and it’s just easier for her with all the training she does. I never really thought about it, and it’s really none of my business.

I tend to like short hair anyway. I’ll probably get slammed for this, but it looks more confident (doesn’t necessarily make it so). From a practical standpoint, it’s also less likely to get in the way during passionate times. YMMV.

It does surprise me that so many Olympians seem to be wearing their hair long. I notice it when I see the big nob of it in the back of their swim caps.

91

Watching the female gymnasts I noticed that they were sporting ponytails; not so long ago, the usual look was buns pinned so tight they might as well have been stapled.

They’ve always had long hair, but now it shows. A bun can hide an amazing amount of hair: my grandmother always wore one, and the one time I saw her put her hair down it reached well below her waist.

92

A number of soccer players by contrast have short 'do’s.

93

I love short hair on women. In black urban culture right now, bald heads are the edgy trend. Bald heads on a beautiful face with the make up and the false lashes and everything…I love it. I would never wear it myself, but the younger girls with the pretty faces do it justice. They sometimes dye it red or something and I think it’s sexy. I’ve noticed the media has finally picked up on the mohawk styles the girls were wearing a few years ago, but on the street level, the mohawk is already played out and girls are just taking it all off.

94

My sister rocked the super-tiny bright red afro for a bit. Looked great on her! She has a lovely face and is good with make up, so she looked cute wearing a style that would make me look completely ridiculous. Went really well with her skin tone too.