For the Doper ladies:
Do you think there’s an age when women should stop wearing their hair long (past the shoulders)?
There are some who think so. My grandmother had waist-length hair well into her 80’s, but wore it in the classic “granny bun”. She didn’t think it was fitting for an older women (by which she meant over 40) to wear their hair long.
Whaddya say, ladies?
It depends on the person and style.
Personally, I think every woman should revise their hair style every five years. Nothing is sadder than a woman with an extremely dated hair style ( or lack there of) that tells you almost the exact moment when they ‘peaked’ and stopped caring or became more afraid of change.
Several of my close friends have not cut their hair ( other than a trim) in 20 years and it makes me want to take some scissors to their same old-same old look. While I the trendsetter that I am have had my hair from mid back, shoulder length-micro short-rutles style-micro short-shoulder length over the last 10 years. Plus every color range from dark brown( natural) to copper penny red.
Same goes for eye glass frame styles. If your lenses are the size of scuba lenses, then you need a change,m’kay?
i’m 42 and have hair that is almost waist length.
and i’ve been told not to cut it ! ever ! 
usually braid it for work (single one down the back) simply because it doesn’t get in the way so much. i only put it up for fancy dress up occassions.
i don’t understand why long hair would be considered inappropriate.
Never. Hippie hair is appropriate for all ages, genders, and times.
Some in the (much) older generation mentioned something about long hair and vanity (possibly Bible-related).
I am 57 years old, and my hair is rather long (that’s me on the right in the photo). My mother and several acquaintances keep telling me that I should make an effort to act (and look) my age. I even started a thread about it once. I am unconvinced. If I enjoy my long hair, and my husband thinks it’s pretty, other people’s opinions aren’t likely to influence me very much.
i know that, in times gone by, married women were not supposed to wear their hair loose … because it would attract other men.
what is it with men and long hair anyway ? :dubious:
For me, nothing. I like women with shorter hair (no longer than about 3-4" past the shoulders).
There is an aesthetic reason for older women to avoid long hair – it can make one’s face look longer, which, as gravity kicks in, might not be all that becoming.
I go back and forth between short hair and medium-long (slightly longer than shoulder length), over a five- or seven-year cycle. It’s currently longish, and has been for about a year and a half – in another year or so I’ll get tired of it long and cut it off again, wear it short for a few years, then grow it out. I like the versatility of longer hair – tying it back when it’s dirty, putting it up off my neck when it’s hot, etc.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with older women having long hair. However, I have noticed that as I’ve gotten into my ahem late thirties, my hair is much thinner than it was in my youth. I can’t do long hair anymore. It just looks scraggly and nasty. So short it is.
Many of my female family members and friends have said the same thing. It’s not like we’re going bald or anything. But our hair just isn’t as thick as it was and it looks much better short these days!
24, waist length.
You can cut it when I’m dead and can’t put up a fight.
That’s really interesting. Hair that long has got to require a lot of trouble and effort to keep clean and untangled. Why bother if you’re just going to tie it up?
Personally, I’m finding that I have a growing fetish for long curly hair.
I agree with the thinning hair thing - if your hair is thinning it needs to be cut. Otherwise, wear it however is comfortable for you. Mine is about to the middle of my back, and for some reason seems to be thicker that it was the last time it was this long. I’m 45, and never intend to cut mine again unless it does start thinning. It’s much easier to put it on top on my head in a clip than to keep trying to brush it out of my eyes.
Pinkfreud - You actually got to see him in person? I am so jealous - I have had a major league crush on that man for years! I’m a redhead, too, by the way - if you and your wonderful animal rescuing hubby ever make it to Georgia you’ve got to let me know!
My mother (who is 61) used to have beautiful pure white waist-length hair. Strangers used to compliment her on it all the time. Then she had cancer, it all fell out, and she keeps it at a more conventional length and refuses to grow it out, which makes me sad. When I get old I’m going to have hair like she used to, never mind the inconvenience!
I’m cursed with hair from my dad’s side of the family. All of his sisters wore wigs or hair pieces from their 40s on. My hair is straight, fine, and thinning now. But even as a teen, it wouldn’t grow long. Once it got a few inches past shoulder length, it would split and get scraggly looking. I kept it medium length, then got it cut right after graduation.
I grew it out a little a few times, but while I was in the Navy, it was more trouble than it was worth - having to pin it up and all. About 18 years ago, I let it go to shoulder length again but I couldn’t stand it, and I hacked it all off.
Anyway, I’m 51 and I want low maintenance hair, so I wear it short and layered. It has less to do with my age than with my laziness. On the plus side, Dad’s side didn’t grey till way late - he still had more brown than grey when he died at 72, whereas Mom started going grey at 40.
There’s a certain length of “long” which, for me, is easy to take care of. Several inches past my shoulders and it doesn’t tangle, I can pull it back or pin it up or leave it down.
But when it gets *really *long (past ass-long), then it gets harder. It’s too heavy to keep up, it’s too long to keep tangle-free, and leaving it down means it gets either tangly or stringy. But freshly cleaned, freshly brushed really long hair is gorgeous, no matter what your age.
So, for me it’s not about my age but about how much effort and time I feel like putting into my hair. I prefer the look of it really long, but with a new baby, I’m glad my son convinced me to cut my hair and donate it. But I’m likely to let it grow out again unimpeded - probably to cut and donate when it gets long enough again.
Long hair tied into a ponytail is absolutely the easiest hair style to deal with, at least for me. It’s wash and wear–my hair literally dries by itself in less than an hour–and it never tangles. I also only need to get it trimmed about every three years.
I had my hair cut short ONCE when I was in high school, and hated every minute of it until it got long enough for a ponytail again. My husband thinks that a styled, short cut would be good for me, but I have absolutely no patience for a “styled” haircut that would require me to maintain it more than wash, brush and go.
However, the waist-length hair is getting hard to deal with, because I keep sitting on it, so it’s about time to trim several inches off. However, it will still be longer than shoulder-length, regardless of how much gray hair is in it.
I never knew there were “rules” (apparently unspoken for the most part) about age and hair length until recently, when I was in an airport with my mother who, upon seeing a woman walk by who was oh . . . maybe 45-50, with butt-length hair, commented, “She’s too old for hair that long.”
Debate ensued (the woman had beautiful, shiny, thick hair–I would have opted to eschew the bangs, but hey–it’s her hair, right?), and it was at that moment that I became determined to be one of those old women with long, free-flowing silver hair. 
I mean, come on - The Red Hat society ruined the concept of wearing purple with a red hat as a means of rebellion . . . 
So nobody go publishing a poem that says, “When I am an old woman I shall have inappropriately long hair,” 'kay?
My mother once told me that having long hair past a certain age was “childish”. Well, that clinched it for me. I’m childish to the core, so when I am a very old lady, I will have long, flowing, silver locks. And I’ll laugh and smile a lot. (My mother seems to have this idea that old people should be tired,grumpy or stern, and lead very boring lives. Anyone who does otherwise is being “childish” or “in denial” (of what?!). I’ll show her. Well … of course … when I’m 90, she’ll be 110. Ah … heh.)
I think the color may have something to do with it. I have seen women (and not a few men) past the age of 60 who have a hair color that is not, shall we say, natural.
