Ladies Why Did You Cut Your Hair Short?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Because I thought it would look cute.

Okay, that was the pixie cut which got me called sir at least once a day for months.

Actually, it looks better short on me. I have fine and oily hair, if I wear it long it thins out on top because I tend to pull it back all the time and I look like I’m 15 again. Last time I grew it long was for my friend’s wedding (bridesmaid, I had a lovely updo), and the following week it was all chopped off again. I do not have the time nor inclination to do all I would have to do to look good with long hair on me. I prefer beauty sleep to good looking long hair.

In my teens I would get a cut once a year, by the time summer rolled around again it would be to my shoulderblades and drive me nuts and I’d get it lopped off to just below (or above) the ears (depended on the stylist I got…). Now that I have an AWESOME hairstylist I get it cut every 3 months or so.

22

Iz not gud toy?

23

Ugh, long hair, can’t STAND it, on me or anyone else (but that’s just my personal issue). It’s been mentioned above but in summary, it’s really about two things

  1. Hair gets coarse and wiry as it greys, which doesn’t look good on long hair. Then hair starts to thin, which also doesn’t look good on long hair, and
  2. Skin wrinkles and sags with age, and long hair just serves to emphasise this aging process. Long hair on older women looks like a witch. Long hair dyed dark on older woman looks like Grand Mistress of the witches.
24

I’d love to wear my hair longer than I currently do, but at certain lengths, my hair either stops growing or starts getting split ends, and those lengths are different for individual hairs. So I get my hair cut shorter than I’d like, but it looks better on me.

I can also say that a lot of my grey hair has a different texture than the non-grey hair, and a shorter cut helps the textures blend with each other a little better.

25

I wore long hair for 25 years. I got bored with it. My hair grows really fast so it’s fun to try new different cuts now.

26

I am happy for people who want to try the cuts they want to try, but I’ve been told in a few years (I’m 34) I’ll HAVE to cut my hair, just because “long hair doesn’t look good on older women”. I wasn’t aware of that. :rolleyes:

My hair is already plenty thin and always has been. Thank goodness it’s curly! I really don’t like the way it looks short, but if I ever did it, it would be just for maintenance, I guess, not because of any prescribed way to be.

27

Google ad:

Giraffe Boards
For all day freshness “down there”.

Ha!

28

Well, that time when I was nine, it was because I wanted to be a tomboy.

That other time when I was sixteen, it was because that perm was so goddamn ugly I needed to get it off me right now!

I do look better with long hair, but I’ve noticed that there’s not a substantial difference in attractiveness between shoulder length and down to the middle of my back. However, there is a substantial difference in having to look after it and keep it out of my way.

Ferret Herder, you forgot to mention how it gets constantly pulled by backpacks or shoulder bags!

29

I cut my hair short back in November because I got bored with the long hair and all the damage I had inflicted on it during the summer. I went from hair that was elbow length to hair that was chin length, and I’m currently keeping it shorter because I want to grow out all the damaged parts before I let it grow out again. The short hair looks just as good on me as the long hair, if not better, and I’m comfortable with it at either length. I’m 27, so I’ve got plenty of time to go back to having long hair before it’s “inappropriate”, but I don’t really care if people don’t like the idea of a lady “of a certain age” having long hair.

30

Grew up with a Mom who liked to cut hair. Since it’s pretty easy to sway your child, I spent my youth with a pixie cut. As I always looked younger than my age, as a teenager, things changed. I let it grow out, to get rid of the pixie look, (not helping), and as rebellion against my mother’s controlling ways.

I worked in food service, and being able to tie it back, was very important. When I traveled to tropical countries it was much cooler to have long hair tied back/up than to have shorter hair you couldn’t do anything with.

My hair is naturally wavy, and not very thick. The wavy part meant if it was short, I’d have to wet/wash it every day and style it. Too much maintenance for me.

I find my long hair extremely low maintenance. I can tie it back so it’s off my face and out of my way, it’s cooler in the heat, I don’t have to go to the hair dresser every 6 wks and spend money I don’t have.

I am in your target age range and I am struggling with the widely held opinion that women, ‘of a certain age’, ought to chop the locks off. I’m just not into doing daily styling after years of taking the easier path.

It is beginning to gray, very slightly and very slowly, and I am considering cutting it, but then I’ll be out and see an older woman, usually ethnically First Nations or Oriental, with beautiful lengthy gray hair and think, “Hey, I kind of like how that looks!”

I’m kind of still on the fence about it all, I suppose.

31

I have lots of hair, but it’s very, very straight and very, very fine. It doesn’t take a curl well, and I’m too allergic to use styling products regularly. That means my hair falls down in my face unless I either get it cut every couple of weeks (too expensive) or put it up in a very severe style (painful, and really won’t stay because my hair is too fine). I’d like to grow it longer, but I keep it about collar-length.

32

Ouch, yes. Or ever had the car windows down and then the driver (or you cough) suddenly rolls up the windows and your hair gets caught in it? :eek:

33

I grew up in the 80s, so had short hair in my late teens and twenties. I’ve worn it “longish” (mine never gets long), but the eventual realization that I’m throwing it up or back every day because I look better convinces me that I should just wear it short and save myself the effort of having to pull it up

I’m one of those people who think long hair often doesn’t look good on older women worn down. Some women can pull it off, but for others they tend to be a gentler version of 60 year old women in hotpants and low cut shirts.

34

I had long, long hair most of my life mainly because I didn’t know what kind of hairdo I wanted. And I was lazy! Yes, I admit it, I didn’t want to bother with setting; spraying; curling. When I had my baby, I got it cut (she pulled it - no, iz NOT gud toy!) in a kind of longish shag, and that has worked out very well. There’s a natural wave without all that weight, I can wield a curling iron on occasion, and it’s much easier to maintain - coloring, washing, styling. There’s a point where every long-haired woman has to take a good hard look in the mirror and decide if she WANTS to be that adorable old hippie of 50 with graying braids; or make a topknot; or look like an old witch; or look like she’s hanging onto her youth. (I do know one woman I worked with who had long curly waistlength hair, which clashed with her pinstriped power suit - she’s a lawyer - all you can look at is all that hair! Saw her recently, 20 years later, and she STILL has that long curly waistlength hair!)… After all, how many MEN who grew up in the long-haired days still have THEIR ponytails, or long romantic locks blowing in the wind? Very few, they start to lose their hair and they cut it, otherwise they’d look like freaks!

35

I find that, as I age, my hair becomes more brittle. If I try to wear it long, it breaks off and I have a lot of fine floaty ends that look like shit. Also, I don’t have as much of it as I used to. This results in thin, straggly-looking hair if it’s worn long.

And all the discussion upthread of the work involved in long-hair maintenance is true. I start to resent investing half an hour a day blow-drying and shaping the 'do. My arms start to cramp and my carpal tunnel syndrome starts to kick in and my fingers start getting numb and tingly.

My hair is just shoulder-length now, but in a couple of weeks I’m cutting the damned stuff off. I’m 53.

36

I’m in my mid-40’s and still have long hair. By “long” I mean my braid comes down to my butt right now. Think Lara Croft, but with an American accent and a lot less money

I “pin it up” because when I’m working with things like table saws and installing drywall or flooring or using power tools it’s genuine safety hazard if I leave it down. Ditto for flying airplanes. Or cooking on a gas stove. When painting I want to keep it out of the paint.

I do wear it down sometimes, when doing so won’t be a problem.

37

I used to keep my hair shorter because its so much less trouble, and my hair is HUGE, coarse, frizzy and all that other fun stuff, and I am SO not girly and hate to fuss with my hair. (additionally, at one time I cut it because it was too dense and bulky to fit under a riding helmet, in that case it presented a safety hazard).

Since I’ve taken the having it straightened, I wear it long. I’m 34 and its the longest it’s been since I was 7 (just past shoulder length). I used to be kind of a freak about not having it touch my face, and would always throw it in a ponytail, but I forced myself to wear headbands and now I can wear it down without constantly being aggravated by it. Which is nice because the straightening isn’t cheap and it’s pretty stupid to spend $300 on a hairstyle you just stick in a ponytail.

I do still put it in ponytail when I’m cooking, doing close work with my hands, if it’s really windy out, and when I go to sleep.

38

I’m 27; I got my hair cut short when I graduated from high school. Short hair is a lot easier for me to maintain, and it’s a lot easier to style. I have a lot of natural curl to my hair; this wasn’t nearly as noticable when it was long. My hair is also very, very fine; as others have mentioned in this thread, that makes for a terrible-looking ponytail.

39

It is. TEH. PANEZ.

40

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