‘Long hair not appropriate for grown-ups’
The New York Times published an essay by writer Dominique Browning last week that begged the question, “Why can’t middle-aged women have long hair?”
Especially long gray hair.
It got me thinking about middle-aged (or older) women I knew and, hmm, she had a point. I couldn’t think of one woman over 50 who had gloriously long hair a la 63-year-old country singer Emmylou Harris. Not one.
Why?
Browning says people judge middle-age long hair so harshly, like they’re trying to cling to their youth. “I’ve heard enough by now,” she wrote, “to catalog the multitudinous complaints into several broad categories.
“Long hair,” she added, “is not the appropriate choice of grown-ups.”
(The story garnered more than 1,200 comments, by the way.)
Even Good Housekeeping, in posting a gallery of gray-haired celebrities, included just one photo of a long-haired woman — Harris — with the rest in age-appropriate lengths, varying from shoulder-length to pixie cuts.
Or, what we call the “Mom Haircut.” (You know what I’m talking about.)
So what’s going on here? Are women chopping their locks because it’s more socially acceptable — or because they don’t want to deal with long hair anymore? Someone tell me!
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To read all of Cat’s blogs, visit www.nonstophonolulu.com/thedailydish. Follow Cat on Twitter @thedailydish or send her an e-mail at cat@nonstophonolulu.com.
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