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| Photo courtesy of nytimes.com |
For some, with beautiful, strong and healthy hair, it comes with ease and it seems to grow at the speed of light. For others (like myself), it becomes fruitless and I am positive that my hair will never reach the endless lengths of some of my peers.
According to society's expectations, the teenage and young adult years of our life are when we should be sexy, fun, versatile and beautiful. To many, long hair perfectly represents all of these traits.
But, there seems to be an age limit on long hair. Once a woman reaches age 30, it's like there is a invisible law requiring her to chop off her locks and loose the associated appeal.
Dominique Browning seems to disagree and defy the social norms, deciding against chopping off her long silver hair, even at age 55.
In her essay in the NYTimes, "Why Can't Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair?", she talks about how it has become culturally correct for women of a certain age to cut their hair. She describes how her mother hates it, her sister worries about it, and her friend thinks it undermines her professional credibility.
Browning gives us 3 main categories that lead to peoples complaints about her long hair, and on older women.
First off, it says rebellion. It shows that these women are acting out against corporate America in general. Secondly, it shows that they are still "living in the '70s". And thirdly, that long of hair is high maintenance. It is impossible for women with long hair to go without brushing their hair or getting their hair tangled into some every day activity.
While yes, all of these complaints may be valid- the hair only affects the person's head it is on. (Unless they are sitting in front of you somewhere, and it gets on you- thats gross, but uncommon).
Realistically, I think it's impossible to pinpoint why society came to expect women to cut their hair, but that the increase of women in the workforce could play the largest role.
Most working women do not aspire to by thought of as sexy and fun in an environment where they want to be taken seriously. A woman with shorter hair may be thought of as more masculine and as less of a sex object, therefore demanding more respect.
Honestly, I don't think that women should need to cut their hair to be taken seriously or demand respect. A woman's (or man's, for that matter) actions should be why they are respected/disrespected, not their physical appearance.
I'll admit that I have occasionally thought that I would cut my hair shorter as I get older, but I couldn't give you much of a reason besides "it's just what people do".
Maybe, I'm a victim of our culture and think like this because my mom has had short hair for the past 20 years. Even so, almost every woman I can think of over 30 has short hair as well.
Whether the hair is long, medium, short, or shaved- I think it should only matter to the person who's head it is growing from.
I remember seeing this article when it was published. I agree with you, I don't think it's up to society to say what kind of hairstyles women should have, especially in our modern times when fashion (and that includes hair, of course) is being used to make all kinds of statements.
ReplyDeleteI always used to think this was odd. I used to ask different women about it when I was younger. Most of them just said it was easier to deal with. When they hit their 30's or even 40's, they had more responsibilities to deal with and bigger priorities than fixing their hair each morning.
ReplyDeleteI definitely see this all being cyclical. Really interesting topic, I'm glad you posted this!