Every now and then amidst the chaos of life I look in the mirror and say to myself, “Wow, you
really need a haircut!”.
I know I’m not the only
mom out there who’s let a beauty ritual fall to the bottom of the priority list. Yet, there always comes that time when my
hair gets so long it doesn't even stay in a ponytail and I disgustedly look at
my dry split ends and say enough is enough.
This time as I finally sat in the pumped up chair staring at the
reflection of myself, wet shampooed hair hanging flat around my face, the
stylist’s familiar question came.
“How much are we taking
off?”
Without even thinking
about it I uttered my standard response, “Just clean it up, the usual trim.”
See I’ve had long hair
ever since I can remember. There may
have been a few experimental do’s gone wrong at points in my teen years, but
for the most part, as you can see in my photo, long hair has been my never
changing style. Yet, as I sat for this overdue cut, I wondered about something not
thought of before.
“At what point in a
woman’s life is long hair not age appropriate?
Is that even a thing or just some absurd notion popping up in the mind
of a woman approaching the age of forty?”
I flashed back to my
own childhood recalling my mom. As I
shuffled through memories I realized her hair started out below her shoulders and
progressively got shorter as time went on.
As a matter of fact, most of the moms I remember from high school all had
short hair. One exception was a friend
of mine’s mother whose silver locks flowed down to the middle of her back. Yet, no matter how pretty, I do remember
feeling it was a bit strange whenever I saw her long braid or up-do. Was that simply because my own mother had
chosen to wear her hair short or was it something more? Perhaps it’s an unspoken societal norm.
In any event, as silly
as it seems, I find myself seeking input on the subject. As women, is there proper hair length
etiquette for a certain age? Or, is
shorter hair as you age just something that happens out of necessity for the
mere reason of simplifying one’s life?
I have to admit, even
if there is such a rule, I’ll probably end up rebelling. I can’t picture my hairstyle any other way
than curly, mostly unmanageable and long.
Well, with the exception of it changing color to grey, but we can
discuss the ‘too dye or not to dye’ issue another time.
In the mean time I’d
love to hear your thoughts. How long is
too long for hair forty and above? Post
comments below or follow me on Twitter @40byFortyList.
