Long Hair and Wtichy Women

FASHION & STYLE | October 24, 2010
The Mirror: Why Can't Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair?
By DOMINIQUE BROWNING
At a certain age, cutting your hair is considered the appropriate thing to do, as if being shorn is a way of releasing oneself from the locks of the past.

One commenter said they think that long gray or white hair looks "witchy" on women - maybe this was a guy? What does this mean? That they are powerful, mysterious, dangerous or??? More power to the witchy women!

This NY Times article now has 1266 comments (the most I have ever seen on there, they usually cut comments off way before this point), so it seems like everyone has something to say about this. It was interesting to read the comments made about women it the family and hair as something beautiful and something that many people had fond memories of. How their hair was a big part of collective memory and individual identity.

Well, I have long hair because that is what feels the best to me. My mom was always hounding me to "get a hair style" after I turned about 35. I did have it cut a jaw length and wore it that way for a few years, but after I went to Jamaica when I was 43. After that I just let it grow and it is halfway down my back. Too bad that my hair is thin as it is, but tho I am an "older woman" I am lucky that it hasn't gotten thinner as many people commented on in the article, and now needs a bit of a trim now. My friends cut my hair which only takes a couple of minutes and after it is trimmed a few inches there is just a few tablespoons of hair.

I started coloring my hair in the 60's. I was a teenager then when we lived in California and I wanted to be a "real" California girl. I used "sun in" which you just spritz on. It has always worked well for me and is fast, cheap and easy. Since I was a blonde as a kid that type of coloring worked fine and looks pretty natural (or at least I think it does).

In the 50's the "pixie" hair cut was just the "thing" and my mom made my sister and I get one. I cried and didn't want my hair to be cut. I could take care of it myself and I tried to talk her out of it. No dice. But I did win honorable mention in a "Cute Kid" photo contest due to that hair cut - that and my chubby round face and pixie smile to match.

The last 3 years I stopped coloring my hair, but I am going to color it again in December. I did it last June for Isaac and Angie's wedding. Sister Chris was commenting on it - repeatedly. She goes to some stylist due to her thin hair and has spent a lot on color and cuts, but that era is coming to an end since she is retired and doesn't have that much to spend on what I would call a luxury. I used Garnier "natural (honey) blonde" shampoo-in color and it said that the color would wash out in 4 weeks. It never did...hmmmm.

In Jamaica fair hair is prized, as it is in Turkey, thus so MANY bottled blondes there. But when they see someone that they suspect has natural blonde hair that is really something to stare at. (Staring is considered "normal" there.) What they expect is "true" blond is apparently truly "exotic"...

At the Willy St Fair in September I saw so much beautiful blonde hair on women (probably 90% of it colored) that was shining in the sun. I decided I would do it again this winter before my trip to Jamaica. I am going to try to avoid my white forelock, which I love. It was one reason not to color my hair recently since my hair is now such a dark "ash blonde" and there is a good contrast that makes it more noticeable. In my 20's a friend's mom had a white forelock that I thought was so cool. I didn't think I would "get one" as neither of my parents had one, so was very happy when that came in a few years ago.

Of course women's hair is considered their "crowning glory." And in the late 60's and early 70's my mom grew her hair long - almost down to her waist. She was about 50 at that time. You could see the progression of the gray from top to bottom that was very noticeable as she was a brunette. I have a picture of us out in the garden with me holding out her hair out in a cascade for the photo. I think she got tired of taking care of it after a few years and went back to her shorter hair style. I cut her hair on many occasions. She cut the family's hair on the "old days" and I learned how to do it by watching her and also from watchin stylists cut my hair when I did have a "style." Now I cut my friend Antonio's hair. One year many years, ago, I cut almost five or more family member's in successionhair one Thanksgiving while the turkey was roasting including. The last to be cut was my nephew Isaac's golden locks - he was about 2 and it was his first haircut. He cried the whole time.

Well, let's hear it for the witchy women, and hair as an object of memory, beauty and identity!