I’m growing my hair. I think. I last had it cut about six months ago. It was the third strike and out for that particular hairdresser, and I haven’t found anyone to replace her. Well, I’m replacing her, actually. I have some haircutting shears (they came with the dog grooming kit I bought for Molly) and I am, from time to time, using them. I figure I can fuck my hair up as well as the next stylist and then I only have myself to blame. Plus, my prices are low.
The real question is, however, how long should I go? I love the look of very long hair that I see on celebrities. I fantasize about swinging my shiny, cascading locks like Kyle Richards of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Or casually pulling it all back into a ponytail like Bethany Frankel. 
Then I think about the reality of my hair, which is not glossy black and has never done that cascading thing. And I think about the admonishment we all grew up with: no long hair on older women.
Why is that, I wonder? What’s the deal with older women being restricted to short hair? It must be a relatively recent thing since until the early 20th century, women simply didn’t cut their hair, ever. It was buns all around for everyone, young and old. At what point did the shingled style that was once the province of the young, with-it Flapper became the default hairstyle of older women?
It seems to me that the real question is, what is it about long hair that created the cultural rule that it was improper for an older woman? The easy answer to that question is that there is more money to be made by hair care producers when young women, who are more insistently involved in their grooming, are the focus. But I believe blaming advertisers or manufacturers or even our consumer culture is a kneejerk answer, true to a certain extent but it doesn’t go far enough to really answer the question.
If I dig down deeper into the issue, I have to ask: what are the images of long-haired women that come to mind: harridan, witch, grotesque, madwoman.
Let’s see if I can parse this out: Hair is a cultural symbol that we use to signify something about ourselves. As such, it is also a marker for the ways in which society works to inscribe cultural rules. Long hair is a symbol of women’s sexuality (or as Paul put it, “their crowning glory”) and as such, it must be restricted to those who are sexuality viable. That means women who are fertile. Long hair on women whose fertility is a thing of the past offends our sense of the natural order of things. When that happens, the adjudicators of our culture work to restore the natural order. They proscribe and punish those who transgress. Thus, you get the media, specifically women-oriented mass market media, advising older women that long hair is really unattractive on them.
Except. The times they are a-changing. Suddenly in 2012, something different is happening. You get Hillary Clinton, aged 65, with long hair.
And writer Dominque Browning on the Today show with long hair. 
And this gorgeous model. 
And this one.
And this one.
The thin end of the wedge these long-haired older women are, and I shall take them as my role models. Now I just have to decide whether long hair looks good on me. But that’s the stuff of another post.
What do you think about long hair and older women? More to the point, how long is your hair and at what age will you think you need to cut it
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