young girls like it long
Mia Farrow’s Vidal Sassoon haircut in Roman Polanski’s ‘Rosemary’s baby‘ influenced my teenage hairstyle choice – a short crop. Smart and easy to manage. Since then I’ve rarely bothered to grow my crop to reach my shoulders despite some misunderstandings this raised when I lived in the USA
Young UK based girls predominantly sport long hair. The trend seems more widespread now than any other time I can recall. An informal survey of ladies with lengthy locks uncovered factors that influence this choice:
- Versatility – I can wear it down, in plaids, in pony tails and twists. What-ever suits my mood, the event, my outfit
- Aesthetics – several women had tried short hair but didn’t like the way it affected their looks. Some thought that it made them look fatter – long hair emphasises vertical lines making them look taller and slimmer
- Pleasing others - my ‘significant other’ really likes it long, and I don’t have any strong feelings about the length so it might aswell be long
- Cost – it’s cheaper than having a short haircut that has to be trimmed regularly to maintain its shortness and shape. Some people trimmed their fringes (USA: bangs) themselves, others didn’t have a fringe. Most people with long hair would pay for a professional a trim two or 3 times in a year
- Auto erotica – I like the way it feels on my neck, running my fingers through it, when the wind blows it around…
There appears to be a shift in this preference for women over the age of 50. Just by looking at people on the street, more mature ladies appear to prefer shorter haircuts. It’s not clear if this is a
- cohort effect – these ladies also preferred shorter hair when they were younger, or
- an age effect – as women get older their preferences shift to shorter haircuts
January 18th, 2012
Old hair gets thin and flat so lacks the body to look good long. The Stringfellow Effect – not a look many lasses would want. So to make anything of it the hair has to be curled, and kept short to prevent the weight pulling it flat.
Probably. I’m guessing based on my own paltry locks.
Spot on observation about short hair in the USA. Most merkins I know think short hair on women is un-natural. I think it’s based on fear and ignorance (comment ceased due to imminent racial stereotyping).
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Grumps, ‘Stringfellow effect’ tee-hee. My mumsie used to pin-curl her short hair in the 50′s, perms it now. I recommend using hats – much quicker than all this styling kerfuffle…
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January 18th, 2012
slightly off topic but saw this and thought of you Wendy http://vimeo.com/34813864 sorry don’t know how to make it linky
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January 18th, 2012
oh it makes it linky all on its own!
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January 18th, 2012
FJ – that link is to the same video that JamesNT put on my scribble about “fashionable feminity is abusive” – though hosted on vimeo instead of youtube.
http://wendyhome.com/2012/01/15/fashionable-femininity-is-abusive/#comment-77553
I love it when good things go linky on their own
Well done WordPress – it gives blogger (google) developers something to copy so they dont have to think….
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If I was much slower I’d set …
That new version of Photoshop is being aimed at the Facebook teenies! The perfect market – competitive snappers. I’ve seen the facebook crowd in action taking endless shots of themselves at parties showing how much fun they are having (instead of actually having any fun of course). Now they can make themselves look even more glam.
And the lonely souls taking photos of themselves in their bedrooms can suddenly be glammer too. And have friends there with them.
Does this mean they will all start perfecting their images? Aiming at the most desirable looks until, in fact, they all look absolutely identical and won’t recognise each other in school?
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