When my friend Claudia came from the hairdresser the other day, she was proud. She had a new hairstyle. I really liked it. "Why do you have such short hair?" Asked my husband, horrified. Then he turned to me and added no less horrified in my direction: "Why do all women over 40 actually cut their hair?"
"Because it looks good. Because it's practical. Because they want it," I said aloud. "Because we're 40plus," I thought quietly. In the evening we talked about it again. "I think it's nicer when women have long hair," he said to me. "Claudia actually looks good with the new hairstyle, but she looked better with long hair". I was outraged at how old-fashioned it sounded. "It's totally chauvinistic," I just snorted. However, I had to admit to myself that Claudia looked cool with her undercut, but I'm definitely not the pixie type. But it wasn't about me.
My grandmothers both had short perms. My mother is 70 and that's why she has a bob. "However, it would be too long for my age," she explained to me the other day. But what exactly does that mean? Is there an adequate hair length for a certain decade in life? Of course, flowing manes are a symbol of femininity and youth, they did that in ancient Egypt, but still not everyone who has exceeded 30 must wear a practical short haircut (at worst still in the mother's chic), right?
Do short hair make you younger or older?
Nevertheless, I watch this trend more often. It is certainly related to the fact that with increasing age you generally have less time and desire to blow-dry, straighten or weave your hair for 15 hours as you did at 15. But that can't be it alone? Or maybe I'm just imagining the whole thing?
"From the age of 40, many women wear their hair shorter because they begin a new phase in their lives. You are, so to speak, off the market and no longer want to be irritating. Most of them are married, have children and now want something practical, "says hairdresser Philipp Zilse from Marlies Möller. Daring thesis.
The question remains whether the whole thing is only practical or maybe makes you younger? That would be nice.
There is no golden rule
"Basically, short hair can make you younger and older. It depends on how you wear the hairstyle and what type you are. Long hair without any cut certainly does not make you younger. A bad practical short haircut without styling just as little. However, it always comes up the woman – how she dresses or styles, "explains professional Philipp Zilse.
So there is no golden rule, except that a good haircut never hurts. Anyone who deals with hair encounters an infinite number of clichés. Blonde, long manes, for example, send erotic signals, but also do not indicate very great intelligence. Women with braids look more competent than those with a messy hairstyle, red-haired women are wild. You learn that from Googling. All of this makes you shake your head, but it also shows how important these dead horns on our head seem to be for the first impression.
With all these stereotypes, studies with women with short hair are classified as particularly intelligent and confident. I like that. Maybe my friends don't cut their hair at all because they are getting older or because they find it practical. Maybe they just do it because they're just getting smarter and more confident.