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Maybe you're not aware that blow dryers didn't even become a thing until the 90's? They didn't have extensions and weaves then, either.
What? I'm a man and I even know blow driers were a thing in the 80's, and probably in the mid to late 70's as well, but maybe not widely available then.
What? I'm a man and I even know blow driers were a thing in the 80's, and probably in the mid to late 70's as well, but maybe not widely available then.
I remember my mom using this in the early or mid seventies.
Frankly I think women portrayed in the 40s, 50s and 60s in movies and television were much more attractive than women in their 40s and older today. Today so many 40 something look alike; long straight badly highlighted hair, super tight jeans or leggings with a too short top, or the ridiculous ripped denim look with boots. I have to look away to avoid laughing. Why more mature women think long straight hair makes them appear youthful remains a mystery to me. Everyone’s facial structure changes with aging and the long hair just accentuates sagging skin. In previous generations most women understood that shorter hair, after a “certain age” lifted the face and was more flattering. Women can be beautiful and look their age, although society continues to focus only on the young. The obsession of older women to copy the look they had in their 20s and 30s screams denial. But of course that is just my opinion and most will disagree
Frankly I think women portrayed in the 40s, 50s and 60s in movies and television were much more attractive than women in their 40s and older today. Today so many 40 something look alike; long straight badly highlighted hair, super tight jeans or leggings with a too short top, or the ridiculous ripped denim look with boots. I have to look away to avoid laughing. Why more mature women think long straight hair makes them appear youthful remains a mystery to me. Everyone’s facial structure changes with aging and the long hair just accentuates sagging skin. In previous generations most women understood that shorter hair, after a “certain age” lifted the face and was more flattering. Women can be beautiful and look their age, although society continues to focus only on the young. The obsession of older women to copy the look they had in their 20s and 30s screams denial. But of course that is just my opinion and most will disagree
As a 40+ year old woman, I dress based on how I feel and what I like not how old I am. I don't try to look like a twenty year old, but I'm not ready for Sag Harbor either. I wear ripped denim and boots too and if that makes you laugh, then so be it. It's not like I'm noticing/caring anyway.
BTW, my skin isn't sagging and I wear my hair very short. Why don't people let women just age in peace. You do you, let me be me. I'm fully aware that I can't stop the clock but there's no reason that I should change who I am because of that.
I think there has always been a "standard issue" older-woman unofficial dress code (and sometimes, one for men, too). Across cultures, some have been open and specific about this and other dress "codes" (for marrieds v. unmarrieds; mourning; status; all sorts of stuff). In the past, once you hit "a certain age" you wore your hair differently and dressed differently.
Because that way of "differently" was a throwback, it "marked" you officially as older. That's why it has contradicted itself. For example, after the 20s, "older" would have meant longer hair, pulled back. A few decades later, "older" meant a short poodle cut. And so on.
Today, those lines are blurring, at least in certain cultures (I'm assuming we're focusing on the U.S. here). We don't feel as boxed into "categories" anymore so why throw away fun and exploration with our look for some general issue older person look just in case we might, horror of horrors, not be marking ourselves in the, say, 59+ category?
I think we also have a tendency to hold onto our youth, by keeping the same hairstyles. In turn, it dates us. To look more youthful, you need to stay up to date.
It had a lot to do with the generation. My mom is horrified that I am close to 50, have long hair and don’t dress frumpy.
My mum is 52 and has hair down to the middle of her back, and she dyes it as often as possible. She HATES grey hair, and even a few are deemed unacceptable to her. Her natural hair colour is a very nice auburn - she used to straighten it a lot but now she leaves it in its natural wavy state (which looks much better imo - very similar to this, with the same upwards kink at the hairline).
She never dresses frumpy either, and if she ever did start dressing frumpy, I think my sister (who is 32) would tell her off.
What is wrong with looking mature? I really don't get it. I like to see distinctions between generations.
There is the same pressure now to look youthful as there was previously to look mature at a certain age. I would rather put my hair in a bun and forget it than feel I had to get plastic surgery or wear tight clothes and push up bras to stay relevant.
To start, this is NOT to bash older women, 40+ isn't even close to "old", heck, my wife is 43 lol. What I am curious about is looking at pictures/watching movies from much more in the past it always seemed as if women that were 40+ the kind of fashion was always horrible, pretty much made to make them look way older than they were; from their hair, to makeup, to clothes etc. Nowadays it's quite common to see women that age (including my wife, shameless plug lol) look very attractive, hot, cute, sexy you name it.........
You are just looking at older women and the older fashions, hairstyles and makeup from your own perspective (you see women as sex objects) and your lack of understanding or experience about what was morally and socially acceptable in the past.
Back then if women of any age had publically dressed in the way you think makes women today look attractive, hot, cute, sexy they'd have been facing criminal charges of moral turpitude (it's a legal term, look it up if you don't know what it means) and shunning by the community. In some other societies today there are still some cultures where women of any age can be charged with moral turpitude, excommunicated, shunned, cast out or even be stoned to death for looking like eye-candy to other people.
Part of the reasons for that is for stupid religious restrictions and part of it is because there are still a lot of brutal men with no impulse control who only see and judge women as sex objects.
It's not because the women wanted to look decrepit, it was because they were forced to look decrepit. I really don't understand why it seems to be so difficult for so many young people like yourself in western society today to comprehend that and to stop judging womens' appearances as though they are expected to be dressed like store mannequins, clothes horses and sex toys.
Now I'm getting closer to 61 and had to change it from a shag but it's still pretty layered. I had almost waist length hair prior to that and always said that I was going to be one of those ladies that had long hair ... wear a nice braid or something as I grayed. Turned out... I hit menopause at 38 and my hair started thinning. By the time I cut it it had gotten so thin and straggly I had to do something. So.. sometimes the best laid plans fall thru.
On the plus side... you'd have to dig thru my hair to find a gray one.
Hers was a bit surprising because it was around 1970. Maybe she saw Klute in 1971 and got one then.
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