will you meet me in the air

Oh say can you see
My eyes if you can
Then my hair's too short...

~~ Hair:  The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical


---------------------- I was thinking about women's hairstyles, lately, because I'm sort of amazed at how Long Hair has made a stormin' comeback after decades of being not that strongly in style.

     When I was little -- pre-kindergarten age -- there was this concept of being taken to the "beauty shop" to have your hair "cut."  The style my mother requested for me was the "pixie cut."  I remember having the belief that at the beauty shop, the lady could either cut your hair "short," or "cut it long," whatever you wanted.  (Making up my own "facts" ... maybe am related to Pres. Trump...)

     I also can remember the little re-thinking process on that...realizing that short hair could be accomplished quickly, but long hair would take a "long" time to grow....


     There used to be a "rule" -- or axiom, or something -- that a woman over forty should not have long hair because "it pulls you down"...
     But look at Melania Trump -- her next "zero-birthday" is going to be fifty, and she is rocking long hair....

     Jacqueline Kennedy also did not obey the "no long hair after the age of 40" rule -- though she had the "pixie" cut in the 1950s, 

once she grew her hair longer at the age of about 34, in 1963, she never had it short again.

     Prince William's wife and Prince Harry's fiancée appear very much alike, with their long brunette styles 

-- counterbalances to Princess Diana's short, blonde, curly coiffures of the 1980s and 90s.

     Long hair now dominates among actresses and television news announcers, as well -- it's a bit ubiquitous!

     When I was in grade school and junior high, I had "long" hair -- varying lengths, and it was straight so of course I kind of wished it were curly....  But then long-and-straight-and-parted-in-the-middle became the most popular style by far, and although I admired the hairstyles I saw on my favorite TV shows, I understood that I was watching reruns, and that those styles were --

a) for grown-up women, not kids, and
b) several years out of date (only a few years, and yet the early and mid-60s seemed like a different planet -- "light years" -- from Late-60s to Early-70s.)


 Hair to look at on TV:

How to actually wear your hair:

----------------------- In the summer of 1976 I worked as a summer girl (baby-sitter and household helper) -- the children's mom had the Dorothy Hamill "wedge" haircut.  

By that time long-and-straight-and-parted-in-the-middle had been the dominant hairstyle for a while, and some people were beginning to rebel.  I remember Patti commenting on the long flat hair, saying firmly, "That's not a hairstyle, that's just hair hanging down."

-30-