Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

So I will be 50 in a couple days. My mother is turning 79 next month. Her mind and her mouth however are about 30. A couple days ago she sat me down for one of her "talks" which any daughter knows is typically just her listing the things she wishes you would either fix, dump or do differently. Sigh...
My choice of hairstyle has been a thorn in my mother's side since I was a teenager. As a child she kept my hair very short or in a "shag" if you remember that style. I dreamed of having long hair. So from the time I started paying for my own haircuts I've had various lengths of long hair and my mother has had various arguments for why it was the wrong decision. So of course my impending birthday has gifted her with a new logical reason for me to go cut my hair off and a new angle she can work with that disapproving look of hers and I quote "women of a certain age do not suit long hair and it in fact makes them look older".
Now I'm my own person and I March to my own drum beat and if I don't heed my mother's oh so sly warning of my social faux pas I'm sure not going to change to suit anyone else's opinion but I'm curious. Does a woman over 50 suddenly need to start grooming, dressing, acting differently? Is this a thing with my mother's generation only?

I turned 50 last June and I can sit on my hair I am repeatedly told by certain folks that I should cut my hair off. I have earned every wrinkle, strech mark and grey hair on this old body and I wear them proudly as a badge of honor from a life well lived ( so far). Regardless of age we should feel free to dress and look however we feel comfy and good. If it makes you happy go for it!

goatgal35 wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 18, 2018 11:21 am

I turned 50 last June and I can sit on my hair I am repeatedly told by certain folks that I should cut my hair off. I have earned every wrinkle, strech mark and grey hair on this old body and I wear them proudly as a badge of honor from a life well lived ( so far). Regardless of age we should feel free to dress and look however we feel comfy and good. If it makes you happy go for it!

You go girl! I'm right there with ya lol.
It's amazing to me that some (mostly females) believe women are to become reserved, conservative and demure as they age. I damn near killed my mother when I told her I was going bikini shopping after our little chat lol.

I had the very long hair I could sit on. Finally cut it off as it was becoming annoying, my husband would be lying on my hair in bed and I couldn't move. My husband likes my hair short so I finally cut it. I had all kinds of people tell me I looked so much younger with short hair, annoying actually but true. Now I love the way a breeze feels when it ruffles through my hair, unless it was a really strong wind I couldn't feel that with my long hair.
All my life I've gone from long to short, I think you have to decide what looks best with your facial structure. I've seen some women get short hair and it made them look very hard, I suppose its a matter of how short and what style you get. Good luck with your decision, a lot of times a hairdressor can give you some insights into what would suit you best.

I turned 50 last year and as a guy my hair dilemma is not how long or grey it is, it's how much is left on the top and how to keep the rest of the shingles from falling off! The one thing I do like about this age is not giving a bunny's behind about what people think. You will however always be your mother's child lol, even if you are 70 and your mom is 100!

yep, I'm with Skinnyroo on this: for men, as long as its still there, we like it!

If you're a real disturber, show her a pic of a tattoo and ask her where it would look better!

My hair is now very short which I love but I realised I honestly couldn't care less when I lost it all. Do whatever you want. I think times have changed and 50 now is very different to 50 a few years ago. DH just turned 65 and I'm 63 and have NO intention of becoming sweet and demure. The bikini gave me a laugh because I have a huge scar from when my appendix burst at 6. As a teenager I went off to get a bikini (bright yellow and white) and all Mother kept saying was that people would see my scar and comment. Come to think of it I've never much cared what others think!

My mother has told me several times in the past that males should always have short hair, young ladies should have long hair,"older women" don't look good with long hair, and she used to keep hers short for that reason, Perhaps it's a generational thing, but I call BS. On her, it made her look older and more severe, but she didn't believe me for a long time. I already knew that short hair has a similar effect on me after buzzing it in my 20s... and started being mistaken for a dude LOL...but to prove my point to Mom, a few years ago I cut it short. It looked awful no matter how I styled it, and drove me bananas because the ends tickled my face but I couldn't tie it back. And definitely boyish, which doesn't bother me, but Mom has kept her hair shoulder length or longer ever since LOL
I work in a long term care home with lots of women of all ages, with all sorts of hair lengths, and for most, longer hair makes them look younger, not older in my opinion. I think long white hair is beautiful, personally.
But really, who CARES, it really shouldn't matter what other people think. Do what fits you, not other people's expectations of what you should or shouldn't do based on gender and some arbitrary birth year.

I'm not so sure asking here is going to give you much of a variety of answers.
Most all of us fit into this mold:
- don't care about what other people say about us
- like to do things our way
- fashion is highly overrated. Cloths are there to keep you warm and protected first
- dressing up means wearing the winter barn jacket.
- if you really, really need us to, we do dress up, but farm cloths are much nicer.
- did I mention that neighbours less than 300 yards away feels like they are living in your backyard?

Clothes? Warm? Protective? I guessss, but for me they're mainly so I don't get arrested.