Oh, goodness. Family. Gotta love 'em.

I'm actually thinking I might run out and get an iced coffee. That's certain to keep me awake for a few more hours...

But "regardless of how it looks on the individual woman" is i so subjective.

None of the women I've seen on the show have said they want to keep their hair because they think it looks better that way. Of course, my favorite is the woman (whose hair wasn't really super long) who insisted her husband would be upset if they cut her hair, and his first comment on seeing her was basically that her hair looked awesome.

And I don't think everyone with long hair has hair that looks ratty, it's just often the case on the show that it is very damaged and really doesn't look good.

None of the women I've seen on the show have said they want to keep their hair because they think it looks better that way.

So why did they want to keep it? Inertia? They like the way it feels?

And I don't think everyone with long hair has hair that looks ratty, it's just often the case on the show that it is very damaged and really doesn't look good.

My hair dresser (who I tracked down!) was talking about how so many cutters don't know how/aren't interested in making long hair look good -- they'd rather chop away.

I went in there with color damage pretty sure he'd have to lop a bunch of it off. He didn't. It looks great now.

It's weird, the number of men who think short hair on women is appalling. Not just not attractive on that particular woman, but philosophically inadvisable.

I remember when Chicago came out, the Chronicle reviewer gave it a positive view but used up an entire paragraph lamenting that women would take it as an excuse to go out and get those horrible, horrible bobs, when everyone knows that short hair is objectively loathsome (I exaggerate his actual statement, but not by much).

I wish I could have long hair, I really do, and I wish it looked better on me than it does. But the truth is that the only way I'd ever look good with long hair is if I invested in a wig. My own hair stops looking healthy and happy just past my shoulders. If I grow it out to the bottom of my shoulderblades, it gets tatty. Down to mid-back, and the last 9 inches are a split-ended raggedy thinning mess.

I'd love to have long Pre-Raphaelite ringlets all the way down my back, and maybe someday I will, if I purchase them.

It was a relief, really, to one day have a friend just lop it all off right up to mid-neck; I was still getting the cultural message that longer hair was lovelier and more feminine, but when I set aside the bullshit and looked in the mirror there was no way not to see that everything looked better this way. But, damn, that cultural message is loud.

So why did they want to keep it? Inertia?

Given the state of the wardrobes of many people on the show? I'd say inertia probably plays a huge role. But mostly I think it's the cultural message that JZ is referring to.

Or maybe they just like having long hair. A lot of people actually do.

Given the state of the wardrobes of many people on the show? I'd say inertia probably plays a huge role. But mostly I think it's the cultural message that JZ is referring to.

I definitely remember thinking things like, "My hair looks better short, but I look more like a woman with it long," and "Even ugly long hair is better than pretty short hair." And it was really, really hard to get past that. Long hair turns you into a fairytale princess, and short hair is for dangerous people like Louise Brooks.

And then there's the subset of the above message, that some short hair is generally okay, but very short hair is only acceptable for women with impossibly delicate, beautiful features like Audrey Hepburn and Jean Seberg and Mia Farrow and, now, Natalie Portman. Very short hair is weirdly naked; there's nothing for anyone to see but your face. Frankly, I'm still terrified of the pixie cut. If I ever got one, everyone would see how horse-faced and old I really amthe Body Image Demons would take over.

Heh. I chose E--drink coffee and crop/upload pictures.

Here is my PCP's quilt, all finished! [link]

DH loves that I usually wear my hair long. A few years ago it was past my waist and I decided to cut about 12 inches off and donate it. My hair reached my shoulder blades after and was in a cute cut. DH HATED it.

Now it is near my waist, again. My stylist cuts some longish layers into it to help give it some shape, and because it's pretty thick and has natural body. (I do wish my hair was curlier or in ringlets.) I like being able to do my hair in various styles. I find I spend more time on it when it's short and then seem to be perpetually growing it out.

The school would frown on a teacher dying their hair an unusual color (they barely tolerate it in the students!); however, I did have deep red hi-lights a few years ago and no one said anything. The old art teacher would always dye a streak of her hair red, pink, blue, green or orange and the administration usually ignored it.

DH keeps mentioning me dying my hair black; however, my stylist keeps saying he things it would be too harsh. Instead we go as dark brown as possible (a shade or two darker than my natural) and sometimes add some red in for depth. The gray's seems to bother me more than anything. No one else seems to see them. DH has beautiful 'salt and pepper' hair...if I knew mine would look like that I'd welcome going gray!

It's weird, the number of men who think short hair on women is appalling. Not just not attractive on that particular woman, but philosophically inadvisable.

Yeah, was (am?) married to one of those. He HATED it when I got it cut short. Became one of thee zillion things we just didn't talk about.

I thought I liked my hair long until I chopped it. Now I love it short. I'm "growing it out" but not by much. I had it really short for a while and now I want a little bounce.

I am SO. DARNED. TIRED.