Is long hair ok over 50? It’s the question on everyones lips, but is it Ok for you? Read on and learn my top 5 essential hairstyle tips for women over 50.
The age-old debate over hair length for women over 50 is tired and has no place in any modern dialogue. Is long hair OK to wear after 50? It’s our hair and how we choose to wear it is such a personal choice and totally depends on a range of different factors, not least of which being what makes us feel the most like ourselves. In this blog post, I share with you my top 5 very essential hairstyle tips for women over 50
Hair length, be it short, medium or long, has no bearing on who you are, at your core, as a person and all the fabulous qualities that make you, well, you! Hair length does not determine age, nor should it be considered an indicator of ‘beauty’. Our hair allows us to express ourselves, show off our femininity and present to the world however we want to be seen, so why should the length be determined by a supposed societal rule? For many of us, our hair is so intrinsically linked to our identity, it would be akin to cutting off a limb!
One of the biggest reasons I wanted create this post is to share the story of woman I know in her early 70s with hip-length hair. She has come under a lot of pressure to cut her hair because she is ‘too old’ and her hair is ‘too thin’. This pressure to cut her hair is causing her so much distress because she loves her hair and it’s part of her identity. She doesn’t want to let it go.
If you are feeling the pressure to conform to what everybody else thinks, or even if you are little unsure of exactly what to do with your hair, this post is for you. I have said this many times, but before we get started, this bears repeating; it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. Your hair is about you and your personality, the following tips are just a little direction to help you figure out what hair style will suit you best based on your taste, preference and personality. But ultimately, do what feels good for you!
TIP 1 - How To Choose Your Hairstyle Over 50
Tip 1 is a practical formula to help you determine your face shape, and it gives you an idea of what hairstyle will look suit your personal features. For this first tip, you will need a phone with a front facing camera and a tape measure. Take a selfie with the phone about 30cm from your face and directly in front. It’s important not to take the photo at an angle as this will alter the final findings.
Now that you’ve got your selfie, find the exact middle of your face and measure the distance from ear to ear. That’s going to be measurement A.
Next, measure the distance from the top of your head to your chin. That will be measurement B.
Now for some quick math. If measurement A is less than 1.5 times the length of measurement B, that means your face is ‘short’. And if the opposite is true, measurement A is greater than 1.5 times the length of measurement B that means you have a ‘long’ face. So now that we know that we can pick hairstyles that will best complement our face length.
For longer hairstyles on ‘long’ faces, soft layering around the face helps add width and fullness to the width of your face to balance out the length. A side-swept fringe will also help to even our proportions by giving the appearance of shortening the width between the top of your head and the chin.
If you have a ‘short’ face, the same layering rule applies, only this time we want to aim on adding layers that direct the eye down toward your neck and tapering in at the ends. You can also add length to a short face by adding height to the top of your head and toward the crown. This can be acheived by trading or cutting in shorter layers (think back to the 80s for inspiration!)
TIP 2 - How To Pixie For Cuts For Older Women - What you need to know!
If you have been toying with the idea of going a little shorter (like a pixie cut), his next tip will help you to determine if this style will suit you best. For this next tip, you will again need a phone and a measuring tape and if you have already taken your selfie, you can just use the same photo again!
Measure the distance from your lower ear to the bottom of your chin at a right angle. If the distance between your ear and your chin is less than 5.5 cm, a pixie cut will suit you best. If you look at images of women who look amazing with a pixie cut, you will notice they are all short in the lower jaw area. It’s a thing, check it out for yourself and a great bit of information to know if you are thinking about a new short hairstyle!
And, if the measurement is more than 5.5 cm, you possibly won’t look as good with a pixie cut and may need to add little bit of length to your hair to balance out your chin. I am the perfect example for this as I have a long face with a lot of chin and look out of place with short hair.
TIP 3 - Frizzy Hair vs. Straight Hair over 50
When asking the question, is long hair ok over 50, the next tip will help you decide. It’s all about lifestyle, personality and ease of your hairstyle. We have two main hair types, 1/ frizzy (that’s me) and 2/ straight.
FRIZZY HAIR: Frizzy hair naturally tends to go wild. After washing, fizzy hair looks messy and unkempt, however with added length and weight, frizzy hair is much more manageable. You can wear your hair in a pony tail, a bun or braids, keeping your daily hair styling routine to a minimum. So when others people say you are too old to wear long hair over 50, STOP listening!
If you’d like to check out a quick everyday styling tutorial on how I manage my frizzy hair, click here!
FINE/THIN HAIR: With finer hair, the goal is to add more volume which helps to add form and definition to your hair style. If you are trying to grow your fine hair longer and not feeling the joy, it may be because the hair products you need to add volume just end up weighing your fine hair down, making it look heavy and lifeless. Shorter hairstyles are oftentimes better suited for women with fine hair and give you many more options to add volume by cutting in soft layers and using volumising hair products.
TIP 4 - Adding Layers And Colour Texture To Your Long Hair
This next tip is perfect for women over 50 and is to match the texture of your skin to the texture of your hair. That might sound a little strange, but bear with me.
As we are getting older, our skin naturally becomes more textured. Fine lines, wrinkles, sunspots, unevenness… these changes are all natural, totally beautiful and present us with a unique opportunity for hair styling.
A sleek, perfectly straight and shiny hairstyle on mature skin can create disharmony between our face texture and our hair texture. The two opposing “surfaces” actually magnify the wrinkles and age spots because the contrast tells the eye to focus on one element more than the other. Something would look a little off.
While this look does absolutely suit some women, most of us have hair that is slowly becoming more dry, more course and more textured naturally, which harmonises with the subtle changes occurring in our face and bodies.
Instead of fighting against this change, we can work with it to enhance our look by adding layering around the face and jaw line to soften and beautifully frame our face, just like the gorgeous woman in the image below. As you can see, the texture in her hair is in perfect harmony with the texture in her skin!
Another way we can add texture to our hair is by adding multiple colours. Now, I’m not necessarily talking about purple and green streaks (though if that’s up your alley go for it) what I mean is different shades of a similar colour, so low light and high lights for example. This subtle variation in shades will help to add texture and volume to your hair. Again, a perfect example of subtle color texture in the image above.
TIP 5 - How to treat split ends
If you are keeping your hair long, it’s important to make sure that the split ends are taken care of. Split ends create a wispy look for the hair which is very ageing, no matter what age you happen to be. Split ends also make the hair appear unhealthy and unkempt.
Keeping a blunt cut at the bottom of the hair helps give the appearance of thickness, fullness and density to the hair which in turn makes your hair look healthier. Your long hair will look a whole lot healthier a few inches shorter. So if you have thought about cutting away a few inches, but been too scared, just do it and see how you feel! But don’t worry, I have a special tip to help you take the plunge…
Now, this next part may sound a little woo woo, but try cutting you hair on the full moon or 3 days before the full moon. This well known trick has been used by women in the East for thousands of years and actually works! for real…I’ve been doing this for years and it’s made the world of difference. My hair grows back much quicker! And, if you are planning to cut it off anyway, what have you got to lose?
I have listed some of the products below that I swear by…The curling wand is a game changer and the 3 Kerastase products used together completely repaired my over bleached, frizzy hair…The Moroccan oil shampoo and treatment are my alternate products, and I use them because they are sulphate free and that is my preference (But The Kerstase gives better results).
I would love know your tips and what products you use xx
For a full video explanation of this post, check out the below video!
You are beautiful, inside and out. Your hair is part of you, and it is beautiful. I love you advice to do what makes you happy, not others. Personally, I feel like I look like a boy every time I get that wild “hair” to cut it short. Thanks for being true to yourself, don’t ever change.
I’d love your thoughts on hair like mine. While it’s always had a wave it is now post menopause curly, I’m now 58, fair white with mid to darker blonde hair, and haven’t had it cut since January 2020 due to lockdown here in the U.K.. I did have the ends trimmed before New Year 2020 and it now sits on my shoulders going in to a V at the back.
Though I think I have a long face my friends say not to have a fringe cut and to tie it back as I have good high cheeks. I m not a girly girl so have never really noticed, the fringe was so I could see what I was doing at work, I’m a college librarian. Getting the rights products at a sensible price is hard as they are either very expensive or targeted at Afro Caribbean tight dry curl.
I am enjoying the curls, but what.do you think re face shape, length, it’s thick healthy hair with few grey hairs.
Absolutely ok for a woman to wear long hair after 50
We should do whatever makes us feel good , confident and happy with ourselves
Thanks Schellea for the mature hair tips. My hair is the same style I had in high school and at age 62 I want to change things up. Your tutorial gave me some ideas I will take to my hair stylist to keep me classy and chic. Thanks again for the inspiration you have been for so many years. I appreciate you!
Hi Schellea,
I don’t think your friends mean to be nasty when they suggest getting your hair cut, you are a beautiful woman who can just about wear any hair style. I just think your hair tends to swamp your beautiful face. It kinda enters the room before you do. What do your sons think? I have a 21 year old son who is doing design at uni, and he always comments on my hair when I come back from my stylist, I am 65 and love my aerobics classes so look pretty good for my age. (I get a layered bob?? base colour and 1/4 head of blonde foils and pay about $200. As a hot summer is coming up why not give a great haircut with a great stylist a go? I mean if you don’t like it, grow it out. Please don’t take this the wrong way, as you say, it is our decision.
Regards,
Trish
I say where it however you like at whatever length you like and to hell with anyone who tells you it doesn’t look good or “overwhelms your beautiful face”. They obviously don’t like big hair or long hair on us older gals. I wish I could wear mine longer but it is so fine that it completely loses any body it might have once it gets to my shoulder or longer. So I keep mine layered and shoulder length and that makes me happy. Do what makes YOU happy! You’re beautiful inside and out and I appreciate all of your fabulous50 videos!
I’ll be turning 60 soon and through the years my hair has seen many styles, lengths and colors. I had almost black hair when I was young and since had many shades of blond included platinum. I’ve had gray hair since my teenage years so I began coloring my hair in my 30’s. I’ve had Farrah hair, chin length bobs, spiral long hair perms and permed shoulder length. Always with bangs including side bangs. When the pandemic hit and also a diagnosis for breast cancer I stopped coloring my hair and let my hair grow long.It is 5” past the collar bone and almost all silver except for platinum blond ends. My hair is naturally straight. I have grown my bangs out completely. And I am enjoying my new look.
At this age I know what I don’t like on me and that would be curls and short fussy hairstyles. I have had it with spending 4 hours every month at the hairdressers. Maybe I’ll change my mind as I age but for now I’m loving my long silver hair.