Should women over 50 wear long hair? Is it okay for you? That is the question that is on everyone’s mind.
The age-old debate over hair length for women over 50 is tired and has no place in any modern dialogue.
Is having long hair acceptable after 50? The way we choose to wear our hair is entirely up to us and depends on a variety of factors, not the least of which is what makes us feel most like ourselves.
Here, I share with you my list of the top 5 essential long hairstyle tips for women over 50.
Short, Medium or Long Hair?
No matter how long, medium, or short your hair is, it doesn’t change who you are at your core or any of the amazing things that make you, well, you!
Hair length is not a factor in determining age or what is deemed to be “beautiful.”
Why should a supposed social norm tell us how long our hair should be when it lets us express ourselves, show off our femininity, and show the world how we want to be seen?
It would be like amputating a limb for many of us because our hair is so deeply connected to our identities!
The story of a woman I know who is in her early 70s and has hip-length hair is one of the main reasons I wanted to write this post. Due to her ‘too old’ age and ‘too thin’ hair, she has been under a lot of pressure to cut her hair. She loves her hair and considers it a part of her identity, so the pressure to cut it is making her very upset. She doesn’t want to let it go.
These long hairstyle tips are for you if you feel pressured to wear your hair a certain way or are even slightly unsure of how to style it. Even though I’ve said it before, it bears repeating before we begin: it doesn’t matter what other people think.
This is just some general advice to help you figure out what hairstyle will look best on you based on your taste, preferences, and personality. Your hair is about you and your personality. Do what feels right to you, though, in the end!
Here are some of my essential long hairstyle tips you should know!
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’.
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.
Long Hairstyles Tips
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 for adding layers that direct the eye down toward your neck and taper 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), this next tip will help you to determine if this style will suit you best.
You will also need a phone and a measuring tape. However, 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.
Pixie cut models have short lower jaws. Check it out if you’re considering a short haircut!
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
One of my long hairstyle tips is to match your hair and skin type. That might sound a little strange, but bear with me.
As we get older, our skin naturally becomes more textured. Fine lines, wrinkles, sunspots, and unevenness—these changes are natural, lovely, and provide a unique hairstyle opportunity.
Sleek, straight, and lustrous hair on aged skin might clash with our facial texture.
The contrast between the two “surfaces” magnifies wrinkles and age spots since the eye focuses on one. Something would look a little off.
While this look suits certain women, most of us have hair that naturally becomes more dry, coarse, and textured, which matches our facial changes.
Layering around the face and jaw line might improve our look instead of battling this change. This will soften and beautifully frame our faces, 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 make hair seem wispy, which ages everyone. They also make the hair appear unhealthy and unkempt.
A blunt cut near the bottom of the hair adds thickness, fullness, and density, making it look healthier.
Your long hair will look a whole lot healthier a few inches shorter. If you’ve been afraid to trim a few inches, try it! But don’t worry, I have a special tip to help you take the plunge…
This may sound a little woo woo, but try cutting your hair on or before the full moon. This well known trick has been used by women in the East for thousands of years and actually works!
My Recommended Hair Products
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 swear by the following products. The curling wand and three Kerastase products fixed my over-bleached, frizzy hair.
Sulfate-free Moroccan oil shampoo and treatment are my alternatives (But The Kerstase gives better results).
I would love know your long hairstyle tips and what products you use xx
For a full video explanation of this post, check out the below video for some long hairstyle tips!
7 Responses
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.