Wednesday 15 January 2014

My challenging hair

Day 8 of the New Year Style Challenge asks us to consider whether our hairstyle enhances our style.  This is a tricky one for me, as my hair has always been challenging.  I had hoped that once I was over 60 my hair would turn a lovely silver colour and would become thick and coarse.  It may sound strange to anyone with thick hair, but if your hair has been fine all your life you will probably sympathise with me.

It wasn't too bad when I was younger because although my hair was fine it was reasonably thick, which tended to confuse hairdressers when I walked into their salon. It used to take me a long time to dry my hair so,  although I kept my hair long when I was younger, once I started running in my late thirties I tended to go for shorter styles.

My face shape is long, closest to an oval shape, so I looked at the guidelines for that shape and was delighted to see that one of the celebrities with a similar shaped face was Anne Hathaway. Yes, Anne Hathaway of the cute pixie crop. Having fine hair, which sadly is a lot thinner nowadays, as well as being short in stature, long hair is no longer a good style for me. A short layered cut seems to suit me more now that I'm over 60.  You may notice that in all of these picture I have a fringe (or bangs as some people say). For those of us with long faces, a fringe makes our faces look more balanced. Luckily it is particularly good for over 60s as it hides some of our wrinkles and disguises a receding hairline!

In my late teens, with my youngest brother

In my late thirties - not a flattering outfit!
My style is casual chic, so the shorter hairstyle shown below is ideal for both my lifestyle and my fashion style. What about you ? What influences your choice of hairstyle?

Over 60 and over here!













9 comments:

  1. Well, I left a long comment but it disappeared!

    Anyway, looks like we have much in common: longish face, fine, straight but thick hair. I had a pixie for ages and thought it looked great but, apparently it didn't. So I'm trying a longer pixie, or med/short with layers.

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  2. Robin, sometimes I think our computers have minds of their own! If I'm doing a long comment I often do a copy part of the way through, which I can then paste back, just in case! My Spanish hairdresser seems to like me with short hair as, when it starts to get out of shape so I go for a trim, even though I say not too much (usually telling her that I'm going to London and it's "muy frio" there) I end up with it very short! As I said, now that it's going a bit thin, short layers are probably the best style for me.

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  3. Hi Sue,

    I love your hairstyle—looks perfect on you! I am tall (5 ft. 8 in.) with very broad "linebacker" shoulders inherited from my father. I like short hair and and tried it when in my 30s, but looked like a "pin head" with my shoulders!

    My hair is also very fine, and when I was younger I had a lot of it. It's poker straight, which was conveniently in style when I was in high school, but has not been convenient since then! Now I'm approaching 60 and it's gotten thinner the past several years. My hairdresser once commented that she thought I'd lost "about a third" of my hair! Yikes.

    I wear mine shoulder length now, with light layers around the face and back. Use plenty of "volumizing" mousse, blow dry upside down, and spray lightly with hair spray before hitting it with a fat curling iron. So much for "traveling light" these days---can't be done!

    I don't comment often but do read your blog every day, and enjoy it immensely!
    Andrea

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    1. Hi Andrea. Thank you so much for your comment. I write this blog for fun, as I enjoy writing, but it's great when people leave me lovely comments like that. Robin is a regular and I now think of her as a friend!

      My hair isn't that straight when it's longer. I remember growing it longer in the 60s expecting to look like Cathy McGowan and being very disappointed when my fringe was a bit kinky and my hair turned out wavy!

      Yep, I'm a great fan of volumizing products nowadays!

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    2. Aww.

      Funny how our hair seems to be one way and then show these little idiosyncrasies that drive us nuts. My wispy bits at the nape go "sproing"! My niece called them sticky-outie bits. We should think of them as designer features!

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  4. Sue

    One thing I wrote that got lost was that I like how you have the wispy part at the nape: gives a softness and keeps it looking feminine.

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    1. Robin, the wispy part is my hair still being a bit kinky and wavy at times! Good point though, I must remember to tell my hairdresser to leave it slightly longer at the back when I go there tomorrow.

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  5. Hi Sue, I am about to be 60 next month and several of my friends are a couple of years younger. I got them to look at your "hair" photos, which I hope doesn't sound intimidating at all! We all feel that more hair is better when you get a bit older, we understand about the thinness (although I have lots of thick, uncontrollable stuff myself). Its just that short hair can demote into "sensible" or severe, very quickly and very short on older women (unless you're a gamine with small, cute face) can get mumsyish very quickly. We all see that dreaded "man cut" on older women every day - the worst look there is on over 50/60s. Have you tried thickening products? You can get wonderful shampoos/conditioner/other products for most types of hair these days. OK, the clothes of the pic of you in your thirties are not brilliant (but then none were on us then!) but more hair softens the look of the face, which becomes even more important over 60. We just feel you're far too glamourous inside and out to go the sensible route. Maybe try a new hairdresser or one of the "try on hairstyles on a photo of you" websites out there - there are several. Good luck, we all admire your searching for style; self development is so important at any age.

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  6. Thank you so much for your lovely, helpful comment. I'm really touched that you and your friends went to so much trouble! What was interesting for me, looking at my older photos, was that I'd forgotten how dark my hair was! I had booked an appointment with my current hairdresser today, as I'm off to London tomorrow to see my family, however I told her that I wanted my layers to be left longer and it did seem to work this time. I also spoke to my Spanish friend (whose English is very good) and next time I'm going to go to her hairdresser and Juana will explain what I'm after. I'll take a couple of photos to show her too. Thanks again. Sue

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