The point is that "the longer the better" is not a sensible way to look at hair. I've seen women with hair down to their tushy who think that if they cut their hair 1innch it will make them ugly. This has nothing to do with reality, fashion, or how they look and my personal opinion is that hair that long is ugly and screams of desperation and insecurity. I don't know how else to explain why women cry when they cut their hair.... it grows back lol.

Now if it falls at the shoulder blade, between the shoulder/shoulder blade, or an inch longer well that's just semantics and truthfully it varies from person to person depending on your hair texture. According to my hair once it gets a few inches past my shoulder it falls limp, but that's just me. People with curly hair can wear their hair much longer than I can because they have more body and volume to accommodate for the length. I have to be frugal with my length.

Until recently I've never had my hair ABOVE my shoulder blades. Well, I take that back. One summer right before I went to camp my mom had the hairdresser cut it to my shoulders. I HATED it. It's never been that short again. It was never straggly or unkempt. My hair has been thick and full and wavy at the longest lengths. It's had NOTHING to do with "desperation" or "insecurity"...it's because I have always LIKED it that way.

Right now I'm trying to grow it out again while keeping layers in it ever since a misguided hairdresser decided to go about 6 inches shorter on the cut than I told her to. It was slightly (just slightly) longer than shoulder lenghth again, and all in one big bob. I looked like the prince from the Shrek movies. To get layers some length had to come off and it's taking a while to grow out where I want it. Again...I'm not insecure or desperate. I just want it that way.

My hair is currently waist length, but as an adult I have had it in everything from hip length to a pixie. I just thought that I would chime in with a few observations.

1. Hair does not exactly have a "set length." It has a growth cycle. Every hair follicle on your head grows a hair for a genetically determined amount of time and then than hair is shed and the cycle restarts. Most people have a cycle lasting between seven and nine years. Therefore, the longest that your hair can get is determined by how long it can get before it sheds. People have differing growth rates determined by numerous factors, but the average rate of growth is half an inch a month. So, if you completely stopped cutting your hair, it would still take years to achieve the longest possible length because many of your hairs would be in the middle or end of a cycle when you quit cutting. It could realistically take decades to achieve the longest possible length that you could have genetically. Also, if your hair is damaged, it will disintegrate far before reaching its longest possible length.

2. I can't agree with the idea that hair longer then any length is pointless from a fashion perspective or that long hair is harder to take care of and style. It really depends on what you mean by "long" and how you intend to wear it. My hair is waist length and I can style it in less than five minutes. I get tons of compliments on it and I spend little time caring for it. However, when I grew my hair from a pixie, I went online and learned how to do tons of updos and bought the tools to do them. I can put up a French twist or an elaborate bun in a matter of minutes. I can style it in less time than I spent on a pixie. Obviously, if I intended to blow dry and straighten it every morning this would take tons of time. So, it really just depends on what you want.

3. A person is never to old for long hair. This is an old cultural phenomenon that mainly exists in a handful of countries. Its all about how you style it and how you carry yourself. Also, very few hairdressers have any idea of how to deal with long hair so it is unsurprising that they advise you to cut it.

Thankyou for the info on how long hair will grow
I love my long hair and it's not a security issue with me, I've had it very short, chin length, shoulder length etc.
I find long hair easier to take care of and it needs cutting less than when I had it shorter.
I'm also older and it's easier to tell the hairdresser what I want than when I was young and was easily intimidated by them.

Well written post Paradoxx

After a fling with long hair (never past shoulder length) when I was 9 or 10, I definitely prefer to wear my hair short. (I have oily hair and short hair is much lower maintenance.) Seeing women with long, straight hair just has my mom climbing the walls. (We agree that the Veronica Lake look with one tendril of hair hanging across the face should have gone OUT with Veronica Lake!) I keep telling her there's more important things to get her undies in a bunch about: I admit some women look good with long hair, like the one who crashed the White House banquet, and I agree there's nothing in the Bible or the Constitution that says THOU SHALT CUT OR UP-DO YOUR HAIR STARTING WHEN YOU'RE 25 ON PAIN OF DEATH! So why does Caroline Kennedy (who's my age) drive ME nuts with her shoulder-length hair?? I guess she just must not be the one who can get away with it

Speaking of long hair...
today on campus I saw an Asian girl with hair that almost touched her KNEES. I gawked a little. I've never actually seen someone with hair THAT long before. I've seen butt-length.. but KNEE length?!?! It was very impressive.
I think that although long hair is often unflattering and does nothing, once you get it THAT long, the mere shock factor makes it kind of awesome.
SERIOUSLY, it was practically touching her KNEECAPS! And it looked so shiny and healthy and well-kept too...
Amazing.

Yeah, but you noticed her *hair*, not her.

Age...shmage... To me part of the "battle with the scale" is to actually not let numbers define how we feel about ourselves...and age is just another number. (Besides, 38 is not old. You're going to live to be 100 and look and laugh at "baby" 38 year olds.) Go for the long hair...go for whatever you have in your heart to try for yourself....who cares what anyone else thinks? You can always change your mind again. Let others live with their rules...you live with your smiles when you look in the mirror. Do what makes you happy! That's my vote.

Yes and no... I noticed her hair, THEN I noticed her. If she had had "normal" hair, I wouldn't have noticed her at all and she would have been just another girl in the crowd. It's something that makes her stand out, something that made her unique. Yes I did notice her hair *first*, but then I noticed HER.

It's no different than having big boobs and having guys notice you for it... they're noticing your boobs first, and then you. Some women HATE that, and yet, there are some that actually love it (and some who even get implants to be this way)... I think it all depends on the person.

I do see your point though. But either way... it was awesome hair!

My hair is a little past my waist, and I love having it long. And yes, I can tell and feel and see the difference between waist length and mid back. I'm only in my 20s, but I may keep it long when I'm older.

I'm 60 and my hair is quite a bit shorter naturally than when I was in my 40's when it was knee length. I wash it every day and it takes very little time. It is thin now so it drys quite quickly. Years ago it took more time to dry. I really don't see it as a bother. I Corinthians ll:15 says, "But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given to her for a covering."

To cover up what?

I think were never too old to wear our hair longer. Longer hair, hopefully shiny and bouncy too, makes me feel such a girl

I love long hair. I think short hair always makes people look older. Some people can get away with short hair if they're cute little pixie people like Shirley MacLaine, or punk chicks like Joan Jett, but most people just look like they gave up on trying to look nice.

And I don't agree that long hair is more of a commitment than short. I just wash and go. Sometimes I blow dry my hair if it's really cold or I'll straighten or curl it for a special occasion, but not often. The women I know with short hair are always having to spend time styling it and they go to the salon all the time. I go only when I need my ends trimmed. Plus I can throw it in a ponytail when it's in my way. That's always nice.

Emmylou Harris still keeps her hair pretty long (and gray even) at 62 and she's gorgeous. ****, I would love to look like her now and I'm less than half her age.

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you will have to drag me kicking and screaming to cut my long hair. I'm 41 and have NO PLANS of cutting it any time soon. I love my hair, my husband loves my hair and no one ever guesses that I'm even out of my low-30's so... it's a no-brainer