People are judged every day by the way they look. But what does your hair say about you and does it flag up your age? We’ve all stood in a queue at the petrol station admiring the long, shiny blonde locks of the young woman in front, only to be surprised that she’s in her late 50s when she turns around. Whether we like it or not, our hair (or lack of it) says something about our position in society. Platform talks to Caroline Holland, a research academic in the OU’s Faculty of Health and Social Care, to find out more…
“There has been something of a revival of academic interest in what it means to be living in an ageing body,” says Caroline, “but relatively little serious attention has been paid to ageing hair and, indeed, it might seem a trivial interest given many other pressing issues about ageing populations. But the more we read and thought about it, the more hair and hairdressing seemed to symbolise very neatly many of the dilemmas of ageing in contemporary society.”
Caroline is conducting some research around how hair can affect people’s perceptions of you in old age.
“We became interested in greying hair as a result of some work we did a couple of years ago on ‘everyday’ age discrimination (RoAD) – those subtle or not so subtle slights that people often experience just because they’re clearly a bit older. There was discussion about what some people identified as the ‘pensioner’s hairdo’ – short, white, tight curls – and what this said about images of the older woman, the realities of ageing bodies, and the kinds of consumer products aimed at people in later life.
Affects of old age
“Whether we like it or not hair (or lack of it) says something about our position in society. In all cultures people have used hairstyling, or in some cases covering hair, to make a statement. In Britain young people in particular have used hairstyles to show their allegiance to a group, style or movement – crew cuts, bobs, beehives, afros, dreadlocks, mullets, to name but a few. Adults working in certain businesses and professions are expected to conform to particular standards of styling and grooming. Some styles are considered ‘sexier’ than others – though the details tend to change over time. So hair styling and maintenance comes to be associated with belonging, vitality, and desirability; see the girl flick her long smooth hair in the shampoo commercial.”
More so in modern society, people attempt to hide the affects of old age or actively try to make themselves appear younger – some successfully, others not.
“At some point the first few grey hairs begin to appear, and as they increase in number so does the reality of bodily ageing. Men as well as women are affected by this, and some men have the added challenge of receding hair, but by far the most comment in the media and product advertising is aimed at women,” explains Caroline.
To dye or not to dye
In their journal article - If I look old, I will be treated old: hair and later-life image dilemmas (Ageing & Society, 31, 2011 288-307) – Caroline and her colleague Richard Ward, of Manchester University, discuss some of the responses to a pervasive social dislike of the look of age compared to the look of youth. To dye or not to dye – and if you do, when to stop? Is there a time when shorter hair looks better/is more age-appropriate? How does an older woman navigate between looking frumpy and looking like ‘mutton dressed as lamb’?
“In later life, many women cannot manage their hair without some help, and this becomes very important when ‘wild’ or dirty hair might be taken as a sign of inability to cope or the onset of senility,” says Caroline.
“Our research suggested that hairstyle is far from inconsequential in later life. Discussions in the RoAD study revealed the constraining, disciplining and even moralising dimensions inherent in the ways older people are treated and how this relates to the appearance of age.”
