I may regret this...

I was leafing through a women’s magazine at work the other day (it’s OK, I’m allowed to) and came across an article about older women who continue in paid work beyond retirement age. By the way, I’m getting tired of being fed the idea that it’s brilliant to work until you drop. OK if your job is something you love to do and you have the health and mental wellness to do it. Not so great if it’s something you have to do and it’s exhausting and/or boring. I suspect there's a collusion between the government and the media, a subtle campaign to sell the idea of retirement at 70 – or whatever age they want to push it to – in order to avert a revolution. Anyway, I digress…

One of the people featured in this article was a woman aged around 70 I think, who was still working as a fashion model. Good for her if that’s what she wants, but the thing that jumped out the page at me was her long grey hair which, not meaning to be unkind, I have to say was straggly. Taken together with the wrinkles it was not a look I felt I would like to copy. Now I’m not against owning up to wrinkles. Not much you can do to hide them even if you wanted to. No, they are a kind of badge of honour – aren’t they? But long thinning straggly grey hair?

So I took a long hard look in the mirror…

I’ve almost always had long hair, ever since I was 13 and felt mature enough to rebel against the hair cutting sessions Mum held in the kitchen. The family were lined up and sheared in age order, but at least Mum had a decent pair of hair cutting scissors. No kitchen shears or pudding basins were involved, I’ll give her that.

So, ever since that tender age it’s been long locks for me. Saggy and I had always wanted to walk in Loose Valley wearing (then unfashionably) long skirts and let our hair down to feel the wind blowing through it. But I digress again…

What I’m trying to say is this: having had a good long look in the mirror I had to admit that my hair is thinning somewhat, and although I quite liked the grey and white combo it’s turned, it looked a mess. Sadly I had to admit to myself that the days of lovely long locks flowing in the breeze were a thing of the past for me. Now, I know that long grey hair can look fabulous on some women, e.g. Saggy. But not me.

So, I’ve decided to go for something a lot shorter. It feels a bit weird and I may regret it by next week. I think it makes me look a bit more like the mad dog lady that I styled myself last year and a bit less like the mad photographer lady I was planning on becoming. Its already starting to look a mess again.

Never mind, maybe I’ll grow it out again…