Mature hair styles

Mature hair.

“A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.” as Coco Chanel said.

During this current pandemic, I have discovered, pathetic and embarrassing as it is, that some of my mojo is in my hair.

A former neighbor of mine, is the Scandinavian distributor of an American hair care range and she earns, obscene, amounts of money, and I think it is because the hair is the easiest part of our appearance, to change. When a home dye goes wrong, it is even, sometimes, referred to, as a hair disaster.

When I am shopping at my local supermarket, the French chain, Monoprix, the hair product ails seems just as long as the fruit and vegetables sections. There are thousands and thousands of products that claim to solve problems, we have, yet to identify and know that we have. But nevertheless there are products for every possible hair challenge.

I have a lot of hair and so does my sons, much to their annoyance. I once saw my card at my hairdresser (or stylist as I suppose they are called these days) it said : “Obs; the hair takes 1.5 hours to blow dry”. It used to be a cold ashy light brown, but for some reason it becomes more and red, in a brass colour that doesn`t even suit my skintone. So I have thrown myself into the wonders and vocabulary of hair colouring.
During the first lockdown, in France, the hairdressers were closed for, nearly two months. The women in Paris paraded longer and longer partial grey regrowths, showing that most French women do not dye their own hair. At one my local hairdressers, I often see 3-4 women of a certain age, going to the hairdresser together, before or after a lunch, followed by a visit to a cafe, to show off the new look. Not that there is much new look. I don`t see many avantgarde hairstyles or colours in the area, where I live in Paris. Au contraire; the hair is well-kempt, fresh, clean and blow dried, straight and dark brown. When reaching the age of around 65 the tendency is to have some caramel blonde highlights made to blend in with grey and the coloured brown.

For many years, I tried to explain the colour that I want, but at the time the colour did not exist as a ready mixed product, so I could simply not get it done, in Paris. At one time, I even brought a brown champignon to show the nuances I wanted. The hairdressers teased me and said that I was the only woman, in history, that had wanted to colour her hair grey. Colouring grey has existed for decades for men and Scandinavian women, where it is called salt and pepper. That is absolutely not what I want.

I have, yet, to find a hairdresser that can change my brass hair into the mushroom colour, that I so desire.

During lockdown, it became possible to buy a live video consultation with your hairdresser or you could follow step-by-step guides at YouTube. There are even videos of how to put a towel around the head, when the hair is wet after washing and a new trend, that says it is best to let it air dry and stop using products, there seems to be a period of time where you are phasing out and detoxing from products (!) .

In the 1950s there were few option, where your hair turned grey and you were a mature woman. Not all grey is a beautiful, clear white, grey or dark grey. Some grey is more yellow, orange or a muddy patè colour. To reduce and neutralize the unwanted colours, you could get a purple or blue rinse, sometimes it went wrong though and, instead, of a neutral white/grey it became bright blue or bright purple. Today it is popular to use purple or blue shampoos and conditioners, I don`t know if it works, it has not changed my light copper back to the mushroom, I want.

At our Pinterest board we have found examples of beautiful for all ages and show some of our favorites, here, for inspiration :

https://www.pinterest.fr/vintageguruscom/_saved/