Girls Let Their Hair Grow as a Sign of Their Youth

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 20

Girls Let Their Hair Grow as a Sign of Their Youth

There is no denying it, bobs come and they go! Not so long ago when a group of middle-aged women got together for a friendly chat the first words spoken were, “Well, are you going to shingle your hair?” And then the discussion was on. “Undignified,” “snappy,” “disgusting,” “convenient.” “youthful,” were some of the expressions that flew back and forth. It was the word “youthful” that was the deciding factor in most cases. The women fell into line—that is, that climbed into the barber’s chairs, because they felt the bob or shingle was to give them that air of “jeunesse” that the Parisian dressmakers were always preaching about: was to add the “je ne sais quoi” that the candidates for youth and beauty had been yearning for. They bobbed and they felt in their ujDlifted hearts that the result was wonderful. They could not be distinguished from their daughters. At least they hoped not. Oh, how they hoped! The youngsters got together and talked it over. “We look too much like our mothers and grandmothers.” they decided. “We’ll let our hair grow.” They did. The schoolgirls and the lassies in the ’teen ages are now wearing shaggy locks 'that are en route to the length when they will be coiled into “buns,” low on the napes of their necks, and they are twisting their halfgrown tresses into French knots. The bob, instead of being the sign of

youth, has apparently become the banner of advancing years. Will youth be able to rule the hair styles? Even the hairdressers, poor things, are a bit bewildered. Short hair brought them such an immense amount of business, for women with bobs must go to the barber at least twice a month for trims, and then there are all her other visits for shampoos, permanent waves, Marcels, finger and water waves, that are removed from the luxury class into the grade of neceessities when the hair is short and larftv, as so many of our friends’ heads are—not ours—of course not! Most of the hairdressers, of course, arc making a brave tight to maintain the short hair fashion, and not for worlds would they admit that long hair, for the youthful ones, at least, and the would-be youthfuls, may anpear. Others are ready with switches and ti ansformations—strange possessions for so frank an age. Only time can tell \\ hether tile smart women of more mature years can hold her own against the latest whim of youth. Perhaps she will—or perhaps youth, when it sees its longer locks fast being copied by the older generation, will shrug its shoulders and revert to bobs.