Just something I was pondering today...

You know the hair style a lot of older women seem to have, short,permed, think it might be called a "shampoo and set".

I remember having older women having the same style when I was a kid, my grandmother's both had hair like this and many people my own mum's age (she'll be 60 this year), so that's quite a time period for a particular haircut to be "in style", if that's the right phrase.

I've heard before that it's often better for women to go for a shorter cut as they get older, something to do with hair changing as they age, but why do so many women go for the same or a similar style?

For anyone whose gone for this type of cut,when did you decide to do it? Did you just decide to go for a shorter cut and when you got home you realised you'd been given "nana hair"? Or is it something hair dressers just do when you reach a certain age?

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, I'm feeling particularly inarticulate today!

You are officially old when you wake up with the hair-do like a cottage loaf.

Unfortunately, insight and old-lady hair are mutually exclusive so we can never have an explanation.

It's just the way it is. Like waking up one day and deciding that you will only wear beige.

A purple rinse!

Stephen Fry has pointed out that older gentlemen prefer dark trousers lest they exhibit the 'spot of shame' after their ablutions.

So beige is right out.

iv seen a few with a blue rinse, groovy grannies

My cousin calls ladies with this hairstyle "cauliflower heads"!

It used to be pretty much a regulation haircut for the over sixties, but I've noticed over the past few years it seems to be on the wane. I've seen loads of older women recently with really lovely, stylish, flattering cuts – short choppy bobs, pixie cuts and the like. Much better.

I wish the Queen would change her hairstyle, it's been like that for decades. Apparently it is like that because her crown sits just right on it, but surely another way could be tried out !

I'm talking old lady rules. Beige clothes and hair that looks pubic. My very favourite old lady look is tweed skirt, american tan tights and trainers - go girl!

Old men rules are quite different. When does a man wake up and decide that his trousers should go right up to his chest? On which particular day does he think it's ok to wear a polo-shirt with a tie? And when did he forget that his trousers should go all the way to his ankle?

I remember my mum going to the hairdressers in the early 70's and they had those seats against one wall with see-through hair-dryer domes that pulled down over the head.

My MIL ( whos is 75) has had the same back combed Thatcheresque bouffant since around 1960. Its bizarre. She puts an auburn rinse in it and its like a glowing helmet on her head. She must go through a can of hairspray every day becuase her hair doesn't move. And she sleeps in curlers!

My Ma, who is pushing 80 changes her hair all the time - she really has run the gamut of hairstyles - from the weird roller thing in the 1940's . back combed in the sixties, bubble perm in the 80s. Its now dark silver and cut short and choppy and looks very nice.

Basically, some people find a haircut they like and stick with it for life. Others move with the times.

Better tights - American tan or not - than knee-highs which only just reach the hemline.

And in that tiny little space between the knee highs and the skirt hem is a mass of unshaven hair

"cauliflower heads"

My mum is in her late 60s and she has had the same hairstyle since her 40s. She dyes her hair the same shade every time. Her make up hasn't changed either.

I think a lot of older women (women about 70 and older) wear their hair like that because when they were in their middle years it was fashionable to have short, roller-set hair. It's what they were used to and apart from putting a few rollers in it's easy to manage. My mum is 91 and has had her hair like that for as long as I can remember, the only change being it's now white instead of brown.

Also that particular style can disguise the fact that a woman's hair is thinning, something that happens to most women eventually. I used to try to get my mum to go for something less 'set', but her hair is very fine and would probably just lie flat and look very sparse without the help of a perm and rollers. I imagine this is the case for a lot of older women, they go with what does the job rather than worrying themselves over what is or isn't fashionable.

As for the tan tights and lots of beige, again they're just going for what they're used to. Tan tights used to be fashionable for everybody and the older ladies just never broke the habit of wearing them. Same with beige which is flattering for older complexions, though I see lots of elderly women wearing colours, especially blue and pink. My mother wears lots of colours, as long as they're pastel, and she looks good in them too.

Every age seems to have a look of its own, not just the elderly, and each look tends to cause some amusement in the other groups. For example, my mum finds it amusing how all the young girls she sees have long, poker-straight hair and wear the same type of clothes, following whatever is 'in' at the moment, whether it suits them or not. Uniform dressing and same hair applies just as much to the young as to the old and to a certain extent to all those in between as well.

I'd rather Princeess Anne would change her hair, it does nothing for her. Same with Cilla Black, it doesn't suit her style really.

What gets me is my Nan says youngsters all look the same these days but when I call her up on how all old ladies generally have the same hairstyle as listed above she can't see it!! They all ook identical in those old photo's too!! I think today we have more variation but then we have more options open to us. But why say we youngsters all look the same!!! grrr! its one thing we always argue about! lol

I am 37 now and I think this will be my last year of having long hair, at the moment it is down to my bum and think I will be going back to having it in a bob. My grandmother in law is in her 80's and still has long grey hair and wears it in a scruncie, having nightmares that will be me, so taking the plunge next year.

My first (and last) perm when 21 left me with Old Lady hair!

Looked like the queen but without the crown.

Hahahahaaaaaa..... Yes, that's so true. At what point does one opt for beige and other pastel chalky colours? I intend to grow old disgracefully... in fact, I'm currently making a damned good job of it. I can see myself still shopping in All Saints at 70.

And WHERE do those shoes come from, you know the sandal thingies with curly criss cross straps... It's always a mystery to me...like where do flies go in winter.

This thread is hilarious!

I had a perm disaster. My head looked like a bowl of noodles when wet, and an explosion in a mattress factory when dry.

Clearly had the same hairdresser as me.
Spent the best part of 6 months sticking my head under a tap once an hour to try and restrain the frizz. Which possibly made it worse.

I am fast approaching Old Ladyhood and don't know what I'm going to do with my hair.
Apart from a perm.

You can't get them in regular outlets... you see them advertised in the Sunday papers... I, of course, quickly turn the page when my gaze falls upon an ad for them, lest I am tempted...

Flies hibernate... in old ladies' blue rinses. It's true.

Mmm... noodles...

I had the first zig zag perm done in our area - wow - it was so big I couldn't get my helmet on to go out on my boyfriends motorbike - I loved it lol