Long Locks When you are Over 50

Long locks when you're over 50

Dominique Browning
























Great lengths ... Emmylou Harris. Photo: AP Photo

What's so wrong with having long hair once you hit middle age? Dominique Browning lets her freak flag fly.

My mother hates it. My sister worries about it. My agent thinks I'm hiding behind it. A concerned friend suggests that it undermines my professional credibility. But in the middle of my life, I'm happy with it. Which is saying a lot about anything happening to my 55-year-old body. I feel great about my hair.

I have long hair. I'm not talking about long enough to brush gently on my shoulder (when I tilt my head). I'm not talking about being a couple of weeks late to the hairdresser. I'm talking long. Long enough for a ponytail with swing to it. Long enough to sit against when I'm in a chair. Long enough to have to lift it up out of the jumper I'm pulling over my head. Long enough to braid.

What's worse (to my critics) is that my hair is greying. Of course it is. Everyone's hair is greying. But some of us aren't ready to go there. That's fine with me - I'm not judgmental about dyes. In fact, I find the range and variety of synthetic hair colour to be an impressive testament to our unending chemical creativity. I'm particularly fascinated by that streaky kaleidoscopic thing some blondes do that looks kind of like "hair of fawn". For my own head, I'm a tad paranoid about smelly, itchy potions.