What do you think about this...?

[Wusel]

Tyra Banks makeovers

(Mary Long Hair Makeover by Tyra Banks)

It made me angry because it's always about cutting hair. Why didn't they give her a good updo or braid?

Yes, she looks older in the beginning but it's because of the old fashioned clothing, no makeup and the scruffy, undone hair. Not because of the length of it.

On my opinion, afterwards she looks good but boring. Like everyone else. Like "suitable for the mass". Nothing special.

Natural hair gone, damaged with chemical dye (I'm sure they din't use henna for the color)...
What a pity...

[lilin]

I really resent this idea that women aren't pretty unless they're wearing a metric ton of make-up and have their hair fried straight within an inch of its life, as if there's just something inherently wrong with the way women naturally look. But frankly, she's lucky they didn't bleach the hell out of her hair instead -- not having bleached out hair is practically edgy, if you want to be a trendy young American woman.

The only reason they thought she looked so much older (if they really did -- personally I think guessing her at 40 is completely absurd, although I think she looks older than 23 with BOTH looks) is because she was sort of hiding her figure in clothes that are not just shapeless and washed out, but are from an older fashion era (something middle aged women who feel insecure tend to do).

This is a uniquely American thing, this tendency for everyone to want to looks like clones of each other, and to be made fun of if you dare to break the restrictive fashion mold. Europeans have a lot more diversity in the way they look, I've noticed.

It is also a uniquely American thing for women to associate aging with just giving up on themselves and hiding their bodies as much as possible -- women are past their "expiration date" at 40, in the US. You don't ever see older American women wearing color, and they tend to cut their hair really short and do the "grandma curl" by the time they're 55 or so.

I like her hair both ways, honestly. I just sort of resent the idea that one is "better" or that she's basically damaged goods having long hair. What the hell...

The culture of how women have to look is just so insanely unhealthy. Young? You better beat the hell out of your face and dye and straighten your hair because your natural self is ugly and you require hours of work every day to fix you for public viewing (and that's really all you're good for). Older? You're barely even a human being anymore, because your humanity is attached to looking barely legal, so kindly just disappear, please. Ugh.

One of the millions of reasons I left...

[Madora]

That poor mane was butchered. If you are going to cut hair, at least be professional about it!

If they had had any hair know how they could have given her a lovely updo..but alas, they lack the expertise and thus she gets the "gamine" cut...which will be expensive to maintain. Also, her hair looked fake...way too glossy. How anyone could call her 40 defies description.

[Mimha]

Well, of course she looks better with nice fitting clothes and make up, and a somewhat tidier hairdo. But what should we think about that pitiful audience almost exclusively composed of "standardized people" ??? That Tara, with her dyed-permed-styled hair ? These straightened / colored / short haired ladies gaping with horror in front of a 100% miracle of natural hair ??? Tara just wants to get audience and makes it out of all those blind idiots' frustration.

It's appalling that the society has so completely lost sense of what is genuine and authentical to the point where nobody seems able to deal with it anymore and feels the urge to standardize everybody ! This girl had amazing hair. With a little care she would have turned it into a pure wonder. There is no need to travel to India to see truly amazing long hair : we can grow it ourselves whenever we want... if only we come to realize that it's possible, and stop listening to people who are fake from head to toes !...

[Madora]

This girl had amazing hair. With a little care she would have turned it into a pure wonder. There is no need to travel to India to see truly amazing long hair : we can grow it ourselves whenever we want... if only we come to realize that it's possible, and stop listening to people who are fake from head to toes !...

PREACH IT, Mimha!!

[Mimha]

PREACH IT, Mimha!!

Lol, Madora ! when I first saw your pic', I truly assumed you were an Indian lady^^. I have always been in awe of Indian hair and I naively thought that Indian had super genes or secret recipes... until I discovered in here that brown/blond/red haired ladies can achieve the same amazingness if only they let their hair grow (with proper care, of course), just like Indian ladies do. And this is quite a nice discovery indeed !... :) :) :)

[jeanniet]

I really resent this idea that women aren't pretty unless they're wearing a metric ton of make-up and have their hair fried straight within an inch of its life, as if there's just something inherently wrong with the way women naturally look. But frankly, she's lucky they didn't bleach the hell out of her hair instead -- not having bleached out hair is practically edgy, if you want to be a trendy young American woman.

The only reason they thought she looked so much older (if they really did -- personally I think guessing her at 40 is completely absurd, although I think she looks older than 23 with BOTH looks) is because she was sort of hiding her figure in clothes that are not just shapeless and washed out, but are from an older fashion era (something middle aged women who feel insecure tend to do).

This is a uniquely American thing, this tendency for everyone to want to looks like clones of each other, and to be made fun of if you dare to break the restrictive fashion mold. Europeans have a lot more diversity in the way they look, I've noticed.

It is also a uniquely American thing for women to associate aging with just giving up on themselves and hiding their bodies as much as possible -- women are past their "expiration date" at 40, in the US. You don't ever see older American women wearing color, and they tend to cut their hair really short and do the "grandma curl" by the time they're 55 or so.

I like her hair both ways, honestly. I just sort of resent the idea that one is "better" or that she's basically damaged goods having long hair. What the hell...

The culture of how women have to look is just so insanely unhealthy. Young? You better beat the hell out of your face and dye and straighten your hair because your natural self is ugly and you require hours of work every day to fix you for public viewing (and that's really all you're good for). Older? You're barely even a human being anymore, because your humanity is attached to looking barely legal, so kindly just disappear, please. Ugh.

One of the millions of reasons I left...

None of what you've said is true for my area of the country. At all. It's not realistic to paint the entire US with such a broad brush. I see a LOT of older women with long, grey hair, along with diversity in clothes and makeup (or not). And some with short hair, too. But many older women have shorter hair because they want it that way, not to be clones. After all, if women all had long hair, wouldn't that be kinda clonish as well? I grew my hair out at 50+ because I wanted to. Then I cut it off because I wanted to. I don't give a rat's hinney for who wants my hair short OR long, and no one around here cares either way.

ETA: All the stores around here that cater to older women sell a lot of color. I can't think of any that don't. In fact, the most popular store in my town sells clothing ethically sourced from all over the world--lots of very colorful fabrics and unique weaves--and most of its clientele is women over 50.

[Robot Ninja]

Someone should make an LHC makeover show. Where we take people with "before" picture hair--you know the ones, frizzy hair with limp, greasy roots and scraggly ends--and give them a deep conditioning, tell them to stop over-washing, give them a trim to make their ends nice, a good S&D to get rid of the splits, throw away their crappy brush and their hair ties with the metal bits, and do some nice updos on them. We've had some pretty dramatic "before and after" photos on this forum, it could totally work.

Then we would have the makeup artist ask them, "how much time are you willing to spend doing your makeup?" and make them over accordingly. Because you know most of those people are never going to wear that much makeup ever again, especially if they didn't bother wearing makeup before.

[jeanniet]

Well, you know, it's TV. They show what will get people to turn to their channel. I don't watch that stuff so :shrug: Why waste time watching something you don't like? Life's too short to spend it getting annoyed!

[Mimha]

Someone should make an LHC makeover show. Where we take people with "before" picture hair--you know the ones, frizzy hair with limp, greasy roots and scraggly ends--and give them a deep conditioning, tell them to stop over-washing, give them a trim to make their ends nice, a good S&D to get rid of the splits, throw away their crappy brush and their hair ties with the metal bits, and do some nice updos on them. We've had some pretty dramatic "before and after" photos on this forum, it could totally work.(...)

Ha ha ha ha :lol: Robot Ninja ! It would be funny, and also motivating for all the ones who want to grow their hair and are doubtful about the result. It would be interesting to promote long hair as a possible and desirable alternative in hair styling too.

Yeah, we should create a fun thread : post your most amazing before & after pics ! Looooool :D :D :D

[lilin]

None of what you've said is true for my area of the country. At all. It's not realistic to paint the entire US with such a broad brush. I see a LOT of older women with long, grey hair, along with diversity in clothes and makeup (or not). And some with short hair, too. But many older women have shorter hair because they want it that way, not to be clones. After all, if women all had long hair, wouldn't that be kinda clonish as well? I grew my hair out at 50+ because I wanted to. Then I cut it off because I wanted to. I don't give a rat's hinney for who wants my hair short OR long, and no one around here cares either way.

ETA: All the stores around here that cater to older women sell a lot of color. I can't think of any that don't. In fact, the most popular store in my town sells clothing ethically sourced from all over the world--lots of very colorful fabrics and unique weaves--and most of its clientele is women over 50.

I've lived in nearly every corner of it. What the style is varies by region, but I see the same pressure to conform across the country, and you get basically 2 or 3 options of how to look, divided between the main conglomerate social groups. My opinion on the way women get treated as they age is backed by survey: women over 50 feel isolated, invisible, and low-value in the US. That is a fact.

You can certainly ignore the pressure, and some Americans do. I did to some extent. But doing so certainly draws a lot of attention to you, since everyone feels entitled to comment on how women look, as if we're asking for their opinion just by existing. Hell, how many women here have experiences with strangers physically grabbing them because they feel entitled to a close-up of their hair? The entitlement to women's bodies is just insane. Personally, it made me not want to dress for myself -- I didn't ask for random strangers to share their damn opinion with me several times every day.

So unless you have the stomach for that, I found being non-conforming in the US to be a pretty tough gig. I found spending hundreds of dollars a month on pleasing strangers to be far too absurd to give in to it, but I still had to grit my teeth through many, many days, and there is a HUGE difference between living in the US, and in the UK as I do now (and everywhere else I've lived in Europe).

I didn't say everyone should have long hair. I don't care what kind of hair women have. I said I am tired of the way women look being subject to this amount of brow-beating. I would have the exact same complaint if very long hair were in vogue, and they had a short-haired woman standing on stage with the whole audience yelling at her while they tell her how horrible she looks. It's never men in the make-over chair, is it. And I'm also saying I don't see such a culture of conformity in other places in the developed world, apart from perhaps Korea and Japan. They take it to truly extreme proportions. But America's culture is plenty bad enough, and I'm not going to drop my standard to the point of comparing it to countries where people basically feel forced to get plastic surgery just to get a date.

[endlessly]

I hated this one. Every time I saw it, I wanted to cry for the poor woman. Instead of cutting it all off, they could have still kept it semi-long or even just taught her how to take better care of it. I hate that the only way to look "young and fresh" now is to have a pixie cut because I honestly don't feel that's even remotely true. Yes, depending on the health of your hair, it can make you look older - but that can be true for any hair length. Personally, I feel my long hair makes me look younger, but if I want to look more mature, I just pin it up - there's no need for a "drastic" cut to change people's perceptions of me because honestly, why should their opinion matter in the first place. You should have the right to wear your hair however you want in a style that makes you feel beautiful and all these "drastic makeovers" just continue to tell women we're not good enough the way we already are.