Oh please...

[Braidy]

I found this question (http://askville.amazon.com/politically-powerful-women-short-hair/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=492835) online and the answers really made me laugh. It's just incredible how many people have these silly prejudices about long hair! What you mean a French Twist takes a long time? I can do it in exactly one minute! As if a business woman who's all busy with hair spray and stuff can do better than that! Luckily there was one person who added a good example that contradicts it all. Yulia Tymoshenko is officially my new hero :D

[Barniie]

Ha! A french twist takes anyone a few seconds! Geez, but I do love 'Yulia's' hair - It's very neat! People should have long hair in politics more often, i think.

[ashamanjababu]

I think one of the answers there said it: businesswomen want their hair to look well-groomed and styled. Unfortunately, too many people associate 'long' with 'unkempt.'

[hs_atreides]

I don't agree, but I think that long hair = femininity= not to be taken seriously. BUnch o'hooey!

[spidermom]

A french twist can take me an hour; it's hard at this length, but I still love the style.

[jojo]

Ive still not mastered a french twist but theres lots I have and they certainly dont take half and hour! total bull poo!

[Lexa]

I wish I could do a french twist. People are really impressed by my figure 8 bun and that's really quick for me to do. That photo of Yulia Tymoshenko is beautiful.

[bluesnowflake]

I was told my hair looked like Yulia's once- it made me very happy. Hers is gorgeous!

[squiggyflop]

i cant get my hair into a french twist at all anymore.

and yes, for me long hair does take more time to wash style and comb than when my hair was wash (without conditioner) and go when i was a shorthair

if long hair isnt taken seriously even in a severe bun, i can balance that out with my very serious looking black rimmed glasses

[alyanna]

I especially hate the answer about professional women wanting or needing to look like men. Ridiculous!

And the one about long hair being unkept, well yes, that does tend to be the stereotype. In a professional context, I wouldn't necessarily keep very long hair down, but I think it's perfectly professional, groomed and kept if it's in a nice updo, be it a French twist or a braid like Yulia's.

[apynip]

Its still quite true though that women in business feel they need to have shorter hair for a more professional look like a man does. This is veerrryyy slowly changing but its changing. It's taken years for women artists to make their stand and its becomes a jealousy thing when successful woman artists are around these days for those women back in the 50's had to dress and paint like men just to make it in the art world and that's completely changing.

Its the same with business and many younger women see that the older women were successful like that so they get the chop and conform to that standard but it might soon change once long hair gets a better reputation. ( I'd like it if they could just get to APL or even BSL as the standard for women in business that would look really nice and more 'womanly').

[leslissocool]

The most powerful woman I ever known was an evil director in a very important conservatory, she had long hair that she kept in a bun. There is nothing more serious than a woman with a mean look and a bun!!!


BTW librarians are often portrayed with long hair in a bun held by a pencil...

[Braidy]

A french twist can take me an hour; it's hard at this length, but I still love the style.

Yes I imagine French Twists get harder up to impossible to do once you go beyond BSL. Then again, it isn't the only "professional looking" style for longhairs. It's funny people don't seem to realize that there's other buns and styles that look professional too.

[Barbie Diamond]

Misconceptions about long hair abound!

[Tiina]

Yes I imagine French Twists get harder up to impossible to do once you go beyond BSL. Then again, it isn't the only "professional looking" style for longhairs. It's funny people don't seem to realize that there's other buns and styles that look professional too.

Many of us here on LHC have experienced that having hair in a bun or updo = having short hair for non-longhairs. :rolleyes: Often they don't notice the difference between different updos, too.

IMHO long hair in a polished updo looks more professional than short or midlength hair that hangs around the face.

[alyanna]

Many of us here on LHC have experienced that having hair in a bun or updo = having short hair for non-longhairs. :rolleyes: Often they don't notice the difference between different updos, too.

IMHO long hair in a polished updo looks more professional than short or midlength hair that hangs around the face.

I even think a slick ponytail can be very professional-looking, especially those ones where you take some of the hair and wrap it around the ponytail.

One of the reasons I want to grow out my hair is that I don't want to be the typical "butch" professional woman. I'm in a pretty scientific field and I'm getting my PhD. I don't really want to look the part. I'm butch on the inside but I don't want to be on the outside :D I like the contradiction.

[Rivanariko]

The only hassle that comes with "take care of" my hair is how long it takes for it to dry. Besides that, I ignore it. No extra time. I don't think I've ever spent a half hour on my hair unless I'm doing a particularly intricate updo for a formal occasion, but my every-day bun takes me approximately 15 seconds. Silly silly silly.

[Amraann]

The last time I worked in an office I lived in the Keys so maybe it was more acceptable there?

It was really just a summer job to get out of the house. I worked in a real estate office as a receptionist and did some IT work.
We were the first things that clients saw when they walked in.
The other receptionist also had long hair. We both mostly wore our hair down and our boss did not mind.
I was never treated as if I was unprofessional. Our boss actually treated us both very well. (Not in a pervy way)

[WaimeaWahine]

Gah the answer where they said it takes longer with longer hair. Actually, it takes longer with shorter hair and salon styled hair. Right now? Every day is a bad hair day - my hair is all over the place. A woman with waist length hair I used to work for always wore it in a low pony tail at the nape of her neck and had bangs. She was beautiful and very professional.

[IcarusBride]

I think it's quite incorrect to say that professional women are trying to look like men. If they were trying to look like men they'd shave their hair off, not cut it to chin, and wear pantsuits instead of long-skirt suits and heals.
I think it's more likely that, originally, when women entered the corporate workforce, they had to dress themselves down as much as possible to avoid disrupting the work atmosphere with their presence distracting the men. Or, at least, that was the idea behind it.
In the present day, for me at least, my experience is completely opposite! My boss and co-workers (all first-generation immigrants from India, and possibly the kindest most welcoming people I've ever met) always give approving compliments when I "dress like a woman" (wearing long skirt instead of pants) and when they can see my hair length, such as when I wear it in a braid or if I show up to work before putting it up.
I work in hotels (front desk) so in the past wearing a skirt would be forbidden unless it was the typical black/navy skirt-suit (which looks horrible on my body type), but at this hotel as long as I look tidy and respectable (not dressing provocatively, not that I would in the first place) they are fine with it.
I got really off topic, didn't I?

[Braidy]

IMHO long hair in a polished updo looks more professional than short or midlength hair that hangs around the face.

I couldn't agree more :D By the way I think a woman with a bun looks a lot more severe than a woman with short hair, it looks even more serious than a business man to me. When I walk around the house with my hair up (and especially when wearing my glasses too!) my boyfriend always tells me I looks so serious and severe that it's becoming scary. Then who would dare to defy a woman with a bun huh :eyebrows:

[Phexlyn]

I especially hate the answer about professional women wanting or needing to look like men. Ridiculous!

And the one about long hair being unkept, well yes, that does tend to be the stereotype. In a professional context, I wouldn't necessarily keep very long hair down, but I think it's perfectly professional, groomed and kept if it's in a nice updo, be it a French twist or a braid like Yulia's.
Agreed. It makes me mad when I hear that professional women shouldn't look feminine.