Forget keeping up with our kids' gorgeous long, luxurious locks. Move over, 20-somethings with your silky hairstyles. We 50-somethings are taking center stage as trendsetters for what looks good at "this age," and we are taking our cues from our first lady.
Michelle's 49 birthday "do" has got us all re-styling. Thank you, Michelle Obama, for getting us focused on "age-appropriate" bangs and modeling them so elegantly at the Inauguration. Our very own #FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) has given us options.
It didn't take long for many of us to look in the mirror and start pushing the hair onto our foreheads, wondering if this would be a good plan. I was partial to pixie haircuts as a kid and loved my "cute" bangs. As the years have gone by, I have been tempted to bring them back, but hadn't taken the leap. I'm not alone.
Kelly Ripa, co-host of the morning talk show, "Live! With Kelly and Michael," clipped on her own set of bangs the next day and tweeted from the show -- #BangsFriday.
So it was no surprise that I tried on my version of bangs this week, as did my dear friend. We sat side-by-side at the hairdresser, giggling as we were transformed. She, braver than I, had hers snipped straight across-she looked fantastic (adorable). I was risk-averse and used a curling iron to "simulate" the bang effect. I love it. My husband looked a tad shocked when I came home but I gotta say, I feel like a got a bit of a "lift" from them. They are more youthful -- no question. And it's true when they say, "Bangs are the poor man's Botox."
I put out a query to our Betterafter50 writers' group on Facebook this week and was flooded with great responses. (If you are a writer, you are welcome to join our writers' group -- just go to the page and ask to be invited in.)
Here was my question: Do you have bangs? If you don't -- why not? If you just got them, do you like them?
Wow, I got immediate responses so I selected a few choice ones from our writers:
Janie Emaus I had bangs way back in the day when I ironed my hair. Now they would just look like pubic hair on my forehead!
Mary Anne Tuggle Payne I've got them--to cover my dolphinesque forehead and I can't afford Botox right now....
Amanda Fox I hadn't had bangs for a long time, then I got some at my last haircut. My younger son says it looks like I have a mullet. He's nineteen. What does he know? LOL
Cathy Chester In my dreams I'd have the new Michelle Obama bangs. But alas, thick, curly, wavy, hard to manage hair will not allow bangs.
Jennifer Comet Wagner I have bangs and don't plan on ever giving them up. I've been wearing bangs for years, mostly because I have a very long face so bangs cut the length of it. But now I have a second reason to keep them. They hide the wrinkles that I am getting on my forehead.
So how about you? Are you ready to get your own set of "fringe, maybe a blunt-cut, a little brow-skimming."
You know what the hairdresser says when you are looking aghast in the mirror at their latest creation, "It's just hair, it'll grow back."
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