Shingled Middle-age

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 3, 1 September 1926, Page 30

Shingled Middle-age

Thc young girl and the whitehaired old lady submit to their first shingle with few or no qualms; but the middle-aged woman hesitates and is faced by many doubts before she allows her hair to be sacrificed, neat and attractive though she knows the shingle to be. The chief cause of her hesitancy is the doubt whether she will be able to grow her hair again when the shingle fashion at last dies out. She fears that the shingling and constant trimming necessary afterwards may spoil the growth of her hair and prevent its ever again becoming the luxuriant growth it now it. She realises also that her hair is turning grey, and fears that the shingle will reveal more of the grey hairs that are now concealed beneath the coil at the back of her head. On the first point she may be reassured by the fact that the growth of hair is in no way affected by age. At forty or fifty a woman's hair grows at the same rate as when she was a child. If she is shingled she will realise this for herself, for even a fortnight’s growth of hair can entirely ruin the neatness of her head. She is, however, more subject to scurf and dandruff than a younger woman, and, once shingled, she will need to give rather more care to her hair. Regular brushing and the use of a good hair tonic will keep it in perfect condition. Skilful cutting can frequently conceal the grey hairs close to the

head; if not, the shingled middleaged woman can either have her grey hair carefully tinted, or become used to the fact that a welltended grey head can look very nice indeed. 1 f the shingle fashion should sud- -*■ denly wane, she will be in no worse plight than a younger woman. Her hair will grow again, but it will take time. She must be prepared for three or four weeks with rather ragged, untidy-looking hair ; but at the end of that period her short locks will have grown longenough to he fixed with a few hairpins. A small switch of hairpreferably made from her own when it was cut off may be worn for three or four months, by which time her own hair will have grown long enough to dress. In two years her hair will once more he long and luxuriant. The ragged period is very brief, and a clever woman will devise some becoming way of dealing with her hair while it is beginning to grow. A permanent wave would be helpful, for curls make hair look considerably shorter than it actually is. One middle-aged woman with good features who recently decided to let her hair grow brushed it straight hack till it had the severity of an Eton crop, and fastened it in position with a semicircular comb. The growing ends of the hair were curled behind her ears and in the nape of her neck, making a piquant contrast with the severe effect in front.