Dame Helen Mirren slams idea older women are ‘supposed’ to have short hair

Dame Helen Mirren has pushed back against the notion that older women are “supposed” to have short hair.

Dame Helen Mirren has pushed back against the notion that older women are “supposed” to have short hair.

During a Wednesday appearance on UK breakfast show Lorraine, the 77-year-old, who has often spoken about dismantling beauty standards, described her chest-length hair as “radical”.

“You’re not supposed to have longer hair after a certain age,” the Oscar-winning actor said.

“But during Covid, I started growing my hair and I hadn’t actually had long hair since I was in my 20s. And it sort of grew and grew and grew, and I couldn’t be bothered to cut it, basically.

“I thought, ‘Do you know what, it’s pretty cool, I think I’ll stick with it for a little while. It will come off eventually.’ But I’m kind of enjoying it, it’s quite radical.”

Dame Helen Mirren has pushed back on the notion older women are ‘supposed’ to have short hair. Picture: Kate Green/Getty Images for Warner Bros

‘You’re not supposed to have longer hair after a certain age … But I’m kind of enjoying it, it’s quite radical.’

In 2021, Mirren told The Cut she was “very against the word ‘anti-ageing’”, calling the term “demeaning”.

“We age. It happened. I’m really sorry, but you know what? It happens, and there’s no way out,” she said.

“It’s a part of the human condition. So to talk about ‘anti-ageing’ is like saying ‘anti-human’, ‘anti-real’, ‘anti-wisdom’, ‘anti-experience’, and so on, you know?

“But you can put on your best possible face. It doesn’t mean you have to go, ‘Oh, my God, it’s all over for me!’ because it’s not all over for you; on the contrary.

“In a way, with each era, it’s the start of something new, so I absolutely believe in beauty products for all ages, and all skin types, but I don’t like the word ‘anti-ageing’. I think it’s demeaning, actually.”

‘To talk about ‘anti-ageing’ is like saying ‘anti-human’, ‘anti-real’, ‘anti-wisdom’, ‘anti-experience’.’ Picture: John MacDougall/AFP

Mirren’s generation, she told Grazia in 2019, has been subjected to ageism for “far too long”.

“It’s extremely annoying to women of my generation and others following mine to have beauty products sold on a 15-year-old face,” she said.

Using the term “beauty”, she added, can also make people who may be insecure about their looks feel “immediately excluded”.

“They’ll think, ‘Well, I’m not very beautiful. It’s all very well for all these beautiful women, but I don’t feel beautiful.’

“I don’t want to exclude these people from feeling fabulous about themselves.”