I recently saw a senior citizen sporting snow white Afro curls and thought ” Wow, she exudes class”. The flecks of light from the sun bounced off her angel soft silken strands, giving the impression that her head was crowned in a radiant halo.
As I sat behind her on the bus, I couldn’t help ogling. I was so engrossed in admiring her shock of hair that even when she had exited the bus at her stop, I found myself craning my neck to catch one last glimpse of her majestic crowning glory.
O.k., I know it comes across a bit corny, but it has been a while since I’ve seen a mature woman wear her natural hair out. It seems that many try to cover it – scarves, hats, weaves and wigs*, you name it, the real mane is very often hidden in women over forty.
It got me to thinking about why more of our older black sistas don’t rock their natural textures more often.
I’m not saying that many don’t have natural hair, it’s just that it is rare that you see them advertising it. Take the natural hair forums for instance, if you should check, you would recognize that the scene is dominated by the younger generations.
It got me thinking: do mature women perceive the natural hair movement to be a new age trend for younger women? The few over forty women I have seen so far who are interested in returning to natural, have their own set of questions and concerns, chief among which is “can you ever be too old to go natural?”
The answer is self explanatory I think, but for the sake of clarity of course the answer is no! Since the question exists however, we cannot simply leave it there, but explain the reason for the answer.
Length retention
The question is whether you can ever be too old to go natural, not if you can gain extraordinary length after a particular age. Truth be told, even though terminal length reduces slightly as you grow older some mature naturalistas in the 60-80 category, have experienced phenomenal length retention; shoulder and bra-strap length so let us lay that issue to rest.
Age is a big deal to us women judging by how much we spend to look and feel younger and how some of us loathe telling our true ages. This is partially because we feel that the spunk starts to dwindle after a particular age.
beautiful!!
This is the look I’ll be going for when I turn 50 in 5 more years, I love it
you should definitely be natural when you are old. if not before
Awesome!
Georgeous
Never too old-she is beautiful!
Black women have always been beautiful. Remember we were beautiful before relaxes ever came out.
Absolutely not!
There are many of 50 plus ladies wearing naturals. Some not with a head full of gray hair. I am 50 and my sister is 51. We love it and rock it well.
No!
Nope. My mom is in her 60’s and decided to stop pressing her hair. She is now the envy of her friends because of the thickness of her hair. Before, her hair was thin and shedding like crazy because she pressed it all the time
No
Never to old, i decided when i turned 40 I would go natural but i waited til i was 45 so i have been natural for 10 years but just started learning and really taking care of my hair and now it’s retaining length, never to late.
No way
Never to old my mom went natural at 63 you go mom! You look absolutely beautiful!
My mother returned back to being natural at 72.
No never to late to do you
No way. As we get older we should become more natural because who has the time to keep up with all the maintenance.
Never too old or young to be yourself….
I didn’t know there was an age limit on hair choice! I’m 46 and I’m natural except for my hair color! I love the fullness of my hair and every month I can really see my new growth because it is always new white hair–that I dye black! So far, I’m looking forward to 6 inches per year!
Don’t get your hair done like you are taking a picture!!
Be careful about sharing all you do in the Beauty Salon!
no! because we have blossomed into wisdom!!!
At 45, I hope not and natural for a couple of years
Never too old
no. Also, you don’t go natural that’s how you started out. More like return to natural
I’m 58 n loving my nappiness ♡♡
NEVER!!!
I’m 55 and went back to my natural hair 16 months ago . My hair color is gray- silver right in the front and i do the 2 strand twist out. I think it’s beautiful.
Beautiful
She’s beautiful.
Curly girls, naturalistas, relaxed ladies–please spare a few minutes and take this quick and easy hair care survey for me!!! It’s for a project I’m doing and every submission helps! Feel free to share with friends! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VWMTJYG
Never to old to do anything you feel up to doing. I went natural and I am 69 and love it.
I’ve been Natural for 15yrs & I’m 45yrs old! There are a lot of over 40 women on Natural hair care forums, blogs, vlogs, etc…it’s just that when we are soliciting & giving Natural hair care advice our age isn’t an important factor & profile pics don’t necessarily give away our age either.
No not at all
No I’m natural mi self
No I’m natural
Da hell kind of question is that???
This is like asking “can u ever be too old to be black” EVERYONE was born natural!
Just an FYI….. the lady in the pic is my cousin and she is far from senior citizen. Her hair has been gray like that since her 20s
Will a natural ever get too old to start relaxing?
Nope!!!!