Say goodbye to your midlife hair crisis
WHAT have popular RTÉ broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan, model agent Celia Holman Lee, former supermodel Christie Brinkley, and actress Raquel Welch got in common?
They are all mature women with fabulous long locks who wear hair extensions to give their crowning glory a boost.
So commonplace have extensions become among older women, that you might well add your best friend or next-door neighbour to that list, if you think they are having a good hair day.
As we age, our hair on average gets thinner and more brittle and extensions can not only add length, but shape, style, colour and volume.
Christie Brinkley, aged 62 last February, is quoted as saying she finds extensions good for her thinning hair and also if “you just want to feel luxurious”.
And our own Miriam O’Callaghan has openly attributed her “bouncy” blonde locks to being a fan of bonded real-hair extensions.
The trend for more mature women to go short in the past, was largely due to the deterioration in hair quality, but with extensions a woman can now look like she has the same fullness, if she wants to wear it longer, says Michael Corcoran, stylist and senior educator at the Peter Mark hair salon chain.
“A lot of older women say, ‘Im trying to grow my hair but when it gets to this point, it tends to split, I can never get it past that level so I need to get it cut’. Extensions get you that strong glossy line you are looking for,” he says.
When Peter Mark introduced hair extensions for the first time a few months ago, they found a new fan in 65-year-old Celia Holman Lee, says Corcoran.
“We were many years at Peter Mark looking for the perfect product for us and we found Rapture hair extensions, made from ethically sourced human hair and using a lightweight hypoallergenic tape system which attaches to your hair, meaning no beading or bonding or dragging on your natural hair,” he says.
“So Celia, who goes to many glamorous events has gone from bonded to our tape extensions”.
But for those of us who lead a less glamorous life, are they beyond our reach, time-wise and financially? Corcoran doesn’t think so.
First of all, he argues, although many of their mature clients wear them as a semi-permanent fixture, others just “take them out” and wear them for special occasions, such as a wedding, to add style and volume, or simply “as fillers” even to a short bob to get a more glamorous effect.
For clients who wear the extensions daily, they last up to six months before they invest again in a new batch of hair. Over that time, they have to come back to the salon to get them repositioned and “renaturlaised”, (€140 each visit) depending on their individual needs.
A full head consists of five packets of extensions, (€60 per pack and €40 for labour, per pack) but the number of packs depends on each individual. For a full head, that comes to €720 for six months in all — a big investment by any standards.
But, if you only wear them for special events, then the extensions (which you keep at home) last much longer and after the initial investment you fork out only for the salon visits before and after your glamorous event, getting them installed and removed.
For those who wear them semi-permanently though, there is also some maintenance at home.
“Your main focus is always to protect your bonds because then you get longer out of them,” says the stylist.
“Wash hair only once or twice a week, which is the general recommendation whether you have extensions or not and use a sulphate-free shampoo and conditioner. Then style and look after, as you would your own hair.”
It’s a far cry from the weekly perm “at the hairdressers” of days gone by.
But Corcoran says: “When I was younger my grandmother was 60 and she looked like a stereotypical grandmother. My own mother now is 63 and a grandmother and that glamour is 100% where she is — she is very much still into how she looks.
“There are some stunning looking 50-year-old, 60-year-old and 70-year-old women going around so I don’t think the attitude is there any more that if you are an older woman you have to have this short little hair cut and put your rollers in at night time when you’re going to bed and take them out in the morning and brush your hair.”
He points to the glamorous long locks of 76-year-old Raquel Welch and with his expert eye says, she “most definitely, 100%, has fillers in there as well”.
“Look at Jane Fonda,” [aged 78], he adds. “It’s still a short hair cut, but it’s worn in such a flicked-out glamorous way. I think sometimes mature women are showing the younger ones how it’s really done — with that extra touch of class as well.”
Fab grannies
Yes, hot and granny are two words that can go together and the ‘hot’ part is not about the menopause, but about being “with-it and on top of the world”, according to the author, who urges all of us over 50 — actually whether we are grannies or not — to “play, explore, laugh, love and learn”.
One of her tips is that we should get more involved with what’s happening today and tomorrow — keeping ourselves interested and interesting.
The tone is light and humorous with illustrations to match, as Walsh covers topics such as looking after ourselves, our health and our looks; partaking in family life including “how to charm the tots” and pursuing our passions and dreams. A nice reminder for any new granny that life can get even better.
Silver Surfer
Check out the yoga facelift video
In order to carry a positive action, we must develop here a positive vision — Dalai Lama
Dance Delight
If dance can keep you youthful — and passionate, then 82-year-old Valda Setterfield, who performed recently in Cork’s Firkin Crane and last weekend at Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin, is an example to us all.
The New York legendary dancer/actor starred in choreographer John Scott’s Irish Modern Dance Theatre version of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Lear, which featured a gender-reversed cast, as she gave a profoundly moving performance depicting the King’s gradual descent into madness.
The imitable British-born Setterfield is noted for her work with her husband, choreographer and director, David Gordon, now aged 80, and as a soloist for Merce Cunningham who was at the forefront of the American Dance scene for over 50 years. She has also performed in films by Woody Allen .
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