Evening star., 1926-08-22
lair Length Continuing Question With We'll Dressed Women
BY MARY MARSHALL.

7 is perfectly clear that interest
still centers on the question of
hair length. A new golf or
tennis star comes on the horizon
and no newspaper account OF
her is quite complete without some
comment on the way she does her
hair. A Iong-haired woman goes
abroad and one of the first things
that friends at home observe when
she returns is whether she has had
her hair cut. This hair question
seems so much more interesting than
the fashioning of the few clothes she
wears.
Americans recently returned from
France and England have doubtless
given you the impression that in
those countries short hair for women
Is just as fashionable as it is In the
United States. The number of short
haired women is on the increase there
AS II is here-and there seem to be
no more women once shorn who are
letting their hair grow again than
there are here.
Still you cannot overlook the fact
that Queen Helena of Italy recently
announced that shingled hair will be
barred at Italian court functions
True earlier in the Summer Queen
Mary Of England granted permission
to debutantes and other women pre-
serited at court to appear with short
hair. Some observers at the time re-
marked that when they did see young
girls dressed for presentation at the
English court with long hair they were
pretty sure to be Americans. Queen
MaryS action was, you may be sure.
merely a concession to inSistent public
taste. She is not in favor of the
fashion, and few women of the royal
family have had their hair cut.
You may reply that queens no
longer set the fashion. Quite So
but they pretty well represent a
solid sort of conservatism in dress
that cannot be overlooked.
Another fact that cannot be over
looked Is this. Although you are
told that very great ma jority of
really smart women in Paris wear
their hair short-many models and
attactive young assistants in the IA
NOUS French dressmaking and milf
merry establishments. girls of undoubt-
ed chic, are wearing their hair long.
Our attitude toward short hair
seems to have shifted good deal
within the last year or SO. Once it
was considered extreme, youthful,
darinS--a trifie undignified, at least
unmatronly. Nurses in hospitals were
forbidden the privilege of wearing
hobbed hair 1t was-like perfume
and high French heels-considered in.
compatible with the dignity of the
nurses profession. Woman doctors in
convention informally discussed the
matter and the ma jority present
agreed that bobbed hair was unpro-
fessional. Older women with bObbed
halr amused or shocked their friends.
They were trying to ape the f1appers
poor things.
All this has changed. The most
sedate and efficient of nurses are
bobhed. In some hospitals the senti-
ment actually seems to be that long
hair is rather frivolous. and sedate
heads of training schools set the ex
ample of wearing their hair in neat.
~ trimmed shingle. Not long ago
some woman doctors informally agreed
that short hair was much more appro.
pirate to their profession than the old
1aShioned long tresSeS. And. of course.
the old idea that older women
shouldn't wear short hair is very rap
idly disappearing. Long haired young
women have been heard to remark
that they would have their hair cut
when they began to get gray--since
long. gray hair is so likely to look
dowdy. And young hairdresser in
one of the smart establishments OBJ
served the other day that at present
number of younger women among
her customers are letting their hair
grow again. "All the old ladies are
wearing it short" they observe. "The
only thing left for us to do is to let
It grow again"