I think my hair is more mangable long. I hadit short once when I was a child and had to blow dry/style it. Now  just comb throught and put some condiotioner on and make a braid or bun. This is quicker.
Also about the older folks. People are living artificlalliy long now. At one time 20 years was past middle aged.
There is good and bad in this. Yes it's nice to live along life, but wonce one gets past seventy its sually downh hill and teh quality of life isn't good(usually). We are living ina nation of unhelathy people...it's right in our faces. Every other commercial I see is a pill comercial. Oh youre afraid of flying? Take a pill!. Cna't sleep right? Take a pill! What happened to au naturel? There are very veyr powerdful natrural alterntaives. Well, to gte to the point, olde rpeople wya back when were stronger so they could dela with longer hair. Our great greta granmothers ar epeople to admire...many women these days talk about how far and storn woman are now...psshh. Poeple are so materialistc (what of intellect?) Anyways, to finish this rambling gobbly gook, I think that perhaps the reaosn why older folks cant handle the long hair style sis becaue they have lived artificailly long. And forgive em I knwo one two veyr elderly poeple for whom it was worth living that long (and they got there naturally!). But I feel sorry for so many people who take pills for everything. Its really scary and quite sad how we have a nation of sick people who think pills are these wonderful magical cure alls.  People have to eat better and take herbs and ple(unless you have a terrible  disease liek cancer or a serious heart problem) lay back on the medication and try soem naturla alterntaives. The drug companies don't want you to know about them. Money Money Money.I knwo alot of people know this, but no ones doing anythign to combat it .
Wow this went off from the hair subject...

I certainly sympathize with your thoughts, Sara. 

I think that medicalization has gone wrong in many ways- there are side effects in what generally is relieving of suffering. People are afraid of death, though they don't know whether it's a good or a bad thing. Symptoms of illnesses are often treated instead of their causes like bad nutrition and living in a stressful society.
   We live in an age, where everything new is worshipped and embraced just for novelty's sake, without thinking deeper, whether the new item will actually contribute in making us happier persons. We are told, that we should appreciate things that make our daily tasks easier and faster and few see that the extra time is spent in doing things that can be often described as wasting life.
Materia is worshipped, though the one thing that almost all thinkers through ages have agreed that happiness lies in a simple life.
    A philosopher as I am, it didn't take me too many years to become convinced that I should try to simplify my life. Guess what? Every little change I have made to simpler direction has made my life a little happier. Baking the bread I eat...my coworker asked, don't I have anything else to do. I replied to her what I realized right then: that I can't imagine doing anything better than actively making myself and my loved one happy.
Growing my hair long instead of short and fried. Embracing its natural beauty instead of always trying to "fix" its supposed problems. Stopping trying to follow fashion and adopting a simpler way of dressing myself. Now I'm at the point where I'm hoping to take some bigger steps like moving to countryside into a home that has less fanciness but more quality. I'm confident, that when unnecessary crap goes from my life, there will be room for more happiness and deep thought.

Again, all very good points (note to self, make bread  , I love homemade bread, well, at least tortillas).

But also,  I have to state again that I felt that wearing an almost buzz cut for ten years was also very simplifying and pleasurable - not to mention, you wouldn't believe how nice it feels  ...g

Quote:


I love to pet shaved heads.  Luckily I get lots of opportunities with hubby and friends (men and women). 

LOL! When I see bald heads, I feel like shining them. O_O

I think especially with some of the natural and not so natural disasters we've seen it is certainly prudent to think about at least being able to get things down to a minimum.

Certainly being dependant on medicines is a frightening thing.  Basic sanitation, food and water are needs no one can get away from.

It's a thin balance to take advantage of what can make life more pleasant without loosing the ability to par down to essentials ...g

There's so much philosophical debate going on, whether or not it is right to try to prolong life artificially. One problem is in defining the "artificial". Another is a deeper philosophical question about value of life vs. value of quality of life. I am among those who think that artificial prolonging of life can be a very bad thing. But, medical profession has for millenia tried to prolong life and now that they finally have effective means of doing, they go for it. Otherwise they would have to question the whole ethics that supports western medical practice.

What gabi said! It also seems, that our want of luxury and comfort is quite stable. If we live very simply, we get satisfaction from relatively simple things. But if we surround ourselves with many comforts and luxuries, it's more difficult to achieve satisfaction. We become spoiled.
This reasoning is another reason why I wish to go simpler- I may have long decades of life ahead of me, and I wish to preserve my ability to get delighted and enjoyment from small things of life.

I miss just one aspect in super short hair- it felt like my scalp was covered in velvet. ^^