When she was about 45, my mom cut her chest-length hair into a pixie. Long hair, she told me at the time, was unseemly on “women of a certain age.” I’m not sure if she truly believed that rule or just felt like it wasn’t her place to question it, but it didn’t matter—inches and inches of hair wound up on the floor anyway. This moment—and plenty of others, I’m sure—put an idea in my little elementary-age mind that stuck with me through adulthood: That when I hit middle age, a malevolent force will drag me to the salon and lop off my own long hair. But unexpectedly, And Just Like That… was the thing to finally free me from that outdated mentality.
Now that the show is in its third season, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) are in their mid-to-late 50s. That’s well into “woman of a certain age” territory, and I’m delighted to report they haven’t fallen victim to the same cliché my mother did (which to her credit she later reneged; she’s since grown her hair back long).
When I talk about Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte, chances are you picture the late-30s versions of themselves from the original Sex and the City, which ended in 2004. At the time, Carrie wore her blonde hair past her shoulders, perpetually in a middle part; Charlotte always side-parted her medium-length brunette hair; redheaded Miranda was a bixie cut devotee. After more than 20 years, one might expect these characters to have transitioned to something more “age-appropriate” but these days, Carrie still has that long blonde hair, Charlotte still parts her sculpted waves to the side, and Miranda maintains her red bixie, switching among various shades as she did in her 30s.
Photo: Courtesy of HBO Universal