20 Hip Senior Women With Awesome Hair That Show Age Is No Barrier To Style

There’s an unspoken belief in the world that once a woman hits a certain age she has to stop experimenting with her hair, chop off her locks and settle for a more sensible hairstyle. Often, she’s expected to stick to something short, gray and manageable. But here are 20 fashion-forward ladies who 100 percent do not subscribe to that belief.

The popular blog Advanced Style, run by Ari Seth Cohen, often shows pictures of stylish hairstyles seen on seniors on the streets. And while this style-setter preferred to remain anonymous, her head of shocking pink hair ensures she’s unforgettable anyway.

Others, like Dolores Forsythe, are happy to give their name and actually use the blog to promote their own work. Forsythe is a jewelry designer, but she also works her creativity into her hair, which is awesomely blue.

And she’s not the only one who uses blue dye to give her locks a whole new look. This lady, another anonymous fashion lover on the Advanced Style blog, appears to have co-ordinated her whole outfit to match her blue-streaked hair!

Another Advanced Style model is Beatrix Ost, a lady National Geographic once described as “a living work of art.” At 74 Ost’s hair has long since gone gray, but she dyes it lilac and ties it up into elegant knots.

And great hairstyles can sometimes lead onto bigger things, too. For example, after being spotted by Advanced Style, fabulously flame-haired 94-year old Ilona Royce Smithkin went on to become a model for Karen Walker eyewear.

Indeed, bright orange hair seems to be pretty popular amongst fashion-conscious seniors. This woman, for example, has used several different tones and then spiked her gorgeous locks upwards. And now it looks like her head is on fire… in a good way!

This lady, meanwhile, was spotted by Advanced Style at Penn Station in 2012. And she would have a perfectly normal cropped and layered hairstyle if she hadn’t decided to dye it in vivid reds, yellows and oranges. As it is, though, she looks thoroughly badass!

Not many people would dare to try short, bright orange curly hair for fear of looking like a clown. But artist Suzanne Golden wasn’t afraid, and she looks fantastic – especially with her equally chic outfit, too.

Purple is another popular color among older ladies. Remember the famous Jenny Joseph poem, “When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple”? Well, some people have decided to try that idea out. And this woman who dyed her dreads really rocks it.

This woman, meanwhile, dyed her hair purple and then dug out a lilac coat that co-ordinates with it perfectly. Her haircut is simple, uncomplicated and easy to maintain – but adding color to it makes it wild and unique.

Jewelry designer Jean Betancourt, another regular at Advanced Style, has a very flattering haircut anyway. It’s fluffy and fabulously eccentric-looking. But adding some purple to it gives it that little bit of an extra edge.

These two ladies on the Advanced Style Instagram page, moreover, have braided and dyed their hair, respectively. And although both ’dos are very different – one classical, one punky – the women both look young and full of life thanks to their hair.

Sometimes, people insist that certain styles are strictly for the young, and they’re wrong. This pink pixie cut, for example, looks as good on artist Debra Rapoport as it would on any 20-year-old. Unfortunately, Rapoport did receive some negative comments for her look on Facebook… but she didn’t seem to care. And why should she?

After all, there’s no doubt that pink hair looks absolutely amazing on older women. Dame Zandra Rhodes, a British fashion designer who has proudly dyed her hair for decades, wears her in an eye-catching bob dyed with Crazy Color’s Pinkissimo.

Colored hair is punk, basically, and punk never dies or gets old. And this woman, who knows how to dress as well as dye, looks utterly rock ‘n’ roll with her pink hair poking out from beneath her hood.

Some women take the punk look to even higher limits, as they should. This lady, for example, has an amazing bright yellow strip paired with an undercut, and one that makes her look like an escapee from the world’s greatest ever dystopian sci-fi movie.

However, hair doesn’t have to be short to be stunning. This woman’s long locks, which change from gray to bright pink as they sweep down her body, make for a truly amazing and eye-catching cascade of hair.

And the trend of rainbow hair is worn by older women just as well as younger women, too. Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, co-founder of the company MacKenzie-Childs, is just one senior who favors a bright riot of color on her tresses.

But rainbow hair can be slightly subtler, too. This woman, for example, has got on-board with the pastel trend as well as the rainbow one and dyed her hair in soft blues and pinks. Plus, she’s made it match her outfit!

And finally there’s this lady, who is having enormous fun with her cute cropped pink ’do and matching clothes. She told her photographer, “Don’t wait until you are 88 to do something fun with your hair!” And she couldn’t be more right.