Too Old for Hair Gadgets?

So there I was enjoying my favorite pasttime of looking for celebrity fashion disaster photos when a glaring, unreported picture caught my eye. There, quite clearly, was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meeting with the Ukranian president. And she was wearing a hair clip.

No one's ever going to mistake me for a political analyst, so know going into this that I have only the shallowest, most non-political fashion motives for mentioning that our former First Lady is donning what appears to be a dime-store hair gadget to meet with heads of state. But it is worth mentioning, you know.

Because as much as we would like to imagine ourselves young forever and able to carry off almost anything in middle age, a plastic hair clip (on the job, no less) on a 62-year-old woman is – um – questionable.

Of course, as I sit here typing away criticism of other middle-age women's fashion foibles, I must admit that I am wearing my daughter's blue hair pin with crystals to keep my hair out of my face. Of course, I've been known to knot my hair and secure it with a pencil in back to keep it up, so this isn't saying much. However. My hair follies always take place in the privacy of my own home, not in public.

The obvious response to Hillary's hair faux pas would be that plastic hair clips are not acceptable for professional purposes at any age. But it makes me wonder at what age should we retire all hair stuff?

Some hair accessories, like headbands, are so girlish that they obviously need to be stashed after 40 (the one exception seems to be black stretchy headbands which look really chic and timeless on every woman.)

And bows? Oh, those need to go, as do scrunchies (eww) and giant hair clips. Teensy, precious clips are best left to little girls as are ribbons.

What I do like is a classic tortoise, gold or silver barrette (especially one near your own hair color.) For formal events I even like women who pull out all the stops and accessorize their hair with a treasured brooch.

So what do you think? Maybe you're reading this while wearing your favorite enormous velvet scrunchie and want to disagree with me. Let's talk!