Long hair over 45 is ageing and try-hard. I’ve finally cut mine off. THIS is the only length middle-aged women should consider – it is face slimming, super flattering and takes off years

Finally it was time. rite of passage. Big Chop. ‘Just do it,’ I commanded my long-time hairdresser Peter when I visited the salon last week.

It fell with a loud crack of the scissors, the 6-inch ball of hair drifting to the ground like autumn leaves.

As I approached my 45th birthday, I was facing the truth: The age for a woman to cut her hair short is coming, and I have reached that age. It should be a shoulder-sweeping style.

Was this a melancholy resignation to middle age? Did I cry when I saw my greatest triumph dragged into the dustpan?

No. I leaped out of the living room, feeling so light my feet could lift off the pavement. Samson (famous in the Bible) could feel his strength draining away when his locks were cut off; I felt the exact opposite. Fresh. Well-groomed. Most importantly: adult.

It seems that short cuts are in fashion. This week, Margot Robbie, 35, made headlines with her new wavy bob; Last week, 63-year-old Demi Moore looked as if she had lost a foot in the front row of Gucci. She later clarified that it was a wig, but given the multitude of compliments online, it wouldn’t surprise me if it made the cut.

The idea that scissors should come out when a woman reaches a certain age has existed for a long time, and I resisted it for a long time. Why should hitting 40 or 50 mean cutting your hair like Deirdre Barlow in Coronation Street?

For 15 years, my hair fell a few inches below my shoulders. In short, by my 30s – thanks to extensions – it was hitting my lower back. ‘Great wig!’ a friend told me at a hen party where I was dressed as Pocahontas, with stringy braids on either side of my face.

Catherine Zeta-Jones, whose thick raven locks I’ve admired since her Darling Buds Of May days, was the inspiration. And so I spent countless hours and thousands of pounds cutting, curling and conditioning my hair to maximum volume and length.

Aesthetically, it was a cozy 20-inch long blanket; This was a guarantee that even if I looked damaged or below average, my hair would do most of the work. My happiness came true when, in my early 30s, a colleague told me that my hair made me look like Nigella Lawson.

Actress Margot Robbie, star of the new Wuthering Heights movie, with her short film

I was determined to continue looking like a blow-dried Brazilian weather girl to the grave, just as I walked around in high heels until I blew said clogs.

Looking back, of course I felt that way, because evolution had prepared us to spend our teens and 20s and 30s searching for a mate to continue the species.

Surveys consistently show that men prefer long hair on women, perhaps because they associate it with fertility. And so, if you are looking for a mating partner, it makes sense to opt for Renaissance-like locks.

However, in my 40s, married with four children, the image I wanted to project has changed. I still want to look good (and I will continue to get Botox, thank you very much) but these days my desire is to look tidy, not hot.

Not ‘tidy’, as lip-smacking men might say of the bartender at the working men’s club, but neat, age-appropriate, put-together.

My hair was increasingly fighting against this desire. It’s starting to look wrong: a middle-aged face with Disney princess barnets.

When I saw myself in a store window recently, I thought I was seeing a rare, aging mermaid. My hair is starting to look age inappropriate, the same way ripped jeans do.

I want to look like a middle-aged woman, not someone chasing an outgoing teenager. To some feminists, this may sound sexist and ageist: ‘You’re bowing to the expectations of the patriarchy! ‘Women of all ages should do their hair the way they want!’

I agree – and all power to those who swear to never cut their hair, like Cher. However, in my observations, most women look better with short hair as they get older.

Take 80-year-old Dame Helen Mirren, who recently experimented with longer hair. It looked good but it wasn’t anything great as it was short. Mirren’s signature silver bob works not only because it looks beautiful, but because it reflects a woman’s comfort with her skin and age. This is the vibe I want as I get older, not someone in their 50s trying too hard to look like a naive 20-something.

As for sexism, it’s not just women who need to rethink follicular issues as they get older. A younger man wearing a designer beard could be compared to Tom Hardy; An old man risks looking like he spent the night drinking cider on a park bench.

My husband hasn’t accepted my new style yet. Typically women of all ages prefer to have long hair. Sorry: the days of long hair are over. Although I promised her I wouldn’t get a purple cauliflower perm yet. At least not for a few years.

We should close all our zoos

Clare Foges argues Green Party leader Zach Polanski has been criticized for his policy proposals but he was right about zoos

In a crazy world, one thing is certain: the Green Party is wrong on everything from legalizing heroin to opening our borders.

I found myself aligning with Zack Polanski’s party in their plan to eliminate zoos. Watching a lion prowl restlessly in a small enclosure.

We look back with shame on the days of Victorian freak shows; I’m sure we would feel the same about the caging of animals and birds that miss wildlife.

I’m photophobic too, Yasmin

Model Yasmin Le Bon makes a pretty surprising confession considering her career choice

Model Yasmin Le Bon says she ‘hates’ having her photo taken.

I can relate. When a smartphone was shoved in my face and I was yelled ‘smi-yal!’ when the order is given. I take on the appearance of a surprised rodent. How I miss the days before life was dotted with spontaneous photo shoots for the ‘Gram.

Comedian Michael McIntyre targeted people living in Dubai

Michael McIntyre laughs at the plight of expats stranded in Dubai. “I know I shouldn’t laugh,” the comedian laughed, chuckling at the thought of tax dodgers dodging drone strikes.

As someone who has worked a bit in Bahrain, which is a wonderful country, I don’t understand the criticism from Gulf expats. Most of them are not salmon-lipped influencers, but families trying to improve their lives. What’s wrong with this?

And McIntyre’s snub didn’t stop him from planning a lucrative show in the UAE last year.

More than 400 lives may have been saved thanks to the Martha Rule, which allows NHS patients to ask for an independent review of care. The coroner found that Martha Mills, who died of sepsis at the age of 13, could have survived if she had been placed in intensive care. I have great respect for his parents who campaigned for this after such a loss.

Nadiya Hussain, who won the sixth series of BBC’s Great British Bake Off in 2015

I love Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, so I wish she hadn’t blathered on about being axed from the BBC show, her focus being on food and having a hard time insisting that ‘what I’m wearing… the color of my lipstick is less’.

It was better to go with grace than to confirm the suspicion that it was difficult to work with.