Woman with grey hair, black pants, and pink jacket crosses a busy Hanoi street

Woman with grey hair, black pants, and pink jacket crosses a busy Hanoi street

An elegantly dressed woman with grey hair crosses a busy Hanoi street. She is wearing a pink jacket, black silk pants, sandals, and a necklace of large white pearls. She holds a dark bag or garment under her right arm and touches her right ear with her left hand.In the background to the right, another woman with cropped hair wears a blue Calvin Klein logo cap with her black pants and pink print blouse. A woman in a yellow print blouse, black pants, and long braided hair stands behind the central woman. A man and a boy are partially seen at left walking forward across the street.Traditionally in Southeast Asia, women and men did not cut their hair, but fastened it back in a variety of styles that often signified their regional group. Under colonial European influences starting several hundred years ago, men began to cut their hair short. In recent decades, younger women increasingly have cut and styled their hair following worldwide fashions.