Yes, long hair evokes youth, but long hair after 40 can flirt with desperation.

I just figured out Sarah Palin’s role in the Dune Theory!

The Reverend Mother must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness.