Photo: ABC / HBO Max
Wait until you see them with each other's hairstyles.
By Alice Kelly — Written on Jan 05, 2022
With the “Sex And The City” reboot “And Just Like That” making waves on HBO Max and a newfound interest in the iconic 80s TV series “The Golden Girls” following the death of Betty White, sitcom nostalgia is all the rage right now.
Though we never considered it before, these two famous shows have a lot in common.
“The Golden Girls” follows four older women navigating single life in Miami, “Sex And The City” famously followed four single ladies in New York city.
Now the reboot stars three of the original four cast members — Cynthia Nixon, playing Miranda Hobbes, Kristin Davis stars as Charlotte, and Sarah Jessica Parker, reprised her role as protagonist Carrie.
But perhaps the most surprising commonality between the two shows is the real life ages of the leading ladies playing these roles.
Fans were shocked to learn that “The Golden Girls” and the “Sex And The City” ladies are the same age.
When TikToker @brownstonedmama posted a now-viral video pointing out that the cast of “And Just Like That” are roughly the same ages the character portrayed by the late White, Rue Mclanahan and Bea Arthur were when they were filming “The Golden Girls” many commenters were shocked.
Nixon is 55, Parker is 56 — though she's listed as 55 in the TikTok — while Davis is 56, with the TikTok listing her as 54.
Meanwhile, the ages of “The Golden Girls” characters follow a similar pattern with Rose aged 55, Dorothy, 54 and Blanche, 53, when the show premiered.
In the comments of the TikTok, fans debated why the two generations of sitcom stars seem entirely different in age.
Cosmetic surgery, botox and fillers was a common perception. The fact that “The Golden Girls” cast were a little older than their characters was another.
Others guessed that our perception of age has changed — women in their 50s have more options available to them than they did in the 80s. Styling was also a common explanation.
But one that gripped many commenters, and others who reacted to the video online, is that it’s all in the hair.
The difference in hairstyles between “The Golden Girls” and the “Sex and The City” cast may explain their contrasting looks.
“The Golden Girls” all famously wore short hairstyles with set curls. And though this may have been a popular look for women in the 80s, we’ve come to associate it with older ladies.
In contrast, the cast of “Sex and The City” have longer locks that look like something straight out of a Pantene commercial.
With easy access to hair dye, only Nixon’s character is sporting graying hair — and even at that it’s an enviable silver tone that likely came from a bottle — while three out of four of “The Golden Girls” had gray hair.
To accurately make the comparison, fans of the shows have been practicing their photoshop skills and swapping hairstyles between the iconic casts.
“The Golden Girls” with long hair certainly gives them a more youthful look. While editing shorter styles on to the “Sex and The City” women… well, you can see for yourself.
One thing is for sure, the styling department on “The Golden Girls” set certainly did these ladies dirty by making them out to be old ladies rather than the youthful, 50-something year olds they really were!
Alice Kelly is a senior news and entertainment editor for YourTango. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, her work covers all things social justice, pop culture, and human interest. Keep up with her Twitter for more.