New Delhi,Sep.18, 2008

In the world of fairy tale, princess Rapunzel may have used the power of her long tresses to meet her prince charming, but today's powerful women seem to prefer keeping their hair short, mostly.In the latest list of 100 most powerful women in the world, compiled by US business magazine Forbes, close to two-third of them have short hair, including the Indian debutant Mayawati -- Bahujan Samaj Party President and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Among those with short hair, Mayawati has company in names like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp's head Sheila Blair and PepsiCo's Indian origin Chief Indra Nooyi, the three most powerful in the world.Other such famous personalities, who are short on hair but long on power list, include American senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, US First Lady Laura Bush and 82-year Queen Elizabeth II of UK.

In addition, the likes of health insurance major WellPoint chief Angela Braly and Cynthia Carroll of mining giant Anglo-American have also opted for the cropped-hair look.In the top-ten of the 100 most powerful list itself, as many as nine have short hair, while as many as 75 of the total have their tresses falling up to or above the shoulders.

However, presence of such a large number of short-hair women on the list might just be coincidental, as the measure of power has noting to do with tresses for this list. The US magazine has measured 'power' as a composite of public clout and popularity calculated using press mentions, and financial heft.

Courtesy: UTVi