When I was in Catholic school, in the seventies, I was taught by some Franciscans who no longer wore a habit but just had a dress code: dark brown skirt and (hideous polyester) blouse. This really soured me on seventies-style clothes for a long time! And yes, they wore "nun shoes," as a previous poster mentioned (I'm sure these are the same shoes, ha ha).
I would have loved to have been taught by a nun in a habit. They always do take such care to make sure that everything is pressed and neat.
I had a friend some years ago who wore a simiplified habit. She was a member of a missionary order. She told me that back in the day (the sixties, I guess?) that the nuns had so many starched pieces on their habits that they would actually have to take breaks during the day to re-iron things because they were losing their shape. She said that was the reason why they decided to change their habit years later: the habit was getting in the way of doing their actual work.
Xtabay, believe it or not, I visited one monastery of nuns where they told me that in the summer, some of them DO shave their head because it is so much cooler that way!
