I don’t think his joke was out of bounds, but I do think your mom was kind of mean. But mom’s can get away with that, I guess.
My mom can be a bit of a pill, and my dad was really sick then, and my hair was really, really short, so I ignored it.
This was before my daughter joined the Marines, so I didn’t know that women Marine recruits don’t get their hair cut. If they don’t already have short hair when they get to boot camp, they have to make buns with lots of mousse.
If my mother had made that comment to me I would have laughed and so would she. Depends on the relationship. Just fun.