11 Unflattering Haircuts That Age You Instantly Over 40—#3 Highlights Bald Spots
March 26, 2025 by Lisa Cupido
It’s rare to find someone that doesn’t have at least one complaint about their hair. And one of the most common complaints you’ll hear from women is that they feel like their hair is getting thinner, shedding more often, and that they’re even experiencing bald spots (or areas with more sparseness) on the scalp.
Losing hair is stressful and can be frightening. There are steps you can take to help address the initial cause of hair loss (a trip to your dermatologist is a good first step). But, in the meantime, the last thing you will want to do is make your hair loss look more pronounced by choosing a haircut or hairstyle that makes your hair look thinner. These 11 styles and cuts can be unflattering — number three can even highlight bald spots. Avoiding these if you are concerned with thinness is a good place to start.
1. Center Parts
Center parts can look sweet, low maintenance, and natural. But they can also emphasize a loss of hair at the crown. A widening part is often one of the first signs that hair has shed so changing to a side part can help conceal this.
2. Straight, Sleek Long Hair
Straight, sleek, and long hair can be a chic look that turns up the shine on your strands. But thinning hair that appears too long and straight can also appear flat and straggly at the ends.
3. Tight Braids
Tight braids pull on your hair follicles and can cause more breakage and shedding. They can also highlight areas of sparseness or bald spots on the scalp since there is no hair covering these areas.
4. Flat, Tight Ponytail
Similar to tight braids, a low, pulled-back ponytail may reveal thinness around the scalp and appear too flat to create the illusion of volume. Keeping the ponytail but moving it higher, lightly teasing the hair at your crown, and pulling out a few strands to soften your face can help.
5. Very Short Blunt Cut
Very short bobs with blunt ends can make hair look denser, this is true. But they may also prove too flat at the roots and may benefit from a few longer layers for movement.
6. Straight-Across Bangs
Bangs that are blunt and cut straight across take on a square shape that can look harsh and aging. If your hair is thinner, they may also pull too much hair from the back of your hair. A wispier, softer bang could be a better look.
7. Choppy, Uneven Layers
All layering techniques aren’t good layering techniques. If you’ve ever walked out of a salon with choppy, uneven layers you know that the wrong layering can make thin hair look even thinner and actually weigh your hair down instead of perking it up.
8. Medium Haircut With No Face Framing
Medium haircuts are the Goldilocks haircuts — they are often the perfect length to remove straggly ends, while still allowing you to retain some length if you like to wear your hair up at times. But without face framing or layering, this cut can often hang down like a sheet — and this can make your hair look flat and blah.
9. Tight Curls
Curls and waves are youthful looking and create volume and density in fine and thin hair. But if your curls are very tight it can be reminiscent of retro permed looks. If this is the style you are after, more power to you. But if not, loosening the curl with product and styling can create a softer look.
10. High Bun
As elegant as a high bun can look, it can also show off baby hairs and breakage if not styled well. Using a bun donut can help create volume and adding a hair serum that helps those baby hairs lay flat will look more youthful.
11. Very Short Pixie With No Layers
The pixie haircut is a classic with a short back and sides and longer layers on top. If those layers are cut too short though, scalp sparseness can become more apparent. If this is a concern for you, leaving the layers longer so that you can customize them and style them over bald spots can make a major difference.