This article has been updated since its initial publish date to include more expert insight.
While pixie cuts can bring instant volume to fine hair and flatter your features if cut in a face-framing way, super-short haircuts can also emphasize signs of aging.
If you’re looking to take years off your look rather than add them on, it’s helpful to hear from professional hair stylists and experts, who have experience shaping thinning and/ or aging tresses.
We checked in with Ghanima Abdullah, hair expert and cosmetologist at The Right Hairstyles, and Dani Everson, professional hair stylist at Clementine’s Salon, for 2 popular pixie cuts to avoid over 40, and which to try instead for a youthful, radiant and stunning look this fall.
2 Pixie Cuts To Avoid For A More Youthful Look, According To Experts
1. Pixie with Blunt Bangs
While this pixie cut looks classic, timeless, and Parisian on many, for those over 40, Abdullah warns that the blunt bangs in this 'do can inadvertently draw attention to signs of aging. "Thick, blunt bangs that come past the eyebrows" on a blunt-chopped pixie can "emphasize every sign of age in the face," Abdullah says, as they "don't frame the face well." Rather, she notes, "they push all the attention to the eyes, with all their lines."
Abdullah acknowledges that this cut is "seen as a very classic chic look," but stresses that it "really makes you look older." This, she says, os because the bluntness emphasizes the eye area, "which might not look dewy." Then, it also "emphasizes the jaw area, an area that many of us struggle with as we age."
2. Pixie with Baby Bangs
Like the previous cut with *blunt* bangs, this similar 'do can also highlight wrinkles, and those on the forehead especially, Everson says. While timeless style icons like Bettie Page and Audrey Hepburn and current trendsetters like Katy Perry and Zendaya have all rocked a bold baby bang look, this cut, (which ends before your eyebrows), might have a different effect on mature beauties, Everson notes.
“I love bangs and think everyone has their own special length that enhances their features,” she says, adding that “No two bangs are the same,” and if you are looking to get bangs, “opt for a long hairstyle that will help hide forehead wrinkles.” This type of bangs on a pixie, she says, can “overshare someone's wrinkle story,” drawing the eye to sagging skin rather than creating a look that has an upwards or lifting effect.
“The right length of bangs can help make someone's appearance youthful, but too short borders the line between baby-ish and also aging,” she advises.
Solution To Both Pixie Cut Problems: Wispy Bangs
While there are plenty of layered, pixie cuts without bangs that can take years off your look, there is also a clever, celeb-fave cut with fringe that can have this effect, too, Abdullah says.
She recommends adding long, symmetry-promoting bangs to your pixie (like Anne Hathaway) if your goal is to look younger, as this cut highlights your cheekbones, and looks more voluminous with the help of an already-short 'do.
"Curtain bangs are a type of fringe cut that creates a soft, natural looking wave at the top of the head," she explains, "They are often used to frame the face and specifically, to give it a youthful appearance."
Abdullah says that this style (and sideswept bangs as well) are "easy to achieve and looks great on everyone and on most hair types." They work, along with layers, because they ultimately "make your face appear smaller and slimmer when they come down to cheek level."
They also help, as seen on Robin Wright above, to "make your hair appear thicker and are a great way to add volume to thinning hair," she points out, and definitely with an already timeless pixie.
"The style works well for women who want to hide thinning hair in the front," she concludes.
Noted!
