So does short hair make you look younger?
Yes!
But you must avoid some simple mistakes to look more younger in short hair.
In this article I’m going to share the top mistakes that I see happen when it comes to short hair and the good thing is these are pretty easy mistakes to avoid.
And when you avoid them it’s going to help you look a whole lot more youthful with that great short hair of yours.
Before we jump into the first tip, I need to break down what I mean by short hair, because inevitably there will be somebody that says that’s not short.
I consider short hair to be anything shorter than a bob shape.
Here’s the best part in my opinion about short hair.
Because of the length, it allows you a lot more versatility with the way you cut shape into the hair, versus having to style shape into the hair.
That means that we have a lot more ability to create more shape to accentuate things about your face shape that you want to accentuate.
That’s why shorter hair can be very powerful but that’s also why, if it’s not done correctly or if you make these mistakes, it’ll have a tendency to look more drawn out and to draw your face down and to rob some of that youthful appearance that it could be giving you.
That’s what leads us in to mistake number one.
1.
The first mistake I see is that people don’t pay as much attention to their profile as they do looking straight on and that makes sense.
When you look in a mirror or when you’re looking at yourself, you tend to look at yourself straight on. You don’t look at the side profile or at a 45 profile.
But most of society doesn’t look at us straight in the face because that’s awkward. We look at each other from a bit of an angle, so we’re more apt to see each other’s profile.
We’re going to talk more in the next mistakes about how to address this concern, but the profile has an incredible ability, especially in short hair, to be able to accentuate cheek structure, to lift the face structure, to do a ton of things that can either create a lot more youthfulness in your overall look or conversely bring the eye down and make you look more drawn out and less vibrant.
2.
Mistake number two talks really more in depth about why paying attention to the profile is so important and how we can help to address what’s going on with the profile.
One thing I see all the time is just below the occipital bone, in what we call the nape of your head, people have a tendency to forget about beveling that a little bit.
What beveling means is just taking out some of the volume from that area.
If we’re talking about short hair, there are very few instances when you get into short hair like i’m talking about where you don’t have the ability or the opportunity to create some beveling in that area.
When you bevel right below the occipital bone and taper that in a little bit, it’ll have a tendency to draw more emphasis to volume in the crown and from a profile it’ll have a tendency to follow the cheekbone structure, the jawbone structure, lift the eye up and therefore ultimately create more of a youthful and vibrant overall look to the shape.
Anytime we can lift things up, it’s like a little mini facelift, if you will.
If the nape has too much fullness, it actually has a tendency to bring the eye down and that from a profile can make the crown actually appear flatter and that may be one of the reasons if you do look at your profile that you feel like you’re struggling getting volume in the crown.
May not be that you’re actually struggling getting the right amount of volume, it may be that because you have fullness below the occipital bone, it looks like you’ve got less volume in the crown and therefore it makes you feel like it’s not getting enough volume.
3.
The next mistake that I see people make is not giving the style enough movement. It’s actually sprayed into place so stiff after it’s dried because you’re afraid that that’s the only way you can hold that shape and that is creating a shape that’s just too stiff.
Having more movement in your hair shows a lot more texture, has a lot more life and ultimately just looks a lot more youthful in general.
I understand there are concerns about creating volume but this is one of the beauties of having short hair.
You can create the shape through the cut. All you’re really doing when you go to style it is you’re not creating the volume, you’re enhancing the volume or the shape that’s already cut into it.
Giving your hair movement, using products that allow your hair to have movement, but still have overall volume and shape, it’s a really big deal.
4.
The next mistake that people make is overlooking color.
Before you think that I’m a stylist that just wants to throw color on people, totally not at all, but here’s the thing.
We were recently talking about adding texture to your hair. One of the most effective and efficient ways to do that is through adding low lights or highlights.
But the best part is many times your hair will naturally lighten up in the summertime and you may have some kind of tone on tone, highlights already.
If that’s the case, then you’ve already got something great going on.
But in the case that you don’t feel like you have enough dimension, one fantastic way to add that is through low lights or highlights.
And it also creates a little bit more of illusion of thickness.
5.
I believe honestly this to be the most important, the biggest mistake I see 90% of the time when somebody comes into my chair and they’re unhappy with their short hair.
This is what’s going on.
It’s having the layers on the top cut too short.
Here’s the thing. It’s really easy to fall into the idea that you want more volume on top, so you want to take the layers on top shorter. Makes sense. If I shorten my hair, it’ll be lighter, I’ll get more volume.
But unfortunately that is true to an extent. But then there is a point where it’s actually no longer true. In fact, it actually does the opposite, because hair is an optical illusion.
For instance, the more volume you have on the sides, the less it will look like you have on the top. The problem is as you take hair shorter on the top, if it’s not balanced, meaning if the sides are too long, it’ll actually create little cap of volume then it will indent or collapse.
And then it creates illusion that the sides are fuller and therefore creates the illusion that the top doesn’t have as much volume. It actually works against you.
The top, as crazy as this sounds, has to have enough length to create bend, to actually create volume.
Samantha is a hairstylist with over 12 years of color and stylist experience. She enjoys using her knowledge to create what her clients really want when they sit down in her chair. Her passion is creating unique looks that her clients feel great in.