A good haircut can wipe years off your age, but an outdated or unflattering one can do the opposite. Always go for a current hairstyle that complements your face shape, works with your hair texture, and elevates your style game. Here are 15 haircuts that are either out of date, not cool, and making you look older than you actually are.
1. Super Short and Heavy Bangs
Bangs can be a tricky business. They definitely aren’t for everyone and tend to work best if you have dead straight hair. Heavy, thick bangs can overpower your face, make it look fuller, and even exaggerate a large forehead and fine lines around the eyes. If you go for a super short or choppy fringe, it can drag down your face and make you look older. Instead of a fringe, try some overgrown layers around the face that can be swept to the side for a more natural and youthful look.
2. Severe Pixie Crops
Super short pixie crops can look severe when you’re older. This is a cut that really draws attention to your facial features, so it can emphasize fine lines, wrinkles, skin imperfections, and squinty eyes. It also lacks volume and texture, so it can be too flat on your head and look harsh and unattractive.
3. Long Straight Hair With No Layers
Long hair can drag down the face when you’re older, making it look longer and emphasizing signs of aging. It can also hang flat and limp and be high-maintenance to manage. A more flattering style is just past the shoulders, and adding soft layers adds volume and bounce. youthful. Super straight hair can also cling to the scalp, highlighting thinning hair or a receding hairline.
4. Short Blunt Bobs
A sharp, blunt bob, especially if it’s short and ends at the ears or jawline, creates a harsh line that can age your appearance. Severe dramatic bobs can also highlight a double chin and create the illusion of a wider jaw. For a chicer, softer, younger-looking style, go for a shoulder-length bob with a soft side part.
5. In-Between Lengths
Worse than having a bad hairstyle is not having one at all. If your hair is overgrown, disheveled, or a weird in-between length, you can look less attractive and less polished. Ask your hair stylist to advise on the latest looks and the ones that will best suit your face shape. It’s also important to keep up regular trims every 6-8 weeks to maintain the health of your hair and protect against split ends, breakages, and hair loss.
6. Overplucked Eyebrows
Your eyebrows are hair, and a well-defined and manicured brow not only counts as part of your hairstyle but can frame your entire face. Never overpluck your brows, as they can take a long time to grow back when you’re older. Thin, sparse brows also create a harsh, dated look that can age your face. If you have overplucked your eyebrows, shape and fill them with a pen infused with hair fibers.
7. Dry Brittle Gray Hair
Your hair loses volume and pigment due to aging. When melanin (the pigment responsible for your natural hair color) production slows, your hair turns a silvery shade. While rocking the silver fox look can be glamorous, it’s important to remember grey hair is also dry hair, so boost its condition with hydrating hair masks and serums. You may also need to add a silver toner to your hair to create a more consistent hue and knock out any of yellow undertones.
8. Tight Curls and Perms
The tight spiral perm was the style of the 80s, and that’s where it needs to stay. The look is dated and adds unnecessary volume. Perms are also harsh chemical treatments that can dry out and damage the hair, leading to flyaways, frizz, and breakages. If your hair naturally has short, tight curls, it can also add bulk to the sides of the face and look a little unattractive. Get your stylist to cut some weight out of your hair, and use styling creams and relaxing products formulated for your hair type to make your hair look more tidy and polished. And if you do want some curls, create soft, beachy waves with a curling iron.
9. Mullets and Undercuts
The infamous mullet and undercuts can be considered edgy, but they can also look ugly. They create a stark, unnatural contrast that is difficult to maintain and grow out, leading to an awkward transitional phase. With its dramatic short front and long back, the mullet is outdated, unflattering, and off balance, which can draw attention to face imperfections and aging.
10. Severe Parts
Wearing your hair in a severe center part or dramatic side part can make a face look longer and more angular and highlight aging, facial asymmetry, and skin imperfections. If you are graying, it can also make them more obvious. You need to be younger and have perfect skin to pull off parts; it’s better to go for a softer side-swept part for a more natural, youthful look.
11. The Shag
Shaggy, overly textured hair can create too much bulk, and if your hair is short, it can look outdated and aging. A shaggy, unstructured cut with uneven layers can also look messy and promote frizz. This is a look that can give off a bedhead vibe that’s hard to manage and not all that stylish.
12. Asymmetrical Cuts
Asymmetrical cuts aren’t cool or trendy they are dated and unflattering. If you have an unnatural hair shade, it can also look harsh and aging. Uneven hairstyles throw your face off balance and are difficult to style and maintain. It’s better to go for a more classic style, like a shoulder-length bob with a soft side part.
13. The Pageboy Bowl
The pageboy or bowl cut gives a helmet hair vibe, and there is nothing attractive or flattering about that. This straight, even-length style looks childlike, outdated, and weird. It will also highlight a round face, create unnecessary volume in the wrong places, and exaggerate fine lines and wrinkles.
14. Choppy Layers
Layers are the perfect way to add texture and volume to your hair, but they need to be blended well. Otherwise, they can look choppy, unnatural, and severe. Spiky, uneven, badly blended layers create a harsh appearance that can highlight wrinkles and skin imperfections and make you look way older than you are.
15. Unnatural Streaks
Over-bleaching or going overboard on the streaks creates a dated, unattractive, and aging look, especially if the streaks are badly blended or in contrasting hues. When you subject your hair to chemical dyes, it can also damage the hair shaft, turning hair dry, brittle, and straw-like. This can make you and your hair look way older than you are.