Your haircut can dramatically impact how young or old you appear. While the right style frames your features beautifully, certain cuts can accidentally add years to your look. Before your next salon visit, consider these hairstyles that might be aging you more than you realize.
1. Blunt, One-Length Bob
Harsh, straight-across bobs create a severe frame around your face. The rigid lines emphasize wrinkles rather than softening them.
Opt for layers or slight angles that move with you instead.
2. Super Short Pixie
Extremely cropped cuts can highlight facial asymmetries and neck wrinkles. Without softness around the face, every line becomes more noticeable.
Consider leaving slightly longer pieces around your face for balance.
3. Outdated Wedge Cut
Popular decades ago, the wedge cut screams ‘dated’ with its dramatic stacked back and triangular silhouette. The shape immediately places you in a different era.
Modern, softer graduated cuts offer similar benefits without the time-stamp.
4. Poker-Straight Long Hair
Flat, ultra-straight locks past your shoulders create a dragging effect on mature faces. The weight pulls features downward, emphasizing jowls and neck laxity.
Volume and movement are your friends as you age.
5. Heavy, Straight-Across Bangs
Thick, blunt bangs cut straight across create a harsh horizontal line that draws attention to crow’s feet and forehead lines. They can make your face appear boxier.
Softer, side-swept bangs flatter most faces better.
6. Helmet Hair
Overly sculpted, immovable styles reminiscent of the 1960s read as matronly and dated. The stiff, shellacked look ages even youthful faces instantly.
Hair should have natural movement that looks touchable and fresh.
7. Permed Tight Curls
Small, uniform poodle-like curls create an outdated look that immediately adds years. This style peaked decades ago and hasn’t evolved gracefully.
Loose, varied waves look more modern and youthful than tight, uniform curls.
8. Severe Center Part
A stark, perfectly straight middle part can emphasize facial asymmetry and draw attention to thinning hair along the part line. It lacks the softness that flatters aging faces.
Slightly off-center or diagonal parts create more flattering volume.
9. Too-Dark Single-Process Color
Flat, one-dimensional dark dye jobs create harsh contrasts against aging skin. The severe color highlights every line and shadow on your face.
Softer colors with dimension through highlights or lowlights look more natural.
10. Mullet or Shag Throwbacks
Retro cuts like mullets or heavy shags can look costume-like rather than stylish on mature women. The dated silhouette becomes the focus instead of your features.
Modernized versions with softer transitions work better for today.
11. Overgrown, Shapeless Length
Long hair without shape or layers tends to look stringy and unkempt as we age. When hair thins naturally, length without structure emphasizes the problem.
Strategic layers create movement and the appearance of fullness.
12. Short, Spiky Cuts
Extremely short, spiky styles can look harsh and severe on mature faces. The sharp, pointed texture draws attention to facial lines rather than softening them.
Softer, more tousled short cuts create youthful energy without the harshness.
13. Pageboy Bob
The rounded-under pageboy with curved ends that tuck under at the same length creates a dated, matronly effect. This uniform curve lacks the movement modern styles offer.
Bobs with varied textures and angles look more current.
14. Visible Outgrown Roots
Significant root growth creates a stark, harsh line of demarcation between colors. This obvious neglect looks less like a deliberate style choice and more like forgotten maintenance.
Regular touch-ups or intentional root shadowing techniques look polished.
15. Tight Pulled-Back Styles
Severely slicked-back ponytails or buns create tension that emphasizes every facial line. The pulling effect can make your face look drawn and tired.
Loose, softer updos with face-framing pieces create a more flattering look.
16. Excessive Teasing and Backcombing
Over-teased styles with visible ratting look damaged and dated. The unnatural volume and texture read as trying too hard rather than effortlessly stylish.
Modern volume comes from proper cutting and styling techniques, not intense backcombing.
17. Chunky, Stripy Highlights
Thick, contrasting streaks of color create a dated, artificial look reminiscent of early 2000s trends. The stark stripes draw attention to themselves rather than enhancing your features.
Subtle, blended highlighting techniques look more sophisticated.
18. The ‘Soccer Mom’ Angled Bob
Short in back, longer in front bobs became so ubiquitous they earned a stereotype. The dramatic angle and heavy stacking screams early 2000s and looks instantly dated.
Softer graduations without extreme angles feel more current.
19. Blunt, Heavy Layers
Choppy, obvious layers cut at sharp angles create a disconnected, harsh effect. The obvious transitions between lengths look more strategic than stylish on mature hair.
Soft, blended layers that move together create more flattering movement.
20. Overly Thin, Wispy Bangs
Sparse, separated strands of bangs draw attention to forehead lines rather than concealing them. The stringy effect looks unintentional rather than designed.
Either commit to fuller fringe or skip bangs entirely for a more polished look.