Your hairstyle can dramatically impact how young or old you appear. Professional stylists know which cuts and colors tend to add years to your look, often without you realizing it. Knowing which styles to avoid can help you maintain a youthful appearance while still rocking a style you love.
1. Severe Center Parts
A harsh, perfectly straight center part creates symmetry that emphasizes facial asymmetries. Soften your look with a slightly off-center or side part that frames your face more flatteringly.
2. Blunt, One-Length Bob
Sharp, geometric lines draw attention to neck wrinkles and jawline changes. Consider softer, layered bobs instead that create movement and frame your face with more youthful energy.
3. Super Dark Hair Color
Pitch-black hair creates harsh shadows on your face, highlighting every line. The stark contrast between very dark hair and aging skin can make you look significantly older than your years.
4. Outdated Wedge Cut
Remember those triangular-shaped cuts from decades past? They scream ‘dated’ rather than ‘classic.’ The distinctive wedge shape immediately places you in a specific era, adding years to your appearance.
5. Frosted Tips and Highlights
Those chunky, contrasting highlights popular in the early 2000s instantly date your look. Modern highlighting techniques like balayage offer more natural, sun-kissed dimension that appears much more youthful.
6. Permed Tight Curls
The classic ‘grandma perm’ with uniform, tight curls adds decades to your appearance. Today’s stylists recommend looser waves or varied curl patterns for a more contemporary, youthful vibe.
7. Helmet Hair
Stiff, overly sprayed styles that don’t move look artificial and dated. Touchable, movable hair appears more modern and youthful, even when styled in more traditional cuts.
8. Harsh Updos
Severely pulled-back buns or ponytails create an instant facelift effect – but not in a good way. The tension highlights fine lines around your eyes and can make your face appear drawn.
9. Ignoring Gray Roots
Long-grown-out roots create a stark, aging line of demarcation. Either embrace your grays fully or maintain regular color appointments – that awkward in-between stage is particularly unflattering.
10. Too-Short Pixie Cuts
Ultra-short, boyish cuts without softness around the face can emphasize facial hollows and neck laxity. A slightly longer pixie with face-framing pieces maintains the ease while looking more youthful.
11. Flat, Lifeless Hair
Hair that lacks volume and body can make you appear tired and drawn. Adding layers, texture, or even just a volumizing product can instantly refresh your look and take years off.
12. Overly Teased Crowns
The 1960s bouffant or excessive teasing at the crown screams outdated. While a little volume is flattering, that dramatically teased crown belongs to a bygone era and ages you significantly.
13. Harsh, Blunt Bangs
Straight-across, heavy bangs cut too bluntly can look severe and draw attention to forehead lines. Softer, side-swept bangs or textured fringe creates a more youthful frame for your face.
14. Overly Processed Hair
Dry, damaged hair from excessive coloring, perming or heat styling looks brittle and old. Healthy, shiny hair signals youth, regardless of the style or color you choose.
15. Monotone Hair Color
Single-process, flat color lacks the dimension of natural hair. Adding subtle highlights or lowlights creates depth that looks more natural and youthful, even when covering grays completely.
16. The Super-Long Straight Look
Extremely long, straight hair without layers can drag your features down, especially after 40. A shoulder-length cut or adding long layers creates lift that counteracts gravity’s aging effects.
17. Visible Hair Extensions
Poorly blended extensions with visible attachment points look artificial. Quality extensions should be undetectable – when they’re obvious, they create an instantly aging, try-hard impression.
18. Dated Layering Techniques
Those 80s and 90s short, choppy layers around the crown create a mushroom-like shape. Modern layering should be longer and more blended for a timeless, age-appropriate style.