Hair can make or break your look, especially as you age. The right cut can take years off your appearance, while outdated styles might add unwanted years to your face.
Let’s explore which hairstyles are aging women over 60 and which ones should be abandoned completely for a more youthful, modern look.
1. O Bob Capacete
Round, stiff bobs create a helmet-like appearance that instantly ages your face. This dated style lacks movement and frames your features harshly.
Instead, opt for a softer, layered bob that allows for natural movement and flatters your bone structure.
2. Tight Poodle Perms
Remember those super-tight curls popular in the 80s? They’re still clinging to salon chairs everywhere! Tiny, uniform curls create a dated, matronly appearance.
Modern styles embrace looser, more natural-looking waves instead.
3. Blunt, Straight-Across Bangs
Heavy, straight-across bangs cut with no texture create a harsh line across your face. They draw attention to forehead wrinkles and can make your features appear severe.
Softer, side-swept bangs offer a more flattering alternative.
4. The Pageboy Cut
Characterized by its rounded shape and turned-under ends, the pageboy screams 1960s. This dated style lacks dimension and tends to flatten facial features.
Modern bobs with layers and texture create a more youthful, dynamic look that enhances your natural beauty.
5. Short, Tightly-Cropped Cuts
Ultra-short, masculine cuts can sometimes strip away femininity and emphasize facial imperfections. When cut too severely, these styles can make you look institutional rather than intentional.
A slightly longer pixie with soft edges offers style without severity.
6. The Wedge Cut
Popular in the 70s and 80s, the wedge cut (short in back, longer in front) now looks distinctly outdated. Its angular shape and heavy stacking can emphasize jowls and neck issues.
Modern graduated bobs provide a similar silhouette with more flattering proportions.
7. Uniform-Length Long Hair
Straight, one-length hair past the shoulders can drag down your features as you age. Without layers or movement, long hair becomes a heavy curtain that emphasizes drooping facial contours.
Adding long layers creates lift and movement that’s instantly more youthful.
8. The Bouffant Updo
Teased, lacquered hairstyles that create height at the crown belong in vintage photographs, not modern life. These stiff styles age you dramatically and look completely out of touch.
Softer, more natural updos offer elegance without the time warp.
9. Severely Teased Crown
Excessive teasing at the crown creates an artificial-looking bump that screams “outdated.” This technique was popular decades ago but now looks matronly and adds years to your appearance.
Light volumizing products provide height without the dated effect.
10. Uniform Salt-and-Pepper
Allowing gray to grow in uniformly without dimension can create a flat, aging effect. One-tone gray hair often lacks the vibrance that keeps your look fresh and youthful.
Adding subtle highlights or lowlights to gray hair creates dimension that brightens your complexion.
11. The Dorothy Hamill Wedge
This iconic 70s cut features a bowl-like shape with turned-under ends. While it was revolutionary in its day, this dated style now adds decades to your appearance.
Modern interpretations of short cuts offer similar ease with contemporary edge.
12. Overly Thin, Wispy Layers
Super-thin, wispy layers can emphasize thinning hair issues that often come with age. These fragile-looking ends create an unintentionally frail appearance rather than a purposeful style.
Blunter, more substantial layers provide the illusion of thicker, healthier hair.
13. The Mullet and Its Variations
Any style that’s dramatically shorter on top and sides while leaving length in back creates an outdated silhouette. These business-in-front, party-in-back cuts haven’t aged well and add years to your appearance.
Balanced cuts look more sophisticated and timeless.
14. Blunt, One-Length Lob
A shoulder-length bob with zero layers can look severe and aging on mature women. The heavy, single-length cut tends to drag features downward and emphasize neck concerns.
Adding even minimal layers creates movement that lifts your entire look.
15. Harsh, Solid Hair Color
Though not a cut, solid, single-process color without dimension severely ages women over 60. Flat, opaque color looks artificial and draws attention to skin texture issues.
Multi-dimensional color with subtle highlights mimics youthful hair’s natural variations.
16. Super-Short Pixie with Spiky Top
Short cuts with heavily gelled, spiky tops create a dated, trying-too-hard effect. This 90s-inspired look often appears harsh rather than edgy on mature women.
Softer pixies with textured (not spiky) tops offer the same ease with more sophistication.
17. The Shag with Excessive Layers
Overly choppy, heavily layered shags can look messy and unkempt rather than purposefully tousled on older women. Too many disconnected layers create a scattered appearance that ages rather than refreshes.
Modern shags feature more strategic, blended layers.
18. Baby Bangs
Ultra-short, above-the-eyebrows bangs create a harsh, unflattering frame for mature faces. These severe bangs draw attention to forehead lines and can make your face appear larger.
Longer bangs that hit at or below the eyebrows offer a more flattering alternative.
19. The Feathered Farrah
The iconic 70s feathered look popularized by Farrah Fawcett is instantly recognizable—and instantly dating. The heavily layered, swooping style with flipped ends screams “stuck in time.”
Modern interpretations of face-framing layers offer similar flattery without the retro effect.
20. The Bubble Cut
Round, bubble-shaped cuts that completely lack angles create a dated, matronly effect. These perfectly spherical styles popular in the 60s emphasize fullness in all the wrong places.
Cuts with some strategic angles help define facial features more flatteringly.