from the beauty closet

Short Hair 101

10 years ago by

Everything you ever wanted to know about short hair…

There is no better short hair expert than Clyde, owner of The Drawing Room where Garance got her beloved chop. After talking with him, I’m getting in the mood for a short cut myself…

How can you tell if short hair is going to look good on someone?

Two elements are very important: face structure and hair texture. Then obviously, lifestyle is very important. Certain people have lifestyles that don’t allow them to have short hair. From my point of view, there are no rules. It’s always about creating a good balance.

What do you tell someone who is thinking about going short?

You don’t have to go drastic and wake up one morning thinking “Who am I?” You can start it gradually, have a plan. It’s the best way. Unless you’ve made the decision and you want to go really short. It’s something very personal, we carry our hair with us every single moment of our lives. It’s understandable to feel attached but if you are in good hands, no problem. In over 16 years, I’ve never heard, “I hate this change.” I’ll hear, “I miss my long hair but I love this.” If it’s well designed, its a success.

What is the best way to communicate what you want to a stylist?

The best thing is to have a well-trained, experienced professional that can really make suggestions. A picture is helpful because most of the time a client has an image but can’t translate it into simple words.

What I notice is that a lot of people post a question on their Facebook for instance, “Should I cut my hair? Should I color my hair?” Now you are asking a hundred or a million people and as individuals we all have different points of view and judge based on our preference. I think that it should be left to the professional. It’s like me wanting to have a new suit, I’d rather go to the tailor and have him tell me what is best for my body shape then have my friend tell me based on his preference.

Is short hair more maintenance?

No, not at all. From a professionals point of view, it’s the easiest. It just doesn’t give you as much flexibility. With short hair you can do just a little bit less. The style itself is so strong and makes a statement.

Short hair is less prone to damage. Essentially, you clean up all the ends and there are no natural factors to beat it. With long hair you have the wind, the sun, salt water, chlorine all penetrate the hair. With short hair you’re constantly cutting it, it’s fresh hair growing on the roots. It’s the best quality you could possibly find.

How often should you be getting a trim?

It depends on the shape. The way we design shapes, there shouldn’t be an expiration date. If it’s well designed, it grows out beautifully. If it’s really short, tapered around the ears, it might require a trim every 4 weeks. You could go from a pixie, to graduated to a bob and then it is long. It depends on balance. It definitely requires more frequent visits than long hair. I would say as a general rule, 4 to 6 weeks.

What about washing short hair? How often should you do it?

We normally suggest at least every other day, but not everyday. Preserving some of the natural oils is a good choice for the hair overall. With our experience, we’ve discovered that second day hair always behaves better. If it is someone with medium or high density hair, second day hair is always better. For someone with fine hair, it requires more frequent shampoos. It really comes down to the density and the texture.

Do you have any styling tips for short hair?

It’s very simple. We ask clients if they have a paddle brush and we suggest a wrap dry. You wrap your hair right to left and left to right and it directs your roots into the natural position. If the roots are not in the right spot, the ends won’t respond. Just 10 minutes of a wrap dry and then some products to finish. Use high or medium heat. If it’s really short like a pixie, use medium because you are close to the scalp.

What are some essential products?

It’s a big variety. If its a sleek silhouette, we suggest a heavier product. If it’s a pixie, we suggest a finishing product like a wax or a cream to create more separation at the ends. With curly hair it depends on how you want to wear it, curly or straight. I judge products based on hair texture, quality of the hair and the shape. I can have 30 products in front of me, and yet for one individual none of them might work. I might have to mix and make a cocktail.

What’s the difference between when a man gets a short hair cut and a woman?

There isn’t really a difference. If I create a really short shape, I make sure it is feminine enough so we aren’t going to extreme levels. A softer look.

Any advice for coloring short hair?

This is a big thing: avoid highlights. Highlights are often a disaster on short hair. Highlights in the classic sense. You get stripes, you get lines. Most of the time it’s better to do a single color or a fashion color [two colors are mixed for more dimension] but almost never highlights.

How can you dress up a short cut?

It can be more polished. Say I have an event and everyday I wear my hair kind of messy, for a special event I might make it more slick, more polished. That creates a feeling of being dressed up. Again it depends on the shape, if it’s a long fringe, you can curl it up and create volume. If it’s very, very short and you can’t use any hot tools, shine will translate to dressed up.

How can you create volume with short hair?

Not all short hair needs volume. Sometimes when you add volume to short hair, it turns out classic and most likely reminds you of your grandma. We suggest natural fall, not much volume on short hair. If you really want an extra lift, a good light volumizer applied on the roots can leave you with some volume.

How do Keratin treatments work with short hair?

The Keratin is designed to control frizz and unruly hair. The results of the treatment can be implemented on all types of hair, long, medium, or short. Keratin penetrates the hair improving and repairing the quality.

If someone has wavy medium length hair and they are looking to go for a hair cut like Jennifer Lawrence, a keratin can make the look effortless. Without the Keratin, we can still design the look but the individual would have to blowdry and flat iron their hair to maintain that look. With the Keratin, the client can have the look with a minimal amount of blowdrying time, no flatiron needed.

What style is best for curly hair?

It’s hard to generalize, but most of the time it would be suggested to have disconnected curls. It means different sizes of curls. With the right product you can make it look big or make it look small and sleek. You’re basically creating a mix of short and long curls, rather than cutting the curls all the same. It’s edgier, more modern, playful.

And for fine hair?

It can be tricky to go short. If it’s really fine, you might run into the problem of scalp exposure. If the shape is designed right, you can even create extra volume. I have clients with really fine hair and we got short and it looks great. Most of the time we don’t recommend anything really short. The shortest I would recommend is something like what Jennifer Lawrence has now. It’s a graduation where with a pixie you’re working with layers and that means you lose a little bit of weight from the hair.

Who does a pixie work for?

Medium density, any texture. Any type of hair. It’s really about density.

35 comments

Add yours
  • Where did she get the sunglasses ?
    Thank You:)

  • i’m considering cutting mine off :)

    http://littleaesthete.com

  • i think they’re illesteva (Leonard II)

  • Thank You Francis:)

  • great information ! thank you !

    i think it is important to note that in certain countries your hair will look much better than in others , depending on the quality of the water and how humid the air is.
    In california my short hair looks like a pile of crisps , so I have to rinse it with filtered water and a teaspoon of cider vinegar to get rid of the crisp

    In Paris it is so humid that i have to brush it dry or I look like a poodle

    In NY it does both things at the same time…frizz and crisp and stand up….so I use a ton of gel after rinsing it with filtered water and vinegar.

    http://www.fashionsphinx.com

  • Je te trouve super sur cette photo! La dernière fois que je suis allée chez le coiffeur pour me faire couper les cheveux courts, j’ai pris mon ordinateur avec une photo de Winona Ryder, car c’était exactement la coupe que je voulais et j’étais vraiment contente du résultat. Niveau entretien c’était super, par contre il fallait que je me maquille tous les jours, j’avais également l’angoisse du “Bonjour Monsieur” qui me tenait!
    Mafalda ?
    http://www.mafaldadotzero.blogspot.fr

  • Merci pour ces info!
    J’ai toujours en les cheveux longs et pour l’instant, je n’ai pas l’intention de me couper les cheveux courts!!!
    Et puis, dans l’article, il est mentionné que tout dépend de la texture des cheveux… Ayant les cheveux très raides, sans volume (cheveux d’asiat), ça me ferait rapidement une coupe au bol!!!! Je ne pense pas du tout que ça m’irait! A voir, peut être quand je serai plus âgée!!!
    des bisous

    Le monde des petites
    http://www.lemondedespetites.com/

  • This post is so interesting!

    New post on lowbudget-lowcost Fashion Blog

  • j’ai coupé mes cheveux peu avant Garance… un carré long contre une coupe asymétrique, très courte sur un des cotés… je ne regrette absolument pas ce choix, malgré le fait que mon coiffeur me voit plus souvent, je ne crois pas les laisser repousser un jour !!!

  • Love those sunglasses. Please tell where they are from!!

  • Me tooooo!
    Please somebody read our question!!!!
    ALEX?????

  • i think they’re illesteva (Leonard II)

  • also my question..are the frames Céline or? they look amazing, cool and classic at the same time! still missing more info about which hair style is matching which face shape as I asked, when you sent out a FB note, which subjects we would love to dig into..

  • Garance! I love your hair short. I think everyone does.

    Garance, you should come to my photography retreat in the South of France. We would love to have you as a guest speaker.

    http://www.provencephotography.com

    James

  • cette coupe te va à ravir !!

    http://lanoura.blogspot.fr

  • xa. cute post and you look great.

    http://www.fashiondenis.com/

  • Cet interview est vraiment très intéressant. Super post!

  • De toute façon c’est souvent la même chose, une vraie coupe a toujours besoin d’être rafraîchie, et les visites chez le coiffeur pour entretenir une coupe courte seront toujours plus espacées que pour entretenir une frange ;)

  • Admirable look.

  • Thanks for this.
    I have shorter hair and I do have a plan. When I get too old it’ll need to go shorter.
    BUT thanks for the tip about washing every other day. Maybe that will mean I tame my flyaways.
    Kiri
    http://www.fashionblender.com.au
    http://www.facebook.com/FashionBlender

  • j’ai une question Garance:

    j’ai une coupe à la jean seberg depuis qques années ..je l’adore tout le monde m’en fait compliment…

    but les cheveux blancs arrivent arrgh!!!! tu dis que le balayage ..en gros c’est moche sur cheveux courts
    je suis blonde tres claire donc la solution ce serait une couleur uniforme blond clair

    je ne sais quoi faire help me!!!!

    merci pour ta reponse

  • Des cheveux poivre et sel ou tout blancs avec une coupe courte ca fait très classe et chic aussi

  • Love it! Adorable :-)

  • So fun to read this post. I recently got a haircut and it turned out a lot shorter than I wanted. From shoulder length to a short bob, it took some getting used to. But now, I am actually very happy with my short do. At first I was not feeling as feminine as before, I now know that you absolutely DO NOT need long locks to feel elegant, to feel as a woman. Short hair is sexy and there is a lot to with it! Accessorize, or stay natural! As long as you feel happy & confident, you rock any look!
    I wrote about my little hair disaster ( not about length, but more about color ) on my blog tokimua.wordpress.com

  • Garance Garance ! Ces lunettes sont parfaites, d’où viennent elles ???

  • je pense illesteva

  • I’ve always wanted a cute pixie cut but I feel like my blond locks are very much part of my identity, and worry that my face is too round to be that exposed..mm….we will see if I can get my courage together!

    http://www.girlinmenswear.com

  • J’ai eu les cheveux courts pendant 10 ans (sur 28 c’est beaucoup). Depuis 3 ans je les ai fait repousser, mais bon ça me manque souvent la petite tête. C’est si pratique, on est toujours “lookée” et stylée avec les cheveux courts. Y a un côté fun aussi, frais, insolent…
    Bref, ouiiii, ça me manque et je sais que bientôt je repasserai au court. Ce qui me bloque c’est qu’il faut des sous pour aller chez le coiffeur régulièrement, sinon entre deux coupes c’est vraiment chaud patate (sinon faut se payer un super bon coiffeur, comme celui de l’interview, et je n’ai pas les moyens).
    En attendant, j’ai coupé pour obtenir une longueur juste sous les épaules, bien dégradée, ça bouge plus que les cheveux vraiment longs, c’est moins d’entretien et plus foufou, plus moi quoi !!
    http://www.charlieoplumes.fr

  • I love short hair, I sported a cut similar to Garance’s when I was a teenager, and even shorter hair, too. I remember the maintenance as a nightmare because my hair grows quite fast so I needed to go to the hairdresser at least every 3 weeks otherwise my hair looked quite unkept… and if your hair looks messy, you will look messy, too, this is sure.

  • Great post! Loving the tips! :) Thanks!

    ANDREA

  • Charlotte January, 23 2014, 4:25 / Reply

    “Is short hair more maintenance?

    No, not at all. ”

    That is absolutely not true! I had short hair once and even had to buy a flat iron because of it! It required blow-drying and straightening every morning, when I slept on it, I would look awful the next morning (you could see where my head hit the pillow, random hair strands would stick out etc). With my long hair, I can just air-dry it and put it in a pony tail on a bed hair day – you dont have that option with short hair!

  • Merci infiniment pour tous ces conseils! J’ai mis 2 ans à retrouver mes longueurs après une coupe très courte. Mais j’ai bien envie de retenter l’expérience.

  • good article but I’m not getting the ‘wrap dry’ explanation…. anyone?

  • Exactement le type d’interviews que je ne dois pas lire … parce que cela me donne envie de me faire couper les cheveux et en même temps je vois bien pourquoi il ne faut surtout pas !

    La parenthèse Enchantée.fr

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