London’s Hunger Games: Catching Fire red carpet was aglow on Monday evening with camera flashes accompanying yells of lead actress Jennifer Lawrence’s name, but to everyone’s surprise, there were no glimmers of light reflecting off her signature wavy locks.
That’s because, having become frustrated with tying her “awkward” shoulder-length hair back into a bun, she snipped it all off and styled it into a slick, minimalistic pixie cut instead.
Lawrence isn’t the first, nor will she be the last, to don this daring ‘do. In fact, the cut was first popularised by classic beauty icon Audrey Hepburn in her 1953 debut film, Roman Holiday, before becoming an essential part of eccentric model Twiggy’s look in the 1960s.
Eamonn Boreham, International Artistic Director at label.m as well as the International Educational Manager for TONI&GUY, has been working with hairstyles of all shapes and textures since 1982. He was in Dubai this month to train hairstyling hopefuls from around the emirate, and took the time to share his expertise with The weekend tabloid!
“If we go back to the 1970s when the idea of pixie cuts were all happening, it was when girls were starting to have their hair cut closer to the head, but always with an element of softness,” he said. “So it wouldn’t be just cropped off — it wouldn’t just be hard and masculine — it would be taking hair short, but still keeping it very feminine.”
In recent decades, the hairstyle has been revived by countless celebrities — Winona Ryder, Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Liv Tyler, Emma Watson, and Miley Cyrus, to name a few. Every once in a while, a big name starlet will shock her faithful adorers by cropping her strands staggeringly short, and it inevitably sparks a trend.
“It comes around every so often,” said Boreham. “If it looks cool on the right person, it inspires others to do it.”
But the pixie cut isn’t for everyone, and there are physical and mental restrictions that come into play. In terms of the tangible, it’s the shape of one’s head, rather than the shape of their face, that helps determine suitability.
“The most important thing is the size of the head,” said Boreham. “If somebody’s got a petite head shape — if somebody’s got an attractive head shape, you know, they’ve got a nice curve to the scalp, almost — then it can work. If somebody’s got a very wide head shape or a very large head shape, then I don’t think it does work.”
Despite Twiggy being a proven anomaly, the cut is also said to be more suited to shorter women rather than those with leggy frames.
“There are always exceptions to the rule, where some girls look amazing and they’re six foot tall, perhaps, but very rarely,” said Boreham. “If somebody is very tall, they probably need hair to bring them down.”
On the emotional side, he added: “You’ve got to be confident and have an aura of confidence about you to be able to do that — to be able to take it off and still feel feminine yourself ... It’s an inner confidence in somebody, I think, that makes the hair cut work.”
If you’re still unsure if the statement cut is right for you, perhaps this will build your confidence: getting your pixie hair ready, whether you’re heading out for a casual, laid-back evening or a glammed-up night on town, will take approximately as long as it would to make yourself a cup of tea.
All you have to do after you’ve washed your hair is apply a volumising mousse on the short strands then finish it off with a hair paste, which Boreham says you shouldn’t be afraid to rub in vigorously.
It’s no secret, however, that cropped cuts can make for a painfully awkward growth period. Though some might miss their phantom locks at first and struggle with upkeep in the following months, many will find that it’s well worth the risk for the brief yet exhilarating dramatic impact of it all.
“It’s something that doesn’t last, it’s not permanent,” said Boreham. “That’s the great thing about hair — it grows.”
