Short hair offers a perfect fit for the West Coast casual style: in control at the office, mussed up for a club, always with an eye for what’s practical.
In Victoria, it’s a style Lauren Beedle of Fish Hair Salon characterized as “confident and casual, but still well put together.”
Hair stylists in Victoria report customers are chopping their locks. Maybe they are inspired by red-carpet Hollywood stars Lupita Nyang’o, Jennifer Lawrence and Charlize Theron, who have all recently opted for short cuts.
But Donna Dyer, owner of Fish Hair Salon, 1227 Broad St., said it’s been a long, grey winter and she believes people are just ready for a change. Short hair shows a new confidence, a certain ease and, surprisingly, it increases a wearer’s choice of style.
“A lot of people think when you have longer hair you can do so much more with it,” said Dyer. “But in reality, a lot of women don’t.”
“When you have short hair you can actually do quite a lot,” she said. “You can style it smooth, you can style it really edgy, you can style it bigger or really curly.”
“You can get a lot of different looks with a short hair cut,” Dyer added.
She and others also said hair styles have been relatively long for the past several years. And in the last few years many women have opted for an edgy, asymmetrical look, longer on one side, shorter, even shaved on the other.
So, those looking to change can even up their hair lengths by adopting shorter styles, a short bob cut, a pixie style looking new or grown out or even a short hair style with an undercut or some layers.
Alisa Shebib, a stylist at Fish, said she believes a short haircut can take a woman’ fashion to a whole new level. It draws attention to a woman’s face, giving her a chance to show off the eyes, give a lift to her cheek bones or accentuate a nicely shaped neck.
Even an outfit gets a more high-fashion kick with a short hair cut.
“It can just look more fashionable to have an edgier, short hair cut,” Shebib said. “I think it’s braver to have short hair.”
“It shows confidence,” she said. “A lot of people sheathe themselves in their hair.”
“If you have short hair, you have nothing to hide anymore,” said Shebib.
She also played up the versatility of short styles. For those who like to play with the colour of their hair, for example, a short cut can be a lifesaver, for the hair, if not necessarily the wearer.
Shebib pointed out hairs on the head of a woman whose length extends past her shoulders are going to be several years old, at least those sections near the ends. Those long hairs will have been washed, dried and brushed hundreds of times. So, damage has to be a consideration when changing colours — a process that can stress the hair.
But for someone with a short haircut, the hairs are younger and can withstand the effects of colours and bleaches. And if all else fails, it’s only a short time before the coloured segments can be cut out entirely.
“For people who love to change their hair colour, short hair can be a huge benefit,” Shebib said. “You can shift it and have a completely different look form day to day.”
Jane Constable, stylist and owner of Studio 7, 913 Gordon St., said there has also been a buzz in colours and length known as “wet bobs” or “WOBs” or “wobbish” cuts.
Beyoncé recently made it a talked-about look at the Grammy Awards, right down to the dark-looking roots on bleached-blond hair.
“That’s really West Coast, chic but shabby,” Constable said. “It’s the students’ dream colour because it means you don’t have to have it done more than once a year, if you are desperate.”
She also said short hair makes it easy to add a wave, using a heated wand —made by removing the handle part from a curling iron.
“Just by throwing a couple of beach-y waves into your hair you can get that West-Coast-casual look,” she said. “It’s like you didn’t really try but it still looks like you’ve done something.”
However, stylists Constable and Dyer also said long hair will never completely disappear.
“There will always be women with beautiful long hair,” said Dyer.
Constable said the coming trend, especially from Europe, is to go with old Hollywood classic styles, big curls and big heads of lovely hair, like Rita Hayworth.
“Things are going starting to become a little more polished, a little less like you don’t care, like you took the time to add a little shine and finish to your hair,” she said.