While there are plenty of summer styles to try that can give a youthful and radiant look, there are others that experts recommend avoiding when making your next salon appointment. The best anti-aging hairstyles frame your face and highlight your best features, such as your eyes, cheekbones, jawline, etc. Others, that might overpower your bone structure or draw more attention to wrinkles, can often be shorter cuts. With that said, we checked in with professional hair stylists and hair experts for 3 hairstyles to avoid over 40 this summer and why. Read on for tips and suggestions from Dani Everson, professional hair stylist and owner of Clementine’s Salon and Ghanima Abdullah, hair expert and cosmetologist at The Right Hairstyles.
1. Short Bob With Blunt Bangs
While this look is certainly timeless and can flatter various face shapes, Abdullah explains that it can also inadvertently make you look older if cut too thick and without layers. "Thick, blunt bangs that come past the eyebrows on a blunt bob can emphasize every sign of age in the face, as they don't frame the face well. Rather, they push all the attention to the eyes, with all their lines," she warns.
While she acknowledges that this style is often "seen as a very classic chic look," it also "really makes you look older." That's because, she says, the bob and bang combo "emphasizes the eye area, which might not look dewy." Then, it "also emphasizes the jaw area, an area that many of us struggle with as we age," she adds. To avoid this effect, Abdullah recommends adding curtain bangs to your bob, as this open, parted fringe style "flatters just about any face at any age." They "neatly frame the face while drawing attention away from serious aging signs," she suggests.
2. Middle-Parted Bob or Lob
Middle-parts can create a symmetrical look at any age, but Abdullah stresses that they can also draw more attention to forehead wrinkles and make your tresses look flatter. "A bob with a center part might have been your go-to hairstyle before, but maybe your part seems to be getting wider and wider," Abdullah acknowledges, as thinning in the crown area is common as many age.
"If you're thinning in the crown of your head, a center part is going to draw attention to it. This is because you're putting the part right in the same area," she says. To avoid this, Abdullah recommends a side part for more volume and a youthful energy. "Try a side part instead. In this manner, you can move the hair from one side to the other, as you wish," she notes.
"The added hair going over will increase volume in the area as well, especially if your hair is used to being parted down the center." If you really prefer a center part, she suggests making "a short one instead, so that the hair in front goes to either side of your face." Then, she adds, the hair in the center can be brushed back. "Any difference that you create when your hair is used to lying flat and completely to the sides will create volume and make a big difference," she says.
2. Bob With Baby/ Micro Bangs
While super-short bangs might be trendy among alternative and younger crowds, this trendy style could draw attention to one's wrinkles a lot more than others, Everson explains. "Too short of bangs can overshare someone's wrinkle story," she says. "The right length of bangs can help make someone's appearance youthful, but too short borders the line between baby-ish and also aging."
Instead, Everson recommends going for longer bangs (like curtain bangs) that can be parted and styled to frame your face more. "I love bangs and think everyone has their own special length that enhances their features," she says, "no two bangs are the same." If you are looking to get bangs, she suggests opting for a "longer" style instead of micro or baby fringe that will "help hide forehead wrinkles."
