It has always been the case that one person’s flattering haircut can be unflattering on someone else. This can be due to a variety of reasons that include someone’s face shape and hair type simply not being an ideal fit for that particular hairstyle. But when you have mature hair that is experiencing thinning, it can feel like even more haircuts are out of your reach. You may be struggling to figure out which cuts make it look like your hair is thicker, healthier, and more youthful. Meanwhile, the cut you’ve been getting for years suddenly looks like it should belong on someone else. It’s not your stylist’s fault, necessarily, or the fault of the haircut: whether it relies on too many layers or not enough layers; too much length or the wrong shape — the cut isn’t making the most of your hair at its current stage.
Women who have bald spots and a receding hairline will likely not find the beautiful hair they’re searching for in these four haircuts that are unflattering to thin hair. But don’t worry: we also included two haircuts that are incredibly flattering.
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1. Avoid: Long, Straight Hair With a Middle Part
Perhaps one of the worst hairstyles for anyone with shedding hair, bald spots, and a receding hairline, hair that is long, straight and features a middle part throws a spotlight on all of your hair concerns. It can lack body, its length can mean dealing with straggly ends, and a middle part showcases an area of the scalp that is known for revealing signs of shedding the soonest.
2. Avoid: Butterfly Haircut
The butterfly haircut is a style that combines long and short layers on (typically) longer hair to create a shaggy shape. The effect can be glam, but without enough hair to create this layering technique, it can make your strands appear thinner.
3. Avoid: Heavy Bangs
Heavy bangs that are cut thick and blunt along the ends is a fun retro look that requires enough hair at the crown to spare. But if you have a receding hairline, it may be better to work with your stylist and create lighter bangs or even curtain bangs that will conceal sparseness without borrowing too much of your hair to achieve this level of thickness in front.
4. Avoid: Tight Hairstyles
Repeatedly wearing your hair in tight updos and braids pulls and tugs at hair follicles, and this can lead to more shedding and breakage. Not to mention: the tightness of the style can show areas of sparseness at your scalp that you might be trying to conceal.
1. Try: Shoulder-Length Hair With Waves
The shoulder-length haircut allows you to keep some of your length, if that’s a dealbreaker for you, without compromising on volume. It eliminates straggly ends that would be visible with long hair, as well. Add heatless waves (or allow your own natural hair texture to shine through by putting down the blow dryer and picking up a diffuser and curl cream). Waves and curls plump up strands so that they look thicker.
2. Try: Blunt Ends
Layering is not a styling technique that’s about to go away anytime soon. But if you have fine or thinning hair, keeping the ends blunt gives your overall hairstyle a thicker appearance. You can still add longer layers or ghost layers (invisible layers) to your hair for volume and movement, but ending with a blubt shape is more flattering than a V-shape or scattered layers at the ends of your hair, which give your style a more wispy look.
