Short Vintage Hair Trend Style Ideas

Are you considering cutting your hair short? Did you recently cut your hair short wanting a major change and now you are left wondering, “Now how do I style this and not age myself or make myself look older that I’d like to look?”

There has been a trend lately of retro girls going short. I have certainly done it more than once. I think it looks really fresh and with the right style, you can be a chic 1950s supermodel or a cool 1960s beatnik.

You can wear short vintage hair without that dreaded “middle-aged” feeling. Here is my vintage short hairstyling advice broken down into 3 style categories.

• Vintage messy
• Full above, Compact on the sides
• Look like you are not trying (even though you are)

1. Vintage Messy with Relaxed Curl Short Hair

My best way to describe this is…imagine you have a day old hair set that is losing it’s tight curl and then you run some pomade through it to break it apart. Does that make sense?

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Elizabeth Taylor was a master at this look of messy short curls. she always looked like the wind had just kissed her hair.

Brushing your curls to perfect smoothness is why it transitions to that older feeling you are trying to avoid. Chaos in the curl keeps it fresher. A little frizz is a good thing.

And let curls go in some random different directions instead of trying to get that perfect directional wave.

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2. Full above, Sleek on the sides (Check your silhouette)

When I teach vintage hair, I go on and on about silhouette. Silhouette is the 2 dimensional outer line of the hairstyle. To keep a short hairstyle youthful, avoid the uniform, round helmet silhouette.

I go for height above the forehead and keep the side of the hairstyle sleek against the side of the head.

In this YouTube video, I show one technique I use for this shape when I am giving my short hair a curling iron curl. The key is minimizing the volume above your ears. You don’t want the widest part of your head to have too much volume.

It’s the key difference between looking like Marilyn Monroe or like you’re wearing a bubble on your head.

And this is not meant to throw any shade at Stella Stevens. She pulled off this hairstyle beautifully. But it isn’t always the most flattering silhouette when the hair at the sides of your head have this much volume.

If you find that you got a little out of hand and you have too much volume on the sides and you are looking a little helmet head, get some pomade on your fingers and just starting combing the side with your fingers downward or backward or forward or a little of both on either side to get it under control.

The ad below for Lovely Lady Magnetic Rollers gives you the same idea. I know it is moving pretty fast, but if you look at the sides of the model’s head when she is wearing the rollers, you will see that at her temple and ear level, I didn’t set that hair in rollers. I pin curled the hair instead.

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3. Look like you are not trying (even though you are)

In this short hairstyle design idea, put the curlers away. Grab your round brush. You still want bend in the hair strands. You do not want the spiky ends of a straight iron. THAT’S NOT VINTAGE. Vintage always had bend in the hair.

After you are are all round brush blowdried, run some pomade through it to give it windblown chaos and spray in place.

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