from The Guardian

Mistake #1: Ultra-Length

​Many of us have had very long hair at some point— and experienced the trials and tribulations that come with brushing and detangling it daily.

As we age, our hair naturally thins out, Abdullah explains, so having long, one-length fine hair won't emphasize your timeless beauty like a shorter, more layered cut can. 

"As you get older and your hair gets thinner, long hair isn't what it once was, says Abdullah. "It can age you because your once full locks are now less so, and it shows." 

Instead, Abdullah recommends a "lob" style, or a "long bob" to keep as much length as possible if you want it— while importantly not weighing your face down.

"Lobs— bobs that fall in the neck area or above the shoulders— soften angles that come out in your face with age," says Abdullah. "Make sure your stylist adds a little layering to keep your lob from falling flat."

For textured hair, Abdullah says to avoid  "a short haircut that's the same length all around." She notes that "three-inch afros are a thing of the past" and aren't as youthful-looking as other styles could be.

"Grow your hair at least five inches and fade it around the sides and back or put it in a puff at the top of your head," Abdullah says, noting both looks use your curls to hide a thinning crown.

"If you have thinning in the front, but your features are up for it, try a buzz cut," she says. "Buzz cuts are the thing for all hair textures and you can use them to play around with temporary colors and try a new look every month."

#2: Outdated, Rounded Haircuts

​Some haircuts that once ruled the 1980s, like mullets and shags, have come back to the forefront to some degree, but there are others (think rounded, flipped ends) that are more outdated in comparison. 

"Okay, so the mullet came back for a while," says Abdullah, "That doesn't mean you should rush out and get one to feel young again." She adds that doing this could "have the opposite effect," making you look and feel like a "throwback." 

Another "outdated" look to avoid, Abdullah says, are bangs that are cut straight across with round volume. "This is another outdated trend that will put too much emphasis wherever the bangs lay," adds Abdullah. "In addition, the rounded poof look just belongs somewhere in the 80s." 

Instead, Abdullah suggests going for fringe styles cut in short, angular snips. "Give them more volume and thickness by pulling more hair in from the center of your head, if it's possible," she adds. 

One quick tip before heading the salon, Abdullah says, is to "try one of the many hair makeover apps available on mobile devices." These can help you get the perfect on-trend cut, style and color that suits you, Abdullah says. "Just show the stylist the picture of your new look when you're ready."

#3: Super Short Bangs 

Bangs are timeless, versatile and work with any hair color and texture. There's a reason why they'll forever be the go-to, stylish cut for many people. Bang trends also vary— from curtain to parted to micro fringe.

If you wish to create an anti-aging effect with your hair style, Abdullah says to avoid micro, baby or mini bangs. "Wherever your bangs fall, that is the feature they will emphasize the most," says Abdullah.

"You don't want short bangs that fall right in the middle of your forehead where you might have a few lines," Abdullah continues. Instead, she recommends bringing your bangs down to your eyebrows "to emphasize your eyes." instead.

She also adds that curtain bangs, or longer fringe parted down the middle of your head, can be "romantic" and youthful as well. 

#4: Layerless Bobs

​If you want to create movement and volume with your haircut, a one-length style will not have that effect. Layers that frame your face have the power to highlight your facial features while also adding the look of more hair if it's thinning and aging. 

"Layers can do so much to hide thinning hair," Abdullah says. She notes that women who want to look younger should avoid one specific type of one-length hairstyle— a short cut that's "the same length all over and barrel-curled close to the scalp." 

To prevent this cut, Abdullah advises to bring your stylist pictures of pixie cuts "where some of the hair is cut shorter than other parts and swirled to cover thinning." She adds that this looks "fantastic at any age." 

So, if you're heading to the salon any time soon and want to go out with the old hairstyle and in with the new, you now have trendy pointers to try and a list of ones to avoid.

The main factors to look out for when wanting your hair to look more youthful is adding layers to create movement and volume, having eyebrow length fringe if you do want bangs, avoiding too-long styles and being receptive to change!

Aging hair is still beautiful at every stage, and you know yourself and what style makes you feel the best more than anyone else. 

It’s been a hairy year in more ways than one. Australia has seen influencers growing mustaches, civilians mimicking Chris Hemsworth’s lockdown beard and various other bizarre grooming trends as a result of all the extra time we’ve now got at home.

Reaching fever pitch, Matt Damon this week shocked American fans by stepping out with a ‘dirty’ Australian haircut last popular in Europe and America in the middle ages. Suffice to say, we thought the world of male grooming couldn’t get any crazier.

How wrong we were… enter the skullet.

Taking the cake for the most ‘confronting’ quiff this year is ‘the dusty’ (also known as ‘the skullet’). What’s that, you might ask? A haircut that looks like an elbow (essentially, a version of the mullet, but with the top either fully shaved or extra short).

Rocked two years ago by Richemond Midfielder/Forward Dustin Martin, ‘the dusty’ is now sweeping the country (as are mullets more generally, inspired by icons like professional surfer Mikey Wright), proving once again how long it takes for a bold new look to filter down to the mainstream after initially being laughed at.
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It’s not just Gold Coast groms and aspiring AFL players getting in on the action either, with DMARGE this week capturing a couple of young kings rocking ‘the dusty’ whilst ambling around south Sydney.

Though the snobs might recoil at such a cut, others – like Sydney barbershop owner Jacob Martin (proprietor of Tate & Lyle) say it could be evidence that Australian men are paying more attention to their mental health, with the ‘mullets for mental health’ month having just come to a conclusion.

As for the ‘finer’ details of the skullet cut itself, Mr. Martin said, “AFL players seem to treat dirtiness like a trophy… [but] at least the mullet section has straight lines.”

In regards to rocking this look for yourself: “the dirtier the skullet, the better.”

We didn’t stop there. Adam Walmsley, the owner from an inner Sydney salon, Friends & Family, was equally as perplexed by this ongoing trend.

“I’m not sure myself….is it part of the skullet family?”, Adam commented. Turns out Adam was the winner with the ‘skullet’ being the most logical answer.
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Wikipedia confirms this is the case, explaining the “skullet (plural skullets)” is “a more extreme form of the mullet hairstyle, in which the hair at the back is kept long, whilst the hair on the top and the sides is shaven in a buzzcut or skinhead style.”

Even if it may be intrinsically associated with having ‘a rude head’, we’d argue men should be able to snipper their skulls however they want, and not obsess about what others think. Indeed, half the ‘cool’ factor of a new haircut trend (whether its a Faux Viking Hipster Undercut or a Peaky Blinders Special) is in its rarity.
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Only problem is the ‘skullett’ movement is ‘growing’ so fast it may soon lose its shock value…

A new study shows that the price for a basic salon haircut varies widely from country to country, and in some countries there's a huge gap in price between men's cuts and women's cuts. The United States came in at an average of $95 for a woman's haircut and $44 for a men's haircut.* Just north in Canada, the price drops to $34 for women and $24 for men, and across the pond in England it's $57 for women and $28 for men.

* Keep in mind that, because the data was gathered at each country's capital, the US average reflects prices in Washington, DC, not the national average. ​

Everyone in the world faced the same tough question during endless months of coronavirus lockdown: grow your hair or let your mom cut it?

But now, hairdressers are re-opening, and so are bars, theatres and wedding venues. The Salon de Mom literally won’t cut it anymore. It’s time to get a proper haircut.

The problem is that money is tight right now for most of us. And a proper haircut tends to be a payday treat. Can you afford to give a little dignity back to your ‘Barnet’?
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It depends where you live. NetCredit researched the price of women’s and men’s haircuts in every country around the world, and we found that the disparity between countries and genders is massive. Read on to find the places where getting a haircut is a snip.

​Argentina is Home to the World’s Cheapest Haircuts
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​Scandinavians are famed for their golden locks, and the price of a haircut in this northern European region also glitters. Averaged across genders, four of the top ten most expensive haircuts are in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland). Other big economic powers also feature, including the UK.

At the cheap end of the scale, you’ll find a cut-rate cut in South America, Africa, parts of Asia, and eastern Europe. Argentina is the cheapest overall. Nigeria is sixth-cheapest overall, but it would be different if it weren’t for the 634% disparity between women’s and men’s cuts: a trim costs $13.43 for a Nigerian woman but just $1.83 for a man.

A Man’s Haircut in Norway is the World’s Most Expensive

Think Vikings had messy, unkempt hair? Wrong. The steep price of a man’s haircut in Scandinavian countries today reflects a long tradition of Scandi men taking their grooming seriously. A man’s cut in Norway costs $64.50 today, the most expensive men’s cut in the world. Norway also has the narrowest price gap between genders out of the top 20 men’s cuts: a woman’s cut costs ‘just’ 20% more, at $77.72.

We found nine countries where the five-buck cut (or less) is still the norm for men. The cheapest three are African countries (Zambia, Mozambique, and Nigeria). In Taiwan, a man’s cut costs $2.23 more than a woman’s – but it might just save your life. At the height of the pandemic, one Taiwanese mom paid for a “do not dare to go outside” hairdo for her 15yo son: a haircut so bad that he wouldn’t dare leave the house to see his friends.

The World’s Cheapest Women’s Haircut is in Bosnia – and it’s Cheaper than Men’s
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A different Scandi country tops the table for expensive women’s haircuts: Denmark is the only country in the world where a haircut costs more than $100. However, the US and UK aren’t far behind, at $95.00 and $94.71 respectively. The Danish Board of Equal Treatment ordered individual salons to reduce the gender price disparity in 2013, but courts later ruled that it was okay to have different prices. Today, the average women’s cut in Denmark costs 112% more than the men’s.

All in, Bosnia and Herzegovina may be the fairest place for a woman to get a haircut. Bosnia has the cheapest women’s haircut in the world ($6.20) and a disparity of just 8% – a man’s haircut costs around 47¢ more. Sarajevo, where we took our data, is lined with hairdressers, and the competition keeps prices down. But grooming remains a point of pride for citizens, who even maintained standards during the longest military siege in modern history – to the extent of holding a “Miss Besieged Sarajevo” contest.

Why (and Where) Does a Woman’s Haircut Cost More?

Men pay more for a cut in just 11 of the 102 countries with available data. The biggest gaps are in Africa and parts of Latin America, although Paraguay has the second-lowest disparity. Fairest of all is the microstate of Andorra in southwestern Europe. Andorran men pay more than women, as is the case in eight of the ten fairest countries.

But why does a man’s cut usually cost less? “[I]t doesn’t take as long to cut their hair, but also they’re in the salon more regularly,” explains celebrity hairdresser Adam Reed. “And there’s less time taken and fewer products used on the finish – for a man it’s four to five minutes, whereas women’s blow-dries can take a long time.”
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Still, others are aiming for parity: “We allow exactly the same amount of time for an appointment whether it’s for a man or a woman,” says Covent Garden hairdresser Neil Moodie. “It has been a slow process, trying to convince men that they should pay the same as women, but this was mainly due to the cheapness of going to a barber back in the day versus going to a women’s hairdressing salon.”

Our prices are averaged, so it’s always possible to find a cheaper cut in your area. If you’re time-rich and money-poor, you can always snag yourself a cheap training session with an apprentice hairdresser. And if you can’t afford to make it back to the salon, why not take inspiration from these unlikely quarantine self-haircut wins?

METHODOLOGY & SOURCES

​We sourced the price of a basic haircut (no beard trim or wash) for both genders in 102 capital cities. If prices were not advertised on the internet, our research team emailed and called businesses for a quote.

We are all dealing with the gradual return to the pre-Covid normal in different ways. Some are still cautious and are coming out of their shells slowly, and others instead need to make a clean break. Hair, which is always an expression of our mood, is no exception: there are those who got used to long hair during the lockdowns, but others can’t weight to get a haircut. And in this case the paper cut bob is one of the most popular looks to come down the pipeline.
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Also because the bob is so versatile that it can meet everyone’s needs chin-length bob, to the long bob, or lob, from the fringed bob to the French style, the biggest trend for Summer 2021. But there is also another cut that seems made to measure for those seeking a big post-pandemic change: the paper cut bob, with a perimeter cut done with an extremely precise razor. Beyond its elegant and impeccable effect, the paper cut bob offers the advantage of eliminating ends that have been damaged by failed experiments and creating the volume of a thick head of hair, even for those with thin hair.

Edged-out Bob
One great example can be found in this Urbane Collection by the Texpert Collective where color and cut are a perfect combination for this look.

Classic Bob
Rigorous lines, natural color, tone-on-tone highlights for this classic bob that is perfectly representative of this cut.

Pink paper cut Bob
If you prefer to add extra oomph to a classic look, this cut is perfect for some crazy color… Pink, for example, would be perfect.

​Gradient hair color
Always related to crazy color, but a slightly different interpretation, using coloring to create contrasting stripes.

A famous example
The paper cut bob is super popular with celebs. Whether hair is dark or light, or even with a natural color – it becomes a stand-out, eye-catching look.