Is Your Hair Aging You?
By Didi Gluck
GET THE RIGHT CUT
The right haircut — work with your stylist to find a lightly layered look that falls well around your face and is an appropriate length for your proportions and lifestyle — can do perhaps more than anything to keep you looking your age (or younger). "Take the Rolling Stones, for instance. Their faces have seen better days, but their look is still there thanks to their long hair. If you cut it, you'd age them," says Edward Tricomi, co-owner of the Warren-Tricomi salon in New York City. In other words, if your look works for you, don't mess with it, no matter what society deems appropriate. Of course, the wrong style — for example, hair that is too stiff, puffy, or frumpy — can make you look older. In most cases, you want a neutral, adaptable haircut that gives you options, so steer clear of short, blunt bangs or bobs.
KICK UP THE CONTRAST IN YOUR COLOR
Your hair color can make you look older or younger too, according to Tippi Shorter, a member of the Pantene Relaxed and Natural Academy of Science and Style and also a celebrity stylist whose clients include Sanaa Lathan and Jada Pinkett Smith. "As we age, we lose definition in our face, and hair color can add that back in," says Shorter. If you've gone too blonde in an attempt to cover gray (a common mistake), add in some deeper, caramel lowlights. Conversely, if you're still holding on to that jet-black hue, give it up — a few lighter highlights can be good. The bottom line is contrast.
