help me help others

August 17, 2008 3:52 PM

i'm donating my hair to charity. help me find pictures of beautiful, chic, stylish short haircuts!

my hair is long, shapeless, and lives in a ponytail all the time anyway, so i'm cutting it off and donating it to locks of love, a wonderful charity that makes human-hair wigs for people who have lost their hair due to disease, burns, or chemotherapy.

i used to have a little pixie cut that was great, but it was many, many years ago, and want something more up-to-date. (or are pixies with wispy sideburns still cool? i don't even know.) my hair is generally straight, and the bits that aren't usually obey a styling iron. i'm 31 and work in academia, so i can definitely do something young and exciting, but not totally punk-rock.

can anyone point me to some good pictures of celebrities or randomly photographed people with great short cuts?

(if you have a friend with a great cut, you can mefi mail it to me privately. i won't share it.)

posted by thinkingwoman to clothing, beauty, & fashion (14 answers total)

My wife had these two sites in her bookmarks, which she looked through before deciding on her cut when she gave to LoL a few months ago.
posted by JaredSeth at 4:19 PM on August 17, 2008

Hmm...Katie Holmes had a cute bob, which she shortened recently into something a little wispier.

I also like Victoria Beckham's shorter-in-the-back bob look. Man, only Posh Spice could make a neck tat look good.

Good for you for donating your hair to LOL. I was just at an LOL cut-a-thon and it was a really fun event. The wigs they make are amazing!!!
posted by radioamy at 4:27 PM on August 17, 2008

Meg Ryan looks smokin hot here.
posted by BrnP84 at 5:09 PM on August 17, 2008

Congratulations! I shaved off my hair a few months ago for 'Shave for a Cure' and I'm loving it! The celebrity style that kept my from back-peddling at the last minute was that of Natalie Portman. My hair hasn't been quite as obedient as its grown out but its been an experience nonetheless!
posted by liquorice at 5:40 PM on August 17, 2008

This Japanese site has a bunch of great haircuts (via this thread).
posted by hooray at 6:06 PM on August 17, 2008 [3 favorites]

Before you donate, you may want to read this article about Locks of Love, detailing their actual business practices - last I knew, the hair does not go to chemotherapy patients. Allopecia patients are the main focus, and a lot of the hair is sold, not donated.
posted by canine epigram at 6:27 PM on August 17, 2008

fwiw, a close relative lost their hair due to a disease that was not cancer and needed a wig, so i am perfectly happy for the hair to go to whoever needs it.
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:37 PM on August 17, 2008

Selma Blair's hair here makes me insanely jealous. It's a fairly basic short cut, but I wish I could pull off a look like that.
posted by peep at 7:19 PM on August 17, 2008

Someone has a Flickr account dedicated just to short hair: loveitshort. I stumbled across it when coincidentally doing a Flickr search for the tag "short hair."
posted by DarlingBri at 7:43 PM on August 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

Along with Portman, I've always liked Winona Ryder's short 'dos (1, 2). I'll happily take advantage of any opportunity to extol the beauty of these two women.

Of course, not all women can pull of those looks, but since you say you once sported the pixie look, I'll assume you can. Just watch out for students developing crushes on you if they haven't already.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 8:31 PM on August 17, 2008

I think Agyness Deyn's hair is really cute. It's modern, but it's not too punky. I like the pictures on this page that are about five rows down (Vogue US, March 2007). There are about nine pictures there, and the last one shows the back of her haircut very nicely. It's masculine yet very feminine at the same time. Here are just three (large) pictures to state my case: front, back, more casual (I like how it's parted and not just solid fringe, as her modeling pictures often are).
posted by Mael Oui at 9:58 PM on August 17, 2008

Short pixie style cuts are always a good option. I personally love Mia Farrow in rosemary’s baby! It’s super short but very lovely. And hardly any upkeep/styling needed.
posted by hibery at 8:01 AM on August 18, 2008

canine epigram:

The reason that the wigs don't go to many cancer patients is that their hair usually grows back. LOL's wigs custom-made wigs that suction-fit to the child's bare head.
posted by radioamy at 10:02 AM on August 18, 2008

radioamy, that info is right in the link I posted - which I did specifically because the OP mentioned chemotherapy patients, and that's a persistent myth about LOL.

The link also shows how little of the donated hair actually makes it into wigs and provides some alternative suggestions where the author thinks the donations might make more of a difference.
posted by canine epigram at 7:15 PM on August 18, 2008