Looking for advice

Okay, people, I have an appointment for a haircut tomorrow, and I'm looking for inspiration.

My hair is kind of thick (and prone to bulking up around my neck/shoulders, which it's kind of doing now). It's got a kind of s-wave too it, but basically it's too close to wavy to be completely straight and not nearly wavy enough to be properly wavy/curly. It's about shoulder length right now. I don't currently have bangs, although the bits of hair that were once bangs are a little shorter than the rest and tend to fall in my face a lot (kind of annoys me, can you tell?). I can't decide if I want bangs again or not; I'm not opposed in principle, though I'd go with some relatively long/light ones if I did.

Basically I'm kind of sick of my hair just falling without much of a shape or style to it, and am inclined to cut off a bunch of it, perhaps with layers. However, it probably needs to be above the chin or below (at the chin looks awful on me).

What I'm really wondering is: what are the cool/cute haircuts these days? I'm out of the loop on this. Conversely, what are the really awful things to avoid? Anyone have any suggestions?

Comments

[Janice]

Don't ask me for hairstyling how-tos since I've been pretty severely "practical" with my style ever since I lopped off 14" in my last donation. Hair's going grey so it can't be donated anymore, anyway.

Still, I'll put in a plug for some of the tools and articles at the website where I used to be a community producer: iVillage Spring Celebrity Hair How-to.

[Susan]

Hmmm....cool/cute haircuts would be nothing like mine (thick straight hair that I cut every 6-9 months; it ranges from chin to mid-bicep length depending on how long I go between cuts). I hope you get the advice you're looking for (I'll be curious to see what it is!)

[Another Damned Medievalist]

I really liked the way it was cut when I met you in 2006...

[Rana]

My hair's got the wave problem you describe, but it's fine and wispy rather than thick. You might try a short angled bob - and ask the stylist to thin the layers underneath so that it lies flatter than it would otherwise.

[Jenny]

I'm sure it will look great no matter what you decide, I let my hair grow long when I started law school last year so all I had to do was clip it up. My hair has absolutely no style right now . . .

[ianqui]

I have no advice, but I do want to say that you described my own hair perfectly, so I'll be interested to see if you get any suggestions.

[Krazy Kitty]

Same as Rana, I have the S wave that's neither wavy nor straight, and the fine and wispy hair (except that I call it wimpy), and the first thing that came to mind is an angled bob. Probably because I have such a hard time getting it done the way I want it (I've been trying for over a year now... got it right once... and it was destroyed by the inability of the hairdresser here to keep the shape of the cut when shortening it. I'm going to give it another try next week or maybe the following one. This time I'm bringing prints of pictures from the all-powerful Internets, of women who seem to have a type of hair similar to mine.

[Disability Insurance]

Great blog post. I didn't see this one coming, and quite honestly, you want me no where near hair advice, but a pic to accompany your request may have been helpful!

[smidgewidgen (formerly shrinkykitten)]

this is the haircut I plan to get: http://www.jcrew.com/index.jsp

another shot - go to: http://www.jcrew.com/AST/Navigation/whosthatgirl.jsp then choose Molly Carey

[Kate]

Ooh! It sounds like we have identical hair. One haircut I have loved in the past is short in the back (and layered pretty high up) and longer in the front, so that the hair in the front is just below my chin. Then my hair is short enough -- and therefore light enough -- to give it a bit more curl, but also can easily be blown straight.

Of course, right now I'm growing it back out, which means I have lots of heavy, kinda wavy hair at my shoulders. But if I keep letting it grow out and cut a lot of the bulk out of the bottom that will also resolve the big hair situation.

[Ayelet]

I usually just read, but hair is *important*. You might want to see a curl-certified person. My hair is properly curly, and I almost despaired of it until my husband got me a curly consultation one year. It's life-changing! Often times girls with wavy hair just short of curly actually have a lot more curl to them than you'd think, but too much product/styling/whatever weighs in down. A curl-certified person will also be v. good at dealing with bulky hair (the bane of curls). Mine is currently somewhere between chin and shoulder length, but a good cut means you can keep it at whatever length you like. The thing to look for is either the Devachan technique or to ask if they specialize in curls -- if they do, they will, among other things, cut your hair dry. Anyway, sorry to go on and on. Good luck!

[WW]

I would avoid a bang as it gets closer to summer. The humidity tends to make them look scraggly on some people during summer months. An asymmetrical bob sounds like fun. Good luck!

[af]

I always go with the Lucy Liu look (I checked out the iVillage site mentioned above). Just be sure that you do not get an aspirational haircut, by which I mean a haircut that requires even five minutes of styling to look decent, if you cannot fully commit to styling. That's sometimes the problem with cool short haircuts.

Better boring but acceptable 100 percent of the time than great 10 percent of the time and otherwise awful. (I'm so boring! But I know myself.)