Childish Hairstyle

Q: When is a hairstyle too childish? I am 29 and I would like to look professional at the office. I also would like to look young, though. Where do you draw the line between looking young and childish?

A: This is an interesting question. I would say that the answer has three components:

1. The length of your hair. Women tend to have shorter hair than teenage girls do. This is because they tend to have the means to visit the salon at a regular basis, thus maintaining their hair regularly and often trying a new style or hair color. Shorter hairstyles also tend to make a woman look younger, and it takes less time to style, blow-dry, straighten or curl each morning before work.

Teenage girls tend to have long hair, mainly because this is the trend or norm in high school and they don’t have the means to visit the salon every month. Parents of teenage girls will usually let their daughters have their hair trimmed or highlighted occasionally, but not regularly, because of the expense and to teach their children the value of money and special privileges.

2. The way you style your hair. If you have long hair, a well-constructed or modern ponytail won’t look childish, but a mature woman wearing pig tails to work most certainly will. If you have long hair, you can opt to blow-dry or curl it in big loose waves. This is a timeless classic hairstyle for women of all ages and won’t ever look childish. It takes time and effort, but ensures that you’ll always look groomed and chic at the office.

You should also opt for subtle highlights or lowlights, or go for the new bronde trend. This incorporates very subtle, almost sun-kissed highlights with a base color that complements your skin tone, giving you a very youthful yet classy hairstyle. Teenagers tend to go for extreme colors due to experimenting and a lack of knowledge, which often has them walking around with overly processed, platinum blonde hair or harsh, pitch black tresses. Mature women opt for more classy and flattering colors that complement their skin tone and hairstyle.

3. Hair accessories can be great when you style your hair for work. But be wary of accessories that may look childish. Overly bright, big, detailed or garishly fake-diamante accessories tend to leer over to the childish side when worn by a more mature or corporate type woman. If you choose to wear hair accessories, keep it very simple and classy.

If you work in a more creative work atmosphere, you’ll have more room to experiment without coming off as childish. Beauty assistants or editors, writers, models, etc. get to play around with more out-there styles and accessories, while corporate types, lawyers, accountants and business employees tend to keep things very toned down.

Teenage girls are the exact opposite. They easily experiment with bold colors, big plastic/metal/material accessories with glaring faux-jewels, and often come off as looking very hip and trendy. This is something that we all had the privilege of experimenting with during our sweet high school phase, but it’s a trend that’s best left in the past once we enter our professional careers. Except when your career entails keeping up with those trends. Then you kind of have a free pass at looking ridiculous.

©Hairfinder.com

See also:

Hairstyles for business women

Matching mother daughter hairstyles

Hairstyles that will make you look younger