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Hairstyles That Make You Look Younger

Hairstyles that make you look younger add lift, movement and softness around the face: face-framing layers, curtain or side-swept bangs, a lob or bob with soft waves, volume at the crown, and for men a textured crop or short, tidy cut. Flat, heavy, very long hair, harsh one-tone colour and dated shapes add years. Healthy, shiny hair looks younger than any particular cut.

Wendy WeiSeptember 23, 2026 · 3 min read
Vintage chrome hair dryer on a red background
Image: Dinkun Chen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

What Makes Hair Look Younger

Young hair is usually thick, shiny and full of movement, and young faces have more volume in the cheeks. So hairstyles that look younger recreate those things: lift at the roots, movement through layers or waves, shine, and softness around the face that draws the eye up to the cheekbones and eyes.

Face-Framing Layers

Layers that start around the cheekbones lift the face visually and soften lines. They work at any length.

Read more: What Makes You Look Older (and What Takes Years Off)

Curtain or Side-Swept Bangs

A soft fringe hides forehead lines and draws attention to the eyes. Curtain bangs are the easiest to grow out. See curtain bangs for every face shape.

A Lob or Bob With Movement

A collarbone-length lob or a soft bob with waves looks fresh and makes thinner hair look fuller. Very long, heavy hair can drag the face down.

Read more: Hairstyles for Women Over 50: Cuts by Face Shape

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Volume at the Crown

Flat hair on top ages the face. A little lift at the crown, from a blow-dry or texture spray, lifts the whole look.

For Men: Short, Textured and Tidy

A textured crop or a short, messy quiff looks younger than a stiff, combed side part. Keep the sides neat and trim every few weeks. Grey can look youthful when it's short and sharp.

Hair Habits That Add Years

Dull, dry or frizzy hair; flat, scraped-back styles; a cut that hasn't changed in ten years; and very dark, solid, single-tone colour, which can look harsh against softer skin. Soft dimension, such as subtle highlights, usually looks younger than a block of colour.

For the bigger picture, see what makes you look older. The free face scan in Ollie Stylist ranks cuts for your face shape, and Ollie Pro shows them on your own photo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What hairstyle makes you look younger?

Styles with lift, movement and softness around the face: face-framing layers, soft bangs, a lob or bob with waves and volume at the crown.

Does short hair make you look younger?

It can, if it has texture and lift. A flat or stiff short cut can look older than a soft, layered medium-length cut.

What haircut makes men look younger?

A short, textured cut, such as a textured crop or a messy quiff, kept neat with regular trims.

Try it yourself

Find what suits you with Ollie Stylist

Scan your face for haircuts that suit its shape and dress a realistic model in real clothes. Free, and the face scan runs in your browser.

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About the author

Wendy WeiWrites for Ollie Stylist, a free AI stylist

The Ollie team wrote and trained Ollie's own face-recognition model from scratch, and writes these guides to explain how face matching works in plain English. Questions or corrections are welcome on the contact page, and the FAQ covers how Ollie works and what happens to your photo.

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