Lady Muck

She's perfection personified but she keeps a superior eye on all the latest beauty products for you, the humble reader.

2013: the year of the crop?

By B.V. on 07 Jan 2013 No comments

It’s New Year which means one thing. Talks of new beginnings, resolutions you’re determined to stick to and how you’re going to be wearing your hair for the foreseeable future.

Besides break-ups, January is prime time for women to undertake a transformation, usually in the form of a new hair do. Maybe it’s because it symbolises the well-established ‘out with the old and in with the new’ ethos or perhaps it’s just because there’s little else to do to get us through the bleakest month of the year.

I, myself, have been considering a jouje up. I'm currently fashioning a mid-length look, but it’s not the first time I’ve been tempted by a shorter, more elfin guise, and the recent pictures of Anne Hathaway’s cropped cut are a welcome addition to my mood board. NB I’m referring to the latest snaps of her at the Les Miserables premiere, not the clippered cut she actually sports in the film.

It’s not just Anne that’s gone pixie cut crazy either. Charlize Theron turned heads when she shaved her head Sinead O' Connor stylee in November (the jury’s still out on that one):

And Miley Cyrus made a statement to fans when she chopped off her American sweetheart style hair in favour of a punky bleached blonde crop complete with undercut:

Pixie Geldof has also plumped for an exceedingly short boyish crop that reminds me of my mother’s hair in the 90s – maybe it’s the nostalgia that sparks my fondness for it.

Then there’s the stalwarts of short hair – Pink, Halle Berry, Emma Watson and who brought short hair to the forefront again post HP era, and my ultimate favourite, Michelle Williams who never wavers into that androgynous territory all too many of us are afraid of. She keeps it feminine, stylish and still manages to make her hair look different every time she’s snapped on the red carpet – something that Anne Hathaway is already giving her a run for her money on.

But how many of us are ballsy enough to let the public see our ears? Yes, when doing sweepstakes amongst peers, the thought that people might see more than an earlobe usually seems to cause most alarm, despite the fact that updos are deemed OK. Bizarre, isn’t it?

And I think that’s the underlying fear. Hair takes a long time to grow and while a fringe we don’t like can be pinned back or a bad hair colour can be reversed, short hair hasn’t got a safety net. It’s why I really do admire these celebs going in for the chop because unlike us, they have nowhere to hide.

Maybe one day they might just spur me on enough to stop talking about it and actually get on and do it!