The Best Female Haircuts of All Time

by pewpewpew
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December 02, 2008

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Here are some of the haircuts that have defined the way we look at hair. These haircuts might not look good on everyone, and some of them only look good on about 2 people in the entire world, but they are the haircuts that have landed a place for themselves in pop culture that will never, ever go away, no matter how much you want them to, like that pageboy haircut your mom gave you in the 4th grade when everyone made fun of you for having a mushroom head.

Louise Brooks

Louise Brooks, a silent movie actress, kept an iconic bob that has been inspiring people ever since the 1920s. Case in point? Anna Wintour of Vogue USA has kept a modern day version of this banged and bobbed look for the last thirty years. Louise’s bob will never lose its timeless appeal. This cut looks beautiful on women with heart shaped faces like Louise, who has the appearance of a Victorian Valentine.

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The Afro

Really, I can’t think of a haircut I’d rather have more than an Afro, but I don’t have the proper hair type and it kills me. This haircut is so amazing. It looks good on every face and body type, it’s so funky and cool, and it can turn any outfit from drab to BAM in about 10 nanoseconds. I am so jealous of Pam Grier, Diana Ross, and young Michael Jackson.

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Edie Sedgwick

If you’re as beautiful as Edie Sedgwick, you can have any haircut in the world and still look amazing. Somehow, she makes her short silver blonde haircut look like the most flattering thing ever, though on any other woman it’d just turn them into a man. Edie doesn’t need to distract people with her hair. Her face and impeccable style speak for themselves. Appropriately, this hair is relatively no nonsense: the ultimate party girl pixie cut that looked amazing even when you just roll out of bed hungover. Best worn with globs of crazy eyemakeup, extremely expensive clothes, and costume jewelry bigger than your head.

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Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot invented bed head, and thank God for that. Bed head looks good on everyone. Who doesn’t look sexy with hair that says, “I just had a good romp in the hay”? Combined with her tough girl attitude, those amazing lips, and her hourglass figure, Brigitte Bardot was one of the original sex symbols: Europe’s answer to Marilyn Monroe. This haircut will never, ever go out of style.

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Tina Turner

Wig? Hair? Partially wig, partially hair? Who cares if this is her real hair or not. It’s amazing and beautiful and perfectly matches her skin and her cardigan. I love the invincible Tina Turner, and it’s a revelation watching her on stage, microphone in hand, belting out tunes and dancing around with that hair flopping all over the place. Genius.

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Mary Quant

Mary Quant, a 60s era designer who is credited with creating the miniskirt, has the coolest most modern haircut ever. This haircut was so progressive for the 60s. I can’t even see people being brave enough to carry this off now. It’s so edgy and architectural. How perfect, to have such structured hair when clothes were so structured as well. Even the makeup is architectural, with strong lines and bold shapes and patterns for the eyes. Truly original.

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The Rachel

This haircut is so so so annoying but it became a phenomenon and I feel pressured to include it. As horrible and Jersey trash as this look has become, for a while between 1997 and 1999 it was the number one most requested hair for women in the suburbs of America, and they deserve a spot on this list even if their hair screams Mid-Atlantic scum.

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Nico

So, Nico was a hardcore badass, duh. This Scandinavian beauty who was tall and thin and reminds me of a Viking, looks so lovely with her modern, minimalist Scandinavian haircut. Plus she sang for the Velvet Underground, and anyone who is that pretty and that cool deserves a place on this list. Nico was the original. Women like Kate Moss and Kirsten Dunst still have Nico hair, 30 years after the fact.

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Sinead O'Connor

I remember back when this one ripped up a picture of the Pope during SNL and then her career went down the tubes forever. Can you believe it? Nowadays, no one would even bat an eye. It’s like when Ellen came out of the closet and then lost her show because people were freaked out that she was a lesbian. Then everyone forgot about the controversy and she became popular again. It’s like how Sinead used to be that evil woman with the bald head, and now she’s Sinead O’Connor, pop culture icon, political activist, and all around superstar, whose face is so beautiful she can get away with wearing no hair at all and still being sexy as all hell.

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Angela Chase in My So-Called Life

I have had a girlcrush on this haircut for as long as I can remember. I was always like, “Oh my God, Angela has such amazing hair, and she’s only 14 on the show. What kind of 14-year old knows how to get up early every morning before school and take a shower and then blow-dry all the ends of her hair under, just so perfectly, before making it to class at 8 AM?” Like seriously, how beautiful is this hair. So red, so straight, so well maintained. Angela Chase was so inspiring to me in those days of the early 90s. Why didn’t MSCL have more than one season???? Biggest travesty ever.

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The Pageboy

Nothing says late 50s and early 60s kitsch like the pageboy. This haircut is at once ridiculous and incredibly cool. So called “page boy” because it resembles the hair of an English page boy of the Medieval Era, I have no idea how it became so popular in the middle part of the 20th century, but it’s definitely cemented itself into our popular consciousness with vicious tenacity. If you have straight hair and an oval face, a page boy might actually look cool on you. Make it ironic. Make it work!

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Marilyn Monroe

Where would Marilyn Monroe be without her beautiful windswept mop of blonde curls? She’s still be Norma Jean in podunk middle-of-nowhere, and she for sure wouldn’t have been singing any “Happy Birthday” to any President without the gorgeousness and platinumness that is her hair. This hair works on Marilyn because she has a narrow face that doesn’t require any hair “framing.” Because she has a weak chin, the volume on the crown of this cut draws attention to the upper half of her face.

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The Cleopatra

What woman hasn’t, at some point, wanted a Cleopatra haircut? Cleo was definitely a whole lotta woman with mojo to spare, and she got Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, despite having a plain face and a big nose. How do we explain this? It was totally the hair. Check out the movie Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor. Those amazing wigs, dripping with gold jewelry, are the only good thing about the entire movie. Note: The Cleopatra should be avoided if you have a square jaw, because it will make your face look squat and heavy. It shortens the face with forehead-covering bangs.

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Clara Bow

I really, really love Clara Bow. She was my favorite of all the silent movie stars, and I can’t think of a cuter name for any one to have than “Clara Bow.” And the hair!!! Short, huge, poofy hair that still somehow manages to look totally sexy? How is this possible? Watch the movie “It Girl” and I challenge you to ever take your eyes off the amazingness that is Clara Bow’s hair. Not possible. Something about this hair just makes me want to put on my spectator pumps, a drop waist dress, and go dance to hot jazz over cold cold gin.

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Mia Farrow

I love movies where people get their hair cut during the movie, and then it’s the hottest hair cut ever, and the actress continues to wear that hair even when the movie comes out and they are no longer required to stay in character. Like how Natalie Portman shaved her head for V for Vendetta, then kept a shaved head for a while. The ultimate example of movie hair turned into iconic actress hair is that of Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby. Vidal Sassoon created this amazing look for her, and she just looks so delicate and beautiful with it. She has such fine-boned features that a boy crop only brings them out even more. Stunning.

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Blondie

Debbie Harry’s gorgeous blond mop is absolutely the best thing about the band Blondie. How perfect to be called Blondie and have an angel like Debbie Harry be the front woman, with hair that is both punk rock and totally pretty as well. She is fieeeerce. Punky hair looks beautiful on women with wide baby faces like Debbie Harry, because it creates a nice contrast between angelic features and badass personal style.

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The Purdey

This haircut, shown on Joanna Lumley (who later became that faaaabulously blond woman on Absolutely Fabulous), is called the Purdey, and it was groundbreaking for the 1960s. A shorter variation of the pageboy, this cut was chic and boyish at the same time, and somehow gives everyone a rather studious impression. While not exactly the most flattering haircut on everyone, if you’re a beautiful supermodel like Joanna was, it looks good on you (because everything looks good on you).

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The Bouffant

This is a bouffant. Everyone knows what it is. This is the reason why Amy Winehouse can hide drugs in her hair to this very day. As silly as this hair looks, every woman at some point in her life feels compelled to wear a bouffant, even if it’s just for one night — like if you get invited to a fancy party and have to wear a long dress, you might want to rock a bouffant. I don’t know. I’m just saying. PS It’s like a natural law.

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The Aggy

So yeah, maybe women like Alicia Bridges (of “I love the Nightlife” fame) did the cropped bleached blond thing before Aggy, but I credit Aggy with being the only reason why this haircut is so popular now amongst the urban hipster set. Like half the girls in Williamsburg have some variation of a blond Aggy cut, and I can imagine how bad it is over in Sweden where everyone is a hipster by default and everyone already has ice blond hair by nature.

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Audrey Hepburn

Audrey has had beautiful hair always, but I especially loved her hair in Roman Holiday, which was always my favorite Audrey Hepburn film. Like Rosemary’s Baby and Moonstruck (with Cher), Roman Holiday is a film where the starlet gets a new look halfway through the movie. As with both those movies, Hepburn’s boycut in Roman Holiday became an iconic look for the actress herself, who maintained a version of this haircut for the next few films she made, including Sabrina. I loved the elegance and timelessness of this hair. It makes me want to wear circle skirts and ride a Vespa through Roman piazzas.

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