Fringes: The Marmite of the hairdressing world. We’ve all been tempted to try one but most of us are way too intimidated.
The humble fringe has long been deemed somewhat intimidating; ‘Oh but it won’t suit me’, people claim. Enough of the excuses! The age-old excuse is now redundant thanks to a plethora of fringe styles to suit pretty much every face shape.
Still freaking out at the prospect of taking the scissors to your crowning glory? Allow us to offer you a solution in the form of the soft curtain. The latest – and most flattering in our humble opinion – iteration of the hairstyle is the ideal way to subtly road-test the fringe if you’re too scared to lob it off into a bold style.
Just look to J-Lo for the ultimate soft curtain hair inspo. The star unveiled the style over the weekend via her hairdresser, Chris Appleton, and looks absolutely fire.
Domenico Casella from Neville Hair and Beauty believes the new J-Lo soft curtain fringe is perfect for oval-shaped faces but it still works if you have a round-shaped or a long-shaped face because it can be styled on the side. Versatility, check!
“This trend is easy to style and maintain, as long as the hair isn’t very curly,” he notes. “Just rough dry the hair with the low speed of the hairdryer, frontwards, until it is all dry, and smooth it out with a big round brush if the hair is not perfectly straight.”
If you’re worried it will go out of fashion as soon as you’ve had the chop, fear not. “I’m predicting that curtain bangs [or fringes] will still be going strong throughout 2021, as there’s still plenty of people catching up to them,” LA’s coolest hair stylist, Sal Salcedo, told GLAMOUR. Versatile enough to be swept off to either side to open up your face, or drawn closed across your brows (much like the curtains), they’re one of the easiest fringe styles to wear since the slightly longer length at the sides helps to highlight cheekbones. “They require the lowest maintenance,” says Sal, “as they slowly turn into a nice frame that looks good through any stage.”