Let's start these lines with a personal experience, let it be mine. I have curly hair, from a time when curly childhoods were traumatic because mothers of curly-haired daughters usually didn't know how to deal with that wild nature. Therefore, I never had bangs in my younger years. It was only well into my thirties when I took the risk. Results? A decade with my forehead adorned with curly bangs.
So, I am somewhat surprised when, in a coffee machine chat at the office - how enriching they are, so many times! - two colleagues debate whether it is appropriate to continue wearing bangs in their forties, as it is a hair accessory... childish?!
Why Bangs Are Scary: Childhoods and Bad Experiences
From theory to practice, do adult clients reject bangs at hair salons? It depends. While David Lorente, with a salon of the same name in Madrid, confirms that "many reject them because they had childhood traumas with them," Alberto Sanguino, education manager at Llongueras, states that, if they do reject them, the reason is different: "Either because they have never had them and fear how to manage them, for wearing something so short in such a visible area as the forehead, or for having had bad cuts before."
The fear of not wanting bangs is also attributed by Eduardo Sánchez to a poor choice of type, "not having analyzed well where and how it will go, the way the hair grows, if there are whirls... there are a lot of variables in the hair diagnosis that can fail, as well as ending up in the hands of non-experts." Like a mother in childhood who embarks on an adventure and messes up the hair for a few months, a traumatic memory, as the scissors already mentioned.
And why were bangs so typical of childhood? Sánchez attributes it to a cultural aspect of past decades when going to school with a ponytail or braid was common, and perhaps "it was a way for girls to have a more adorned face." He emphasizes the past decades because, he argues, "now girls have different types of cuts, with or without bangs, because adolescence is also starting earlier, and they demand more decision-making power over their style."
What Bangs Can Do for Adult Hair
For those adults who still stigmatize bangs in a time when it is an absolute trend, hairdressers encourage them to lose their fear because "it must be acknowledged that it rejuvenates a lot," supports David Lorente.
María Baras, as a good adult bangs wearer, also makes her pro-bangs plea: "It frames the face and softens the features, blurring the signs of aging, which sharpen with the passing years and harden the expression. It also helps to conceal gray hairs that grow from the front area and temples, at the roots... In short, it is a super anti-aging resource that we at Cheska, for example, are using a lot."
More reasons to get bangs are added by David Lorente. "In elongated faces, it shortens the face length; it makes it seem like the hair is denser in the front area, and it can camouflage a forehead that is too wide or difficult eyebrows. And, interestingly, above a change of color or a length cut, cutting bangs is a change that is often requested when changing partners or jobs," concludes the expert.
Bangs for Everyone (Even for Those Who Are Afraid)
The good news is that there are bangs for everyone, and no, not necessarily the childish or Amélie style bangs. For now, María Baras argues that there are trendy cuts that would not exist without bangs: "You can't cut a shag on curly hair without it, nor a butterfly-type, multi-layered, so seventies, without an open one." There are a thousand ways to wear it, she maintains, just as there are a thousand types of pasta, all those that the character played by María Esteve liked in "The Other Side of the Bed": "open curtain, side-swept, very thinned out, just a few strands if you have thin hair...".
We delve into which types of bangs are most flattering for adults. For David Lorente, without a doubt, they are "side-swept, curtain bangs, the longer, the better, and within a layered mane so that they blend in more; it's always scary to have to let it grow if the result is not liked, and that's why I would never recommend starting with a short or too straight bang."
According to the face shape, there are also winners, as enumerated by Alberto Sanguino: "A diamond or heart-shaped face will look better with a triangular bang, one that opens as it grows; an elongated face with a straight-line bang, and an elongated oval face with a concave line bang."
Since diagnosis and personalization are the keys to the perfect adult bangs, it is essential that your mother does not cut it... nor yourself. "You have to go to a good hairdresser; getting bangs is a very serious step, and it must be cut very well so that it can be maintained effortlessly and if desired, grow back without issues," concludes Lorente. No fears. No stigmas.