Cream of the crop … Mia Farrow sports her pioneering pixie cut in 1967. Photo: Getty Images
Every woman needs a beauty bucket list. While you can take baby steps by trying scarlet lipstick or pink dip-dyed ends on for size, getting the chop is the ultimate game changer.
Mia Farrow may have put the pixie crop on the map in the 1960s, but not since the '90s, when models Erin O'Connor and Linda Evangelista gave the elfin cut a whirl, has short hair been this cool. You only have to look at model of the minute Arizona Muse or baby-faced actors Emma Watson, Evan Rachel Wood and Anne Hathaway who, with a few snips of the scissors, went from stars to style icons overnight.
"The real beauty of a short style like the bob and pixie cut is that it can add just the right amount of Parisian chic or edginess, depending on what you wear it with," says Barney Martin, owner of Barney Martin hair salon in Sydney's Surry Hills.
There's just one catch: when it comes to maintenance, it seems the pixie crop is enough to give peroxide a run for its money. "To keep the shape and highlights, you need monthly trims and regular colour touch-ups, as you're cutting out the tips with every trim," says Martin.
On the flip side, the time you lose in the salon, you'll soon make up with the hours you save on at-home styling. "With short hair, if you've got a great cut, you shouldn't need a brush," explains Martin.
Instead, he suggests you down the tools and try raking your fingers through your hair as you blow-dry, before working a light texturising paste through the ends for definition. Try VO5 Extreme Style Matt Play, $7.99, 1800 061 027, which will last you almost forever.
As for this beauty editor's list, I'm contemplating going the whole hog after my wedding next month. After all, it's only hair ... and it grows back.
CULT FRAGRANCE ALERT
Word on the street is that Jennifer Aniston, Liv Tyler and Rachel Bilson are all fans of Leila Lou fragrance oil, but our vote goes to the eau de parfum. With notes of tangerine, pear blossom and fresh-cut grass, it's the closest thing to freshly laundered sheets this side of a Hills Hoist. Leila Lou eau de parfum (50ml), $54.95, from Kit Cosmetics, 1800 705 800.
