A pixie cut is a short

hairstyle A hairstyle, hairdo, haircut or coiffure refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human scalp. Sometimes, this could also mean an editing of facial or body hair. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal groomi ...

, generally short on the back and sides of the head and slightly longer on the top, with very short bangs. It is a variant of a crop. The name is derived from the mythological

pixie A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas ar ...

History

Pixie cuts were popularized first in the 1950s when

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen ...

wore the style in her debut film ''

Roman Holiday ''Roman Holiday'' is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actres ...

'', and later in the 1960s by actress

Mia Farrow Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequent ...

(notably in

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a ( né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, tw ...

’s ''Rosemary's Baby''), British supermodel

Twiggy Dame Lesley Lawson (''née'' Hornby; born 19 September 1949) is an English model, actress, and singer, widely known by the nickname Twiggy. She was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging '60s in London. ...

, and then even later by ''

Laugh-In ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (often simply referred to as ''Laugh-In'') is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan ...

'' star

Goldie Hawn Goldie Jeanne Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, dancer, producer, and singer. She rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Go ...

Jean Seberg Jean Dorothy Seberg (; ; November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress who lived half of her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film ''Breathless'' immortalized her as an icon of French New Wave cinema. Seb ...

also sported a pixie cut for

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...

's '' Bonjour Tristesse'' and

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...

’s ''Breathless''. The crop became fashionable again in the late 1970s and 1980s, with one of its most notable wearers being the actress Jacqueline Pearce in the British TV series ''

Blake's 7 ''Blake's 7'' (sometimes styled ''Blakes7'') is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four 13-episode series were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first ...

''. The crop also was big in the mid 1990s, and

Halle Berry Halle Maria Berry (; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Mi ...

appeared in the 2002

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

film ''

Die Another Day ''Die Another Day'' is a 2002 spy film and the twentieth film in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and directed by Lee Tamahori. The fourth and final film st ...

'' wearing a crop. Pixies are very easy to maintain and can be worn casually, or dressed up for special occasions.

In popular culture

Columnist Pamela Hutchinson notes that the pixie hairstyle is often portrayed in films in a negative way, usually had when actors play characters that have been traumatized, imprisoned or are undergoing cancer treatment.

Gallery

File:Eiganotomo-lesliecaron-dec1953.jpg,

Leslie Caron Leslie Claire Margaret Caron (; born 1 July 1931) is a French-American actress and dancer. She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards. She is one ...

with a pixie cut, 1953 File:Mia Farrow - Rosemary's Baby.jpg,

with a pixie cut, 1968 File:Audrey Tautou Cannes 2006.jpg,

Audrey Tautou Audrey Justine Tautou (; born 9 August 1976) is a French actress. She made her acting debut at the age of 18 on television and her feature film debut in '' Venus Beauty Institute'' (1999), for which she received critical acclaim and won the Cés ...

with a longer pixie cut, 2006 File:Cécile De France in Auxerre.jpg,

Cécile De France Cécile de France (; born 17 July 1975) is a Belgian actress. After achieving success in French cinema hits such as '' L'Art (délicat) de la séduction'' (2001) and ''Irène'' (2002), she gained international attention for her lead roles in '' ...

, pixie cut with a longer fringe, 2009 File:Mia Wasikowska 2010.jpg, Mia Wasikowska, 2010 File:Halle Berry 10.jpg,

, medium length pixie cut, 2010 File:Michelle Williams 2012.jpg, Michelle Williams, 2012 File:Ginnifer Goodwin (7600473766).jpg,

Ginnifer Goodwin Jennifer Michelle "Ginnifer" Goodwin (born May 22, 1978) is an American actress. She is known for her starring role as Margene Heffman in the HBO drama series '' Big Love'' (2006–2011) and Snow White / Mary Margaret Blanchard in the ABC fa ...

, 2012 File:Charlize Theron 2013.jpg,

Charlize Theron Charlize Theron ( ; ; born 7 August 1975) is a South African and American actress and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actresses, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 20 ...

, 2013 File:Zoe Kravitz 2020 dvna studio 2.jpg, Zoe Kravitz with a short pixie cut, 2020

References

External links

* * Hairstyles 1950s fashion 1960s fashion 21st-century fashion 2020s fashion {{fashion-stub

History

In popular culture

Gallery

See also

References

External links