Short hair for plus-sized women?

Is there any way for a large girl to pull off a short haircut?

I've been searching online for what feels like forever, but the most that I can find is a lot of conflicting advice: the only thing that everyone seems to agree on is that short hair on a fat girl = bad.

But dang it, I'm sick of haircuts that involve hours of prep. I would really like a hairstyle can be washed and prepped in only a few minutes, that doesn't require a ton of styling products and hours of trying to coax it with curling irons and blow dryers to curl in the right direction (which will inevitably be a mess within an hour).

Does anyone out there know of any easy short-hair styles for plus-sized women? I'm afraid I don't have any pics of myself that I can post, but this woman ( http://www.myspace.com/violentswerve (be warned that she has music turned on)) has a face very similar to mine, only I have a slightly taller forehead (and don't generally make that expression).

I've tried chin-length and longish below-the-chin bob- and shag-type cuts, but they're difficult to keep neat and require a lot of maintenance, so I end up wearing headbands all the time. I currently have shoulder length hair (with some chin length "bangs") that just kinda hangs there, i.e., the stereotypical "fat girl" hair. Blech.

I know I can't pull off a pixie cut, but I sure do wish I could. I love the look and ease of these easy-breezy-type styles:

http://gimps.de/wettbewerb/displayimage.php?pos=-252-short-hair-styles-of-sedu
http://gimps.de/wettbewerb/displayimage.php?pos=-263-short-haircuts-and-hair-styles
http://tinyurl.com/ypwm9f
Leah on this page: http://www.beauty-and-the-bath.com/Makeovers.html
Kate Dillon four pics down (with the Avenue bag): http://www.extrahip.com/archives/Archive4.1.html
This one kinda: http://tinyurl.com/yoxxql

Is there any way to wear one's hair shorter at my size without just looking like a beach ball with a tiny head? Or should I just wait til I've lost more weight to cut it? It's hard enough not to feel dumpy when you're trying to lose weight; having bad/difficult hair doesn't help matters.

I appreciate any advice. Thanks! and thanks for listening.

LeftEye2007-02-20 16:43:34

I like the last one the best; the one where you say "this one kinda"

Hi, I think it depens on the person and there features. I am a plus size person and have had very long to very short. Find a good stylist an go from there.
Lisa
HairStyleDiva2007-02-20 20:02:51

My wife usually hovers between a size 16 and 1x, and she wears her hair short, and she gets a lot of compliments (from people other than me!).  It usually looks best at chin length, but with volume.  Dont cut the sides too short.  Her hair is usually between chin and shoulder, very layered, and slimming to her face, usually with height at the crown.

I would definitely not go too short at first. Try a layered bob near shoulder/chin length first.. and then you can decide to go shorter. Try pinning your hair up in the back to get an idea of what short hair would look like. Good luck!

I'm a plus size girl and as long as I keep some height at the top and razor on the sides it looks great!! Mine ranges from bottom of earlobe to chin length.

Lefteye, pixies do look horrid on fat girls.

I myself am a big girl and that causes some problems. However, you can still go very short. If you go for a big, messy style, that looks excellent. Big hair works on big women, perhaps even moreso than long hair(which just kind of sits there).

You could cut it to about 5 inches all around, and fluff it out(backcomb it) and that'd be about it.

Those pixies you see actually require a lot of product. I've had both short hair and long, and while I prefer how short hair looks, unless you do a lot of damaging things to it, there's not really that much difference in maintainance.

I don't know why fat women seem to always gravitate towards short pixies... it really does look not very good :/ It depends though. If you're just "fuller figured", it'll look perfectly fine. If you're 200 pounds or over it probably won't.

Generally, short hair on fat women looks fine as long as you fluff it out. Big hair and long hair have the same general effect in that way, if you see what I'm getting at. But you can't do that with a tiny pixie.

Also, short hair on older women I feel looks terrible too. Short hair is more of a youthful thing, yet middle aged women seem to be the ones to do it more often. It just doesn't look too good. I'm going to grow my hair long when I grow older. When I'm granny old, if my hair starts to thin like that, I'll just get a wig.
Rosalie2007-03-04 16:20:51

Debbie, self assertion is good and all, but the fact is that some things just look better on some people than others. A pixie on a fat girl will never look like same as a pixie on a thinner girl. It just doesn't have the same effect.

Not a fan of that phrase.

It's a fact that short hair on one person won't have the same "effect" on another if their face is a different shape. When you're fat you have a much bigger face, so you need a much bigger version of that haircut; an inch or two longer and fluffed out at least.

The mere fact that you "have" a certain haircut doesn't mean a lot. The overall look does. I'd love to try a pixie but I know it'd be horrid.

Debbie, what she wants to do may not have the result she wants. I'm not trying to be mean, just realistic. I know a chubby transsexual like me can't look good wouldn't look the same with a pixie as Alyssa Milano or someone though I'd love to try one, it wouldn't look right, I'd look like a boy and it would draw too much attention to my heavy set chin/jawline/face fat.

I think Debbie is trying to avoid rudely taking over the thread with an unnecessary debate. Maybe it would be best if you did the same, Rosalie.  

hannebash, it's not off topic at all. It's about how short hair can/should work on a larger lady. It bemuses me as to how you think it's in any way off-topic. 

They aren't the same thing. Your discussion would be taking over another poster's thread, which could be percieved as rude.

Rosalie -you're picking fights and I've seen you do it before and it's rude. That's all I'm going to say as now I'M hijacking the thread.

Left eye, did you ever decide what you were going to do with your hair?  And have you done anything yet?  Debbie