Hairstylists Think This Is the Best Bang Style for People Over 40

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In the new rom-com The Idea of You, Anne Hathaway plays a 40-year-old single woman named Solène who pairs up with a singer in a boy band who is 16 years her junior. For many of us women over 40, it wasn’t just the thrill of watching the young hottie fall for the mature divorcée that was titillating. Equally exciting? Discovering a hairstyle that ventured outside the canon of “sensible styles for mature women.” For those who didn’t see The Idea of You, Solène wears her hair long with a fringe that Adir Abergel (the man who created style for the movie) calls “mid-face” bangs.

At 53 years of age, I thought I had worn every fringe style in the big book of bangs—baby, wisps, curtain, feathered, sideswept, and uneven because I cut them myself—but Solène’s look really intrigued me. It looked bang-y, but not too heavy, and it could be styled myriad ways even so as to look invisible. That last part really appealed to the more, shall we say, experienced woman in me who knows that about five days after cutting bangs, I usually regret them. It turns out that the flexibility in this bang comes from the fact that it doesn’t span all the way across your forehead.

“It’s soft but still has a nice choppiness to it, and it sits right in the middle of the face while the rest of the hair falls over it. So it only opens up about three-quarters of the face,” Abergel says. Why does it work so well for those of us in their 40s and beyond?

“As we get a little bit older, our hair ages,” Abergel says. “We start losing it around our forehead and temples, so [mid-face bangs] are a great way to bring the hairline forward and not have to deal with any of that. They’re also a really great way to hide quickly visible gray re-growth along the part.”

John D, who styles 40-year-old director and actor Greta Gerwig’s hair, is aligned.

“Listen, if you want to rock micro-bangs at 50 and beyond, go for it. Confidence is what ultimately delivers style,” he says. But he also agrees with Abergel that mid-face bangs are the most versatile and flattering of the fringe choices for the over-40 set.

In other words, if you do straight, blunt bangs, you may feel like you’re inching ever closer to resembling your third-grade picture, but the softness of mid-face bangs curving around the browline are what actually delivers a more youthful look.

More than simply masking the signs of age, this bang style also checks a lot of boxes that are important to women over 40, who may be more wary of rushing into bangs than their younger counterparts.

Why mid-face bangs are best for women over 40

“They’re not full-commitment bangs. Since they don’t take up a lot of real estate on the forehead, they’re easy to grow out,” says Kim Kimble, founder of the Kim Kimble Hair Collection, who has styled banged beauties Halle Berry, 57, and Beyoncé, 42.

They’re also easy to hide, should you want to. Case in point: Abergel discreetly pinned 41-year-old Anne Hathaway’s mid-face bangs to the side at the Screen Actors Guild Awards earlier this year. Not that you’ll necessarily want to grow them out or conceal them since their benefits for the 40-plus set are seemingly endless. For example, what woman over 40 do you know that has a whole lot of time to fuss with her fringe? Mid-face bangs are an ideal option for those who like to look “done” without the effort it takes to get there, says Kimble.

Mid-face bangs also “give your look a purpose,” she says. They create “a ‘complete’ cut, even if you just pull the rest up into a ponytail.”

And for those of us whose lower face is starting to get a little lower, having a focal point higher on the face doesn’t hurt either.

The right mid-face bangs for you

The gist of mid-face bangs is that they’re “a bit shorter through where the brows meet, and descend just past the outer edges of the brow to the cheekbone,” explains John D. But there are variations to the cut that can help tailor it to your taste—and your hair type. (Remember, trends were made to be broken.)

Abergel recommends keeping the length “just above the eyes [as in, pupils] but just below the brows” and with a little less of a pronounced peak than curtain bangs. But more risk-averse types might opt for keeping the length closer to the tip of the nose.

The cut can also be adapted to straight or wavy hair. (My hair is wavy, and on days when the barometer simply isn’t cooperating and my bangs won’t lie flat on my face, I brush them away from my forehead where they blend right into the rest of my curls.) If your hair is tightly coiled, “you’ll want the bangs to be a little longer since they will shrink up,” Kimble says.

How to style mid-face bangs

If you’ve been hesitant to cut any type of bangs in the past because of cowlicks, it’s time to pull out your big-girl hairdryer and follow this advice from Abergel:

“Make sure the roots of your bangs are very wet before blowdrying. Then, use a Denman brush [with nylon bristles] or comb to direct the bangs tightly across the forehead, from one side to the other, as you’re blowing them dry. This takes away cowlicks and makes them fall as naturally as possible,” he says. Unless you’re going for a really pronounced curled-under look, “you shouldn’t use a big round brush while blowing bangs dry,” Abergel says. In fact, the famous stylist Vidal Sasoon never used a round brush to style hair, only a Denman brush or a comb to smooth it, he adds.

Denman D3 Original 7 Row Styler

$24.00, Amazon

If your hair is fine and thin and you want a bit of extra volume throughout your bangs, consider sprinkling in a bit of dry shampoo, such as The Rootist Clarify Dry Shampoo Powder, or spritzing in a volumizer, such as Virtue Volumizing Primer, while you’re blow drying. If your hair is really thick, you may want to hit your bangs with a flat iron after drying to ensure they don’t get puffy, Kimble says. And if you’re wearing your mid-face bangs curly or wavy, prime them with a moisturizing cream, such as Kim Kimble Signature Selection Curl Cream, then let them air dry, for a piece-y effect.

The Rootist Clarify Dry Shampoo Powder

$26.00, Amazon

Virtue Volumizing Primer

$40.00, Amazon

Kim Kimble Signature Selection Curl Cream

$25.00, Kim Kimble

Another must when styling mid-face bangs? Creaseless clips. “I like to clip them in right at the root while they’re still cooling from the heat of the dryer to help lock them down,” John D says.

To finish the look—whether you’re wearing your mid-face bangs straight or curly—John D likes to “pinch” a bit of styling wax (for example, Goldwell StyleSign Defining Wax) into the ends of the fringe to give them a bit of definition.

And if you’re still not sold on mid-face bangs as the answer to all your over-40 hair prayers, consider a temporary option, such as Hairdo Clip In Bangs. That’ll sell you.

Goldwell StyleSign Defining Wax

$25.00, Amazon

Hairdo Clip In Bangs

$36.00, The Wig Company

Read more about bangs:

• 13 Bangs Trends To Help Frame Your Face Because You’re a Work of Art

• How to Get Razor Bangs, the Cutting Technique That Works for All Face Shapes

• 21 Types of Bangs to Consider If You're Ready to Take the Plunge

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Originally Appeared on Allure