Someday I'd like to put together a whole book about bangs. In the mean time- I'll blog all my ideas. Right now I am addressing a concern- growing out those little Bettie (or Baby) bangs.
Maybe you've gotten tired of them or you let the wrong person cut them, either way, you think you want to get rid of them. I grow mine out about once a year, then I see the deep lines in my forehead that make my age obvious and I cut them again. It's good to grow them once a year so you can re-define the area on your head without the appearance of those pieces of hair that are too short for the rest of your 'Do, but too long to be part of your Fringe. This also helps avoid the usual bang issue- when you keep adding new hairs to the group and they get thicker and thicker.
Perhaps you are not even interested in growing them out but you're long overdue for another cut and not brave enough to self-trim, and too busy to go in for a quick bang trim. So here are some tips and styling ideas (though many of them are very "vintage" looking- it is my specialty after all):
Don't cut them! Don't even trim them. Bangs are a delicate thing to grow, and taking off two weeks growth will set you back two weeks. Then you wait two more weeks and go for a cut and you've gotten nowhere- don't let your stylist talk you into cutting them. You must be patient, mine usually take 3 or 4 months to grow from "Bettie" length to nose length- with no trims. And unless you're a bleach blonde that swims every day- they probably won't get dry and nasty anytime soon sitting there on your oily forehead absorbing that body oil. If they do get bad, be careful what you let anyone trim off, take off the minimum needed to get rid of frizzy split ends, or just have them point cut.
The hair at the hairline can sometimes be only an inch long when cut to ideal length. That makes getting them 4 to 7 inches or longer a challenge. They can also be impossible to pin back off the face- if not silly looking. So what to do with the hair in the mean time? Curls cover a multitude of hair issues. Bad cut? Curl it until it grows out! Bad color/highlights? Curl it to break up the lines! In a funk with your bangs? Curl them!
There are the tiny baby curls you can create with a 1/4 inch curling iron, or you could set them by using tiny perming rods or other type of curlers (available at all Beauty Supply retailers) if you want a tighter curl. I call these the "other betty bangs" as seen on the Betty's Grable and Hutton:
Or you can curl them under with a small curling iron to make them look shorter when they are at an awkward length on your face.
Otherwise, you are probably nearing a perfect "Zooey" length!
Once the bangs are at eyebrow length, they're likely ready to curl back into a Pompadour or rolled Pomp style and shorter hairs will stay put with hairspray. Blow drying them back and away from your face (or curling) will also help keep the shorter hairs back for this look. Teasing will help achieve lift and volume here.
Combing them into a side swept style (waved or straight) will also change the look and conceal the length for a while.
Marilyn Monroe is a terrific example of what can be done with longer bangs, and styling them off the face.
Of course as they grow into a longer and longer Fringe, you'll probably wear them side swept most of the time, or pinned off your face. Once you reach an ideal length the only thing left to do is to ask your stylist to include the length in your layered cut to make them fully disappear. Or you could re-cut them!
