Typically, the moment of growing out a short haircut is one of deep crisis. There’s almost always an awkward phase—not to mention the regret and questioning of identity that goes along with it. “My hair, once a mullet then a sort-of pixie, is in a weird in-between place, and I don’t know how to wear it,” British Vogue’s Daisy Jones bemoans of this experience. “It doesn’t help that I asked my partner to cut my fringe in the near darkness while we were both exhausted, which has now left me looking like a wonky-looking bowl.”
It was all stressful until the ’90s hot chop—the bixie—began trending again this summer. For Jones, it was an easy trip to the salon.
The bixie is exactly what it sounds like. Part bob, part pixie, the vibe is casual and undone, like a grown-out pixie cut or a choppier, more mussed-up bob. Think Cameron Diaz and Meg Ryan circa 1997, Halle Berry circa 2002, and Winona Ryder many times throughout her heyday. Essentially, these are pixie cuts that are long enough to rake your fingers through and tuck behind your ears.
This time around, Pixie Geldof, Florence Pugh, Jourdan Dunn, and the first lady of New York City Rama Duwaji have all been sporting variations of the bixie. “Rama initially came in with a classic bob and her famous self-cut bangs,” says Brooklyn-based hairstylist Lauren Sottile, who works with Duwaji. The cut they decided on was razor-cut bixie layers, along with face-framing pieces that hit around the eyes. “It has a bit of edge yet stays so feminine. I feel like this cut really should be called ‘the Rama’ because it is so unique to her.”
Celebrities both modern and of yore prove it’s a cut that works while running errands and on the red carpet. Take Jessie Buckley’s bixie crop, chopped by hair darling Bryce Scarlett throughout her whirlwind Oscar campaign for Hamnet. The night she won that golden man for best actress as Agnes, the star styled it two ways: sleek and tucked behind her ears for the awards ceremony, then curled and a bit more mussed up for the Vanity Fair after-party. Of course, the Oscar perfectly matched both styles.
Hairstylist and groomer Charley McEwen, who has worked with everyone from Alexander Skarsgård to Lily Allen, has also noticed the bixie “having a real resurgence right now.” He thinks that this is partly because of its versatility as well as its throwback appeal. “It’s short enough to feel fresh and liberating, but not so cropped that it’s a drastic change for most clients,” says McEwen. “It brings together the structure of a pixie with the softness and layering of a bob, which makes it really wearable.” As for why it’s so popular currently? “It carries a bit of that late-’90s elegance, which always circles back in fashion but never feels overly trend led,” he says.
And this isn’t just a chop for the youth. Throughout Berry’s whirlwind Cannes Film Festival tour, she returned to a version of the shaggy crop she was famous for the first time the bixie was popular. Same with Sharon Stone, who revisited that iconic Basic Instinct haircut this year.
Fortunately for everybody who has been caught by the bixie bug—the style isn’t hard to look after either. Duwaji and Geldof air-dry their hair, and styling à la Buckley is a breeze too.
“One of the strengths of the bixie is definitely how well it adapts,” says McEwen. All in all, you want this look to feel styled but not overdone. As McEwen says, “A good cut like this should do most of the work for you.”
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