Cute Short Haircuts

Katie Holmes' Short Hair Style

Katie Holmes wears a really cute short layered bob hairstyle with a full fringe!

This is not just any old short haircut. It's much more versatile.

The stylist began with a bob in mind, and carefully layered Katie's hair through the top to create that beautiful shape around the crown. All the fullness and weight is there, with much shorter layers in the lower third from the occipital bone down.

A razor or thinning shears has been used at the neckline to give the ends a wispy softness, and the same technique has been employed around the ears and forehead.

There's no sharpness anywhere. It's all soft angles, very feminine, with all the elements of the hairstyle working in harmony.

Having started with a bob in mind the stylist left some weight on the sides, and that's where you'll find the real secret of this very cute short haircut.

Look at those long wisps of hair in front of the ears.

If there's a single element that sets this short hairstyle apart, it's those wisps.

Curving forward onto her cheek and echoing both the curve of her jawline and the shape of her hair at the back, they give Katie's look a simple and striking elegance. Without them she would look much more ordinary.

If you think you've seen those wisps before, you have.

Check out this 1925 photo of silent film actress Louise Brooks.

And the similarity doesn't end there.

At the back of Katie's hair you can see layering focused round the occipital. Above it the crown is full and round, her hair curving gorgeously up and forward to her brow and eye.

Below the occipital, a series of layers takes the hair closer and closer in to the back of the head and neck - shorter, chunky layers above, and longer, thinner, wispier layers below, all joining their shapes to the graceful forward movement round her neck, below her ears and on to her jawline and cheek.

If your mind's eye were to fill in that line, you'd be looking at a flapper haircut from the 1920s - a very short layered bob hairstyle like these worn by Louise Brooks.

The shape is so similar because Katie's stylist has reached back through the years and taken her inspiration from those edgy, provocative cuts that shocked and then delighted a generation, and ultimately became classics in the hair styles hall of fame.

That graceful strand tapering forward on Katie's cheek is the modern remnant of a 1920s full side layer that followed the same line.

The layer is still there - Katie's just tucked the rest behind her ear - exactly as Louise herself did in this picture.

But the front view of Katie's short layered bob is very different. This cute short haircut may take its inspiration from the 1920s, but from this angle Katie Holmes looks nothing like a flapper.

Katie's fringe is a modern adaptation of the 1920s fringe. Much of it remains full, but the bangs are swept sideways across the forehead instead of falling vertically in a blunt cut. On one side the fringe is opened up with a section of thin, fragile, wispy strands splayed down over the length of her eyebrow, and curling round the corner of her eye.

Here we can see that the wisps in front of her ears arch outwards as well as forward, widening away from the cheeks to add a suggestion of width where her face is narrowest.

To see the flapper in Katie Holmes you have to look at the side and back views.

Katie Holmes' short hairstyle in perfect profile reveals all the elements working in harmony - the full, rising curve around the crown, the forward swing of her fringe, the harmonious motion of layers round her neck, behind her ear and on her cheek.

Katie's short layered bob is not just an echo of Louise Brooks and the 20s flapper styles - in parts it's an exact copy. But it's also different from the haircuts they wore back then - softer, wispier, more feminine and fragile.

The cutest angle ever on Katie Holmes' gorgeous short layered bob.

To get this hairstyle: Work some gel into towel dried hair, blow dry from the bottom up with round brushes, determining the size according to hair length. Create fullness throughout the top and then smooth down with a paddle brush. Finish off with sculpting cream.