The New Shag is the new "it" haircut?

[jenwexler]

http://www.haironthebrain.com/2011/01/the-new-shag/

I was reading Allure yesterday and it basically said that the shag, with all its variations, is BACK and to achieve this look, you must tell your hairstylist to make it look like you cut it yourself. So basically, after all of my past experimental cuts and layerings I've done to myself, along with the grow out process, I have achieved the desired look of the season? I just find that hilarious. I have mistakenly become trendy with my hair mistakes and experimentations. Aside from that, I do love the shag. It's messy, it's fun, it makes a heat-free lifestyle easier for me. I love layers and I love how they compliment me. I even love the way they grow out.

So I want to know what you think of the shag, if you have the shag/plan on getting it, and your overall opinion on layers. The shag can be at any length and is pretty customizable. What is your input of this article???

[JulietCapulet]

I like the shag a lot! I don't know good it looks on me but I love it.

[jenwexler]

I feel it looks good on anyone as long as it's cut right. It seems like a customized haircut. It's never the same on each "shagger."

[rags]

Oh! That last pic in your link - the lady in the orange jacket - looks just like my hair! So the weird not a pixie not a bob cut I have is a shag! How weird.

My opinion - I hate it. I hate the layers, I hate the messiness I hate how it's going to grow out. This is probably because I'm a person who likes to put their hair UP and it's going to be totally impossible for a very long time with this cut due to the layers. :rolleyes:

[christine1989]

I like the shag on certian types of hair but on some people it just looks messy. I used to have a shoulder length shag/bob when I was little (maybe eight). My hair was 2a/C/iii back then so it worked quite well with a shag. I don't think it is right for curlies or those with thin, fine hair though.

[jenwexler]

I might have to agree with the thin hair. I have thick hair so it really tames it...but for thin, I don't know how it would look unless it was really short. I like medium to long shags the best. As for curly, I like it as long as it doesn't turn into a fro. With a medium shag, which is what I think I have now, I can easily put my hair up so there's no problems with updos.

[rags]

Yeah, I'm a i. That might be why I dislike mine so vehemently. It's meant for thicker hair. ETA: AND it's baby fine! :rolleyes:

[christine1989]

I might have to agree with the thin hair. I have thick hair so it really tames it...but for thin, I don't know how it would look unless it was really short. I like medium to long shags the best. As for curly, I like it as long as it doesn't turn into a fro. With a medium shag, which is what I think I have now, I can easily put my hair up so there's no problems with updos.

It is definatly a style that needs some weight to tame flyaways and retain volume. My cousin got a shag a few months ago with thin i hair and she needs an insane about of hairspray to get any volume or hold.

[jenwexler]

I think fine haired people can pull off bobs and reallllllly long hair. A lot of fine haired people I know tend to have really good bone structure.

[jenwexler]

I have a leo mane so I'm the opposite.

[pepperminttea]

It's a cute cut, I like it on other people, but it's not for me; I need to be able to get my hair out the way so I can forget about it, so the benign neglect thing with long hair works for me. :) Really handy trend for those growing out though!

[Islandgrrl]

Shag. Ugh. Horrible memories of junior high school, the ambush haircut from he** (thanks, Ma), coke bottle thick glasses and braces. NEVER AGAIN.

[jenwexler]

Highlights were my never again of middle school lol.

[utdesertrunner]

I love it! But I love messy crazy hair though! Glad it's "in" right now as I'm growing out mine and don't plan on cutting anytime soon!

[jenwexler]

I'm not cutting. I'm just glad my growing out phase is fashionable. I've never been "in" before haha.

[Gilly]

I much prefer the shag over the mullet!!:cheese:

[jenwexler]

Agreed. I think I outgrew the mullet too. Thankyou Shag <3 It hid it pretty well I think.

[Arya]

Ugh...I like certain shags (like the pixie one) but I hate it cuts that are supposed to look poorly done/ugly. All the hipster girls here have purposely poorly cut hair...but paid top dollar for what my four year old cousin could have done for free.
Like this guy, but on a girl, and on purpose.
http://baliliving.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/bad-haircut1.jpg


Here's another example
http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/gallery/star-style/25373/6/3/celebrity-hair--the-fringe/1/

There's also the super long 'my fringe is stabbing me in the eyeballs' that people like Feist, here on the left
http://stereogum.com/img/feist_emilyhaines.jpg
Feist, you are not an anime character. Go cut your bangs.

[Mesmerise]

I remember seeing a great pic of a "shaggy bob" back in 1985, and convincing my sister to get it done (I wasn't game to cut so much off my hair lol). I cut the pic from a magazine and showed the hairdresser...

And my sister ended up with a mullet (it was totally spiked up top and when I suggested the hairdresser may want to take more off the back, she said she wanted to leave a bit of "length" there)! Poor kid ;) She was only about 8 though and I'm not sure it affected her too badly.

Umm but yeah, a shag can look okay wiht the right hair and done by a competent hairdresser!

[jenwexler]

I might have gotten lucky then lol.

[ScarlettAdelle]

All it is is a grown out pixie cut lol I love when the magazines try to pass off getting bored w/ something impractical (like cutting your hair every couple weeks to maintain a style your hair doesn't want to be in) as fashion.. *eye roll* Ah.. I guess this is just the musing of a jaded hairdresser lol ... in a while there'll be more extensions & "long locks" that are waist length at most will be popular again, and then back to some super short "edgy" style... so goes the progression of fashion... predictable, yet supposedly fun and different...

[ravenreed]

My hair was made for that kind of style. If it was short, it would look like that because that is its default ground state of being. Except for the bangs. I have wicked cowlicks that need some length to tame.

[Avital88]

I like it alot, but i think its hard to pull off because it looks uncombed and messy.i'm going to google it..

[hibiscus]

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[Fabulosity]

I think the shag is an adorable look, especially on those growing their hair out. My hair is kind of between a shag and a mullet, alas. I'm just at shoulder length, but as I am growing out a pixie, I have the shaggy dog thing going on.

I agree that it's a better look on those with thick hair. As a thin haired person (who is much too fat to show off any potential "fine bone structure" lol), it isn't the best look for me. Onward and downward!:D

[Toadstool]

i think it looks great!
Btw, you know what "shag" means in the UK??

[Joliebaby]

Oh, I've had it for years and I love it! Mine looked like the first two pictures most of the time. It looks haphazard and care-free and hip and youthful. But I don't want to look like a hipster anymore. It is super easy for me too, completely wash and go with my wavy, thick hair. But, if I were to cut my hair short again, I'd go for a blunt bob. So much nicer to grow out ;)

ETA: I actually cut my own hair then too, so it was not like I paid a lot of money to achieve that look.

[Lamb]

i think it looks great!
Btw, you know what "shag" means in the UK??

Glad I wasn't the only one thinking of that. :o What a name to give to a hairstyle...

[freckles]

i think it looks great!
Btw, you know what "shag" means in the UK??

I'm glad someone else was thinking that, I didn't want to be the one to say it! :D Mostly I was not thinking that while reading this thread, but the idea of referring to people wearing shag haircuts as "shaggers" did make me laugh out loud a little bit.


I feel it looks good on anyone as long as it's cut right. It seems like a customized haircut. It's never the same on each "shagger."

[milagro]

lol the first picture is the exact thing I had after growing out my pixie for a while :D including the frizz and face expression (when I was thinking of it) :D Can I deem myself a trendsetter, like two years in advance?

[Tiina]

I don't like it on myself. I think hair needs to have a bit of wave in it for the shag to look good. Before I passed shoulder-length my hair stayed perfectly untangled and straight at all times and the shag just didn't look good. My tame hair looks better blunt and long or in a pixie or bob.

[Speckla]

I saw it and thought, 'what if...??' and then closed the magazine. :)

[milagro]

I saw it and thought, 'what if...??' and then closed the magazine. :)
Wise :D This style takes hell of a maintenance. If your hair is curly you need to smooth it with heavy hair gum (i had to) and be on the watch for the fringe going all over the place and levitating in the air, if it's straight you'd have to curl the ends. And it tends to grow out into a long mullet :D

[mrs_coffee]

I love that style. I've sported it many, many times. I love any cut that is choppy and a bit messy. One of my favorites.

[jenwexler]

I used to cut it myself but my last cut of the year was done by a professional to even it up in the back. But I still do my bangs and they look great with my shag. And I called us shaggers to be funny lol.

[Caldonia Sun]

Love the shag. I've had one at various lengths several times over the years. Since my hair is very straight and fine, it needed to be on the shorter side to look nice. I probably won't do it again any time soon because of the maintenance required - I'm too lazy.

[madeline_]

I had that haircut for ten years. I bobbed around between a Beatle moptop and a more grown out shaggy cut when I couldn't afford the hairdresser's and trimmed the ends myself. This is the cut I'll probably go back to when and if I cut my hair, it was immensely flattering to my round face structure.

[jenwexler]

I feel like it makes heat free styling easier...but that's probably just for my hair type.

[heidihug]

I feel it looks good on anyone as long as it's cut right.
Oh, dear deity, no. It's horrific on me. And I've had several variations of the shag throughout my life. With fine, thin and perfectly straight hair, the shag is a definite NO for me, and always will be.

[Thinthondiel]

I cut my own hair a couple of months ago - I had planned on just trimming it, but I'm a bit impulsive when it comes to my hair, so I ended up cutting it a lot shorter and layering it heavily. So I have a shag cut too, and I love it. It looks very nice on my wavy hair. :)

I occasionally snip off some more hair in places where I think it doesn't quite look shaggy enough.

[jenwexler]

That is EXACTLY what I did. i originally wanted to trim my sidebangs since they seemed too long for prom, and I ended up with a rough shag by the end of the night. Oops.

[PiroskaCicu]

I think the really short one is cute on Carmen Kass!! It's adorable. I wish I could pull this kind of look off :) but it's way too hard to style (for me)

[spidermom]

It was fabulous on me; I had it in college (1970s). I didn't even have to comb it for it to look exactly how it was supposed to look. I might have a picture on photobucket. (turns out I don't)

[Thinthondiel]

I didn't even have to comb it for it to look exactly how it was supposed to look.

Me neither - my hair looks best when I don't. I just let it air-dry and leave it alone. :)

[jenwexler]

Finger combing so far seems best for my cut when I wear it down...plus twisting random strands shows off the layers really well.

[prosperina]

There seems to be lots of different shags. I googled it and some cuts were super cute. Others were horrid. I like the ones in the original post though.

[jenwexler]

I like the "grown out" shag.

[cybernetica]

I think I might have worn a shag alike hair cut during a grow out from a major chop off due to a bad bleach job. *shudder* I think I left the salon with only a few inches of hair left that day :(
Live and learn!!
I found some pics.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l233/cyberneticnexus/ok87.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l233/cyberneticnexus/ui887.jpg
It was a style that was hard to keep up and "look good" with my fine super straight hair!

[Oz]

hair styles all depend on your face shape i recon... i think it would work well for me.. but frumpy on others..

[Mexibeach]

I like that this haircut is the "in" haircut while I have it - LOL
But I will not go get the front layered to complete it. I'm sticking with "tie it back and forget about it" until I am APL!!! ji ji

[LaurelSpring]

I'm not quite sure what all the hype is about. It looks kind of boring to me. I couldnt do much with it when I had it and would usually end up getting a perm to make it do something and then of course my hair got damaged and I had to cut it off into a bob and then the whole cycle goes on and on...

[Tressie]

:silly:That left pic, looks a bit like a young Jane Fonda! (o:

The three girls in my family (moi included) have worn this do, and I've always liked it. I may return to this look if I ever decide to do the big chop........whether it's considered "in" or not.

In fact, IMHO I don't think the shag, or some version thereof, has ever really been out!:silly:

[PrincessBob]

I could never shag, again, I mean, once my aunt, the hair dresser decided to try to both thin and layer t for easier styling, it was bad news bears. If I tried it again, I just know I would end up looking look like a long haired Pomeranian that barely escaped the weed whacker. I find that some styles truly are best left to others.

[fluffybunny]

I get instant velcro ends any time I have layers. It drives me nuts. Plus I have a very irregular wave pattern, so the cut always ends up with curls or flat areas where they don't look right. No layers for me!

[RitaPG]

I like it. Not something I'd do but it appears to be one of those very versatile looks, that look good messy or tamed.

[Uni&Corn]

As I'm currently trying to grow OUT my layers, the shag is a nightmare (to me). But I'm sure it looks good on some people, depending on how customized the style is for their particular hair type/face shape.

[irisheyes]

The shag looked great on me in 1973, but now I think I would just look ...shaggy!

[Kaelee]

I had a shag, now I have a butchered shag. My layers are all wrong in the back!!! :( But that's what I had and I love my fringe/shaggy front. :)

[ooo]

Mostly it's an ugly hair cut, but sometimes it does look good on some people. :)

[jaine]

I had a shag for a few years and then got a pixie cut...now my pixie cut has grown back into a shag... In general I like it but I'm kind of ready for something new since I've had it for a few years.

Some on this thread mentioned that they can't put their hair up if it's in a shag ... hmm. I don't have any trouble getting my hair into an updo with my shoulder-length shag. I can do a peacock twist, french twist, sock bun, multiple french twists, french accent braids leading into a messy bun ... etc etc.

[jenwexler]

Yea I think the shag is actually pretty easy to deal with at shoulder length.