How every style essence does bangs
Dramatic Gamine Ingenue Krysten Ritter—stunning in baby bangs.
Bangs are kind of magic—they have the power to dramatically alter your look, and they can literally be achieved with your own two hands, plus some scissors, in about five seconds (definitely the optimal method of getting bangs).
Many of us seem to have an innate compulsion to try bangs at least once. So here’s versions that work for every style essence.
Can bangs really work for everyone?
The short answer—yes! The longer answer—not all versions work for all style types.
What style essences do bangs typically have?
Stereotypical bangs are straight and short (at least relative to the rest of your hair), and associated with youth. And those qualities, taken together, best embody the Gamine essence.
But I actually wouldn’t say that the most typical bang styles are Gamine.
Studying many different celebrities in many styles of bangs has led to a (maybe obvious) conclusion: typical-appearing bangs tend to be highly Classic.
Classic bangs
Moderate-length, brow-skimming bangs embody Classic balance and moderation:
Ethereal Natural Classic Dakota Johnson regularly rocks Classic fringe.
What makes these bangs Classic? They look well-groomed, neat, and an average length. (We’ll explore short Gamine bangs and long Dramatic bangs below!)
Standard brow-skimming bangs also have a high-maintenance nature that fits the polished, manicured Classic feel. Because unless you naturally have a certain hair texture, it can take some effort with styling tools and products, plus frequent trims, to get your bangs to form and maintain a neat, well-behaved shape.
And if your bangs do naturally look neat and well-behaved, then their inherent vibe still embodies Classic polish.
Half bangs can be Classic, too, if they appear typical in shape and length:
Here Dakota’s bangs and her long bob work for Classic. The wave through her lengths adds Ethereal.
Several other perpetual bang-wearing celebrities also have Classic in their essence blend—like Natural Classic Ingenue Zooey Deschanel, and Dramatic Classic Ingenues Carly Rae Jepsen and Jennette McCurdy.
Is Classic the most bang-friendly essence? Maybe not. At least one other essence rivals Classic’s ability to rock bangs:
Gamine bangs
Gamines are unmatched at pulling off super short fringe.
One of the most famous Gamine beauty icons of all time, Romantic Classic Gamine Audrey Hepburn, is harmonious both in short baby bangs and even in notoriously hard-to-pull-off micro-bangs:
The magic of highly Gamine faces: Audrey looks so good in super-short bangs, she makes you forget how jarring this hairstyle can feel on the average face. On her it just looks right.
The feeling that something looks really right can have a calming, happiness-inducing effect. This is probably one reason people are drawn to style analysis: we get a boost of dopamine and other feel-good chemicals when we perceive visual harmony, and when we know we look harmonious.
What’s really great about Audrey’s hair above is that her short Gamine bangs are accompanied by Romantic volume, and in the right photo, she even adds a large, blingy Romantic clip.
This is a fantastic way to make an extreme style work: first, make sure it matches one of your style essences; and second, add elements of your other essence(s), too.
Part of why Audrey Hepburn is such an enduring beauty icon: she understood the hair, makeup, and fashion elements that flattered her unique look.
I also love baby bangs on Dramatic Gamine Ingenue Krysten Ritter:
Like Audrey, Krysten looks so harmonious in short, playful Gamine bangs, you forget that this style isn’t easy to pull off.
Her shoulder-length locks are a little longer than is typically ideal for Gamine. But her hair overall has enough movement and relative straightness where, combined with the bangs, it fits Gamine’s high-spirited energy.
Here’s one the most famous people in the world, also a Dramatic Gamine Ingenue, who wears bangs more often than not:
Dramatic bangs
Can bangs, which are so commonly associated with youth, really communciate the commanding, striking feel of Dramatic?
Yes! We get this feel from Dramatic Gamine Ingenue Taylor Swift’s extra-long, dense, straight-across blunt bangs.
It might be surprising that forehead bangs can read as “elongated,” since the whole point of bangs is kind of that they’re shorter than other pieces of hair.
But whether or not something is elongated often doesn’t depend on whether it’s long in some absolute sense, but instead on whether it’s long compared to the expected length of that hairstyle (or clothing silhouette).
So lash-skimming bangs like Taylor’s meet the criteria for being elongated. And paired with her very long, sleek locks, they embody Dramatic’s intense sophistication.
Do you like Dramatic hair on Taylor? In my view, it works for her, but because the extra-long bangs are so intensely Dramatic, she could balance them with more Ingenue and Gamine in her makeup and fashion.
The super Dramatic hair and Dramatic eye, plus the highly Romantic dress, is a lot, but the hair itself does work.
Here’s a younger Taylor in an extremely different hairstyle:
Ingenue bangs
One of the coolest things about style analysis is that depending on their essences, the same person might be able to pull off completely opposite aesthetics. Taylor Swift is gorgeous in extremely sleek, super straight Dramatic hair—and also gorgeous in much shorter, curly Ingenue hair, with curls draped across her forehead to create long, side-swept bangs.
(These might actually be faux-bangs formed from much longer hair… but they still have a bang-like effect!)
Since bangs have strongly youthful associations, they can be amazing on Ingenue, especially when they blend into Ingenue ringlets.
Can bangs be Ingenue in a straight texture? Yes, but ideally you’ll want the edges to curve, the way Taylor’s did at the 2024 Grammys (focus on her bangs and ignore the rest of her hair!) Otherwise, they’re more likely to read as Gamine (if short) or Classic (if medium length).
Romantic bangs
Romantic’s best bangs can be similar to Ingenue’s, with curls strategically swept across the forehead:
This overall look is a great example of a fully Romantic hairstyle, and the way the bangs sweep across the brow and top of the eye is such a good example of how Romantics can make fringe work.
Full bangs will be more challenging for Romantics, because the hairstyle can easily feel youthful or heavy, and can easily create a straight shape across the brows.
In contrast, side bangs create more of a visual curve, where the eye can trace the fluctuating line of the hair going all the way up to the hairline and then all the way back down the bang.
Romantic bangs also look great when they blend into the rest of the hair, since this creates the appearance of overall long hair, which tends to be Romantics’ most flattering length.
Selena Gomez, who has a highly Romantic face (plus Natural and Gamine), rocks a fully Romantic hairstyle with long, full, shiny glam waves. Her “side bangs” might very well be longer pieces of hair that are pinned to create a bang-like effect—so faux-bangs can work well for Romantic, too.
Romantic vs. Ingenue bangs?
Romantics and Ingenue bangs can look similar. For your best look, Romantic bangs will involve larger and longer shapes, even dipping down past the brows and eyelids, as seen on Selena. Forehead bangs that most flatter Ingenue will tend to be shorter, hitting right around or a bit above brow height.
Natural bangs
Naturals are gorgeous in long, deep-parted, side-swept bangs in a carefree, styled-to-look-unstyled way.
On a person without Natural, these bangs might look messy in an unintentional way. On Dramatic Natural Gamine Alexa Chung, the style feels appealing and cool, and it mirrors her laidback Natural beauty.
So even though she doesn’t have every hair perfectly in place, the look totally works.
Who can rock a side part?
Side parts can flatter all the style essences, especially Natural, Romantic, Dramatic, and Ethereal. A very deep side part with straight hair draped across the forehead to create bangs or faux-bangs tends to feel Natural, because it creates an overall horizontal shape that mimics Naturals’ strong, wide bone structure.
Ethereal bangs
So this might not be the absolute most flattering hairstyle Tyra Banks has ever worn. But Ethereal’s best bangs—Tyra is an Ethereal Dramatic Gamine—can be similar to what she has here, with long pieces swept across the forehead and blended into cascading, narrow Ethereal waves.
What would make these bangs better for Ethereal is if the side part weren’t so deep. As mentioned above, a very deep side part is most flattering on Naturals, because it creates a horizontal shape that emphasizes facial width. Ethereals overall tend to have narrow, elongated faces and features, so bangs that create a mostly horizontal shape across the forehead aren’t an ideal fit for Ethereals’ vertically long faces.
While I don’t think there’s significant Natural essence in Tyra’s fringe here, I do think that if her side part wasn’t quite so deep—maybe if it was an inch or so closer to being a middle part—it would be more flattering for Ethereal.
Should long faces get bangs to “shorten” the face?
Some face shape advice recommends straight-across blunt bangs for long faces, as a way to “shorten” the face.
But style analysis is about honoring and enhancing the beauty of your inherent features. So from a style analysis perspective, one of the worst pieces of beauty advice is the idea that you should strive to use your hairstyle to make your face look like an oval, because the oval is somehow the best, most superior face shape.
I want to make a separate post about hair and face shape myths, but as a teaser, an oval isn’t magically better-looking than other shapes, and your life’s mission doesn’t have to be to make your face look more oval-like.
What about hair in fun colors?
Another reason why Tyra’s look above doesn’t totally work: her hair doesn’t seem to match her color season.
But as to the playful nature of the unique pink hue—I actually think that works. Ethereals are great in ombre, and Gamines are great in vivid, fun colors. Dramatics can also carry bold, unusual hues. So if there’s an essence blend that can embrace unnatural colors, EDG is a great contender.
The main issue with Tyra’s blonde and pink ombre isn’t that it’s unnatural but rather that it seems to clash with her skin tone.
What about the other essences? They generally have a harder time pulling off fun hair colors.
Romantics can rock hair in deep shades of red, the iconic Romantic hue.
Ingenues, Naturals, and Classics generally aren’t their best in unnatural hair colors, although Ingenues might be able to make pastels work, like pale pink or blue.
Should you get bangs?
If you have notable Classic and/or Gamine and have been dying to experiment with bangs—you might love the results!
But you might also want to experiment with some form of faux bangs before committing to a chop.
You can also use different apps that you allow you to photoshop yourself with different hairstyles. You might want to try something like that before chopping your hair into, say, Gamine micro bangs.
Future posts will explore more hairstyles that flatter all the essences.
Summary: Should you get bangs meter
Ranking the rough probability you’ll regret getting bangs based on your style essences:
Least likely to regret bangs: Gamine. Gamine effortlessly pulls off the hardest-to-pull-off bangs, like baby bangs and micro bangs. Just keep your other essences in mind if considering an extreme style.
Somewhat unlikely to regret bangs: Classic. Typical brow-skimming bangs are awesome on you. Depending on your hair texture, they could be quick to style or high-maintenance.
Pros and cons: Ingenue. Bangs’ youthful vibe can really suit Ingenue. But Ingenues tend to be most flattered by curly bangs or straight bangs with curving edges, which aren’t necessarily easy to achieve.
Might regret for practical reasons: Dramatic. Extra-long, blunt, straight-across bangs are amazing for Dramatic. But this style may not be ideal if hair in your peripheral vision and/or eyes bugs you.
Might regret if they’re hard to style: Natural. Naturals are gorgeous in effortless, styled-to-look-unstyled bangs, though getting this look could be tricky. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to look effortless.
Somewhat likely to regret: Romantic. Your glam vibe isn’t an ideal fit for straight blunt bangs, but Romantics can rock curving side-swept fringe. You could also consider creating faux bangs rather than chopping your hair.
Most likely to regret: Ethereal. Long, wavy bangs can be gorgeous for Ethereal. But if you’re strongly Ethereal, you may find you’re more flattered by long layers than actual bangs.
Of course, your potential-to-regret is unique to you, and if you want to try bangs—you should!!
