Short cut to glamour isn’t beyond the fringe!

... it’s the lockdown look you can do yourself — while lopping years off your age. Meghan and Claudia Winkleman’s stylist explains how

Short or long, tousled or neat, swept or blunt... fringes are everywhere right now. I’ve lost count of the number of clients at my London salon asking for one as part of their postlockdown cut —– in fact, if you’ve managed to make it through the past few months without a fringe, I’d say you’re in the minority.

Flame-haired Poldark beauty Eleanor tomlinson is the latest A-lister to brave the face-framing look, joining the likes of actress Daisy Edgar-Jones and tV presenter Claudia Winkleman, whose trademark fringe I’ve been cutting for years, alongside the likes of Meghan Markle, whose hair I styled on her wedding day.

Stuck indoors for months on end, with salons closed and hairdressers banned from going to clients’ homes, lockdown left millions of women in desperate need of a change.

Step forward the fringe; with a bit of research, it’s an easy cut to do yourself at home, with immediate look-at-me impact.

there’s no better way to freshen up a tired face or disguise a wrinkled forehead than a fringe; done properly, it can take years off your look.

A grown-out fringe, for example, in the style of Alexa Chung, another of my clients, works well on everyone, no matter your age or face shape.

If you want a fuller fringe, there are several things to consider. the shorter and blunter you go, the harder it is to manage as you’ve got to blow-dry it smooth every day. If you’ve got coarse or curly hair, this won’t work.

If you’ve got fine hair, you’ll need to take your fringe back quite far towards the top of your head to make it look good; otherwise you’ll see bits of forehead in between, and that’s not flattering. I do try to deter clients with extremely fine hair from getting short fringes, unless they’re really adamant.

Women with round faces should avoid a blunt fringe, as it makes the face look wider. And if you have prominent features, a fringe will only accentuate them.

Saying all that, fringes really aren’t something to be afraid of. Choose the right one for your age and face shape, and you can’t go wrong… or at least your hairdresser can fix it!

Since salons reopened, even though it is relatively easy, my colleagues and I have fixed hundreds of DIY fringes — and helped many more women take the plunge, too.

With rumours swirling of a second lockdown, it’s the ideal ‘safety cut’; something to see you through the next few months, which won’t be impossible to maintain at home if hairdressers are forced to shut.

the fringe benefits are endless: you’ll look instantly chic, shave years off your look — and it’s guaranteed to get you noticed, as these stars know only too well…