The 6 emotional stages of growing out a fringe

Look, we get it. We’ve all looked at photos of Alexa Chung, Zooey Deschanel and Suki Waterhouse, and thought a fringe would automatically give us cool girl status, too. It’s all smooth sailing until you forget to take bobby pins to the gym or don’t have time to blow-dry it in place. Even worse is realising it doesn’t suit your face shape. Fabulous.

Whether you’ve cut one and loved it (at least at first) or regretted it instantly, odds are you’ve experienced the emotional rollercoaster that comes with getting a fringe… 

Committing to the chop

So you’ve googled “best celebrity fringes” for weeks, and now it’s time to take action! You bookmark those dreamy Emma Stone fringe pics and call the salon to make an appointment. Bullet = bitten.

The three-week blues

You’ve had a fringe for just under a month and it’s started to grow, but now, for some unknown reason, it’s not sitting as well as it did in the salon. 

Remember that double crown, cowlick or widow’s peak you’ve been battling oh, just your your whole life? Yeah, there’s a reason you didn’t do this earlier. 

Making irrational decisions

Rather than doing the sensible thing and heading back to the salon, you think, “how hard can this be? I’ll just trim it myself”. Bad idea.

Engage awkward phase…

Now that you’ve managed to mess up your fringe, prepare for months of frustration to grow it out. The plus side is, you’re experimenting with your beauty look more than ever before! Think side-swept styles, gringes, slicked-back ‘dos and hair accessories.

You’ll be doing this… a lot.

At some point, you’ll probably buy a hat.

And pine for your long hair again.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future…

Rejoice! You had the patience to deal with the highs and lows, and now you’ve finally reached the point where your fringe is long enough to blend into your hair. Everything is right in the world again.

The cycle continues

Just when you think you’re in the safe zone, you find another pic of Zooey with the most perfect fringe ever and before you know it, you’re speed-dialling the salon to do it all over again. 

How did you handle the awkward stages of growing out a fringe?