The pixie cut trend can be traced back to the 1920s, and more than a century later, it's still the most thrilling chop a person can request at the salon. Inherently dramatic and rebellious, the pixie cuts dominating Hollywood right now make a declarative statement: Our hair is ours and ours alone.
2024 kicked off with several celebrity pixie cut debuts on red carpets and magazine covers—and It girls requested the chop for more reason than its enduring appeal. After two years of celebrity bob hair mania, many of the trend's earliest adopters may be tiring of the look and how ubiquitous it's become. Where do you go when your chin or collarbone-grazing cut turns into a meme? You can patiently wait for the grow-out process to bear fruit like Sydney Sweeney did. Or you can ditch your middling chop for something even shorter like Renée Zellweger.
On the latest cover of British Vogue, the Bridget Jones alum debuted a transformative cut that sits somewhere between David Bowie's boyish flop and Princess Diana's gamine blonde crop. Shorn for the February shoot by hairstylist Syd Hayes, her pixie was both a surprise and a self-referential choice: It paid homage to the rom-com protagonist style she wore to the 1999 Oscars, as well as the lengthier pixies she sported between 2007 and 2010. Hayes used clippers to create clean lines at the nape of the neck; scissors and razor blades to achieve those piece-y textural ends; thickening spray for volume at the roots; and a vent brush to finish the look with a bendy blowout.
“When people go for a cut that’s too in-between and not big or bold enough, you don’t get the dramatic effect," Hayes later told the outlet of his process. "You don’t get the wow factor. That’s why Reneé was so cool; she felt the cut. She believed in it.”
Zellweger isn't the only celebrity who's taken the pixie plunge lately. At the 2025 Golden Globes, Emma Stone turned up with a cut reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn and Mia Farrow. Whereas Zellweger's chop was carefully planned in the lead-up to her cover shoot, it sounds like Stone's version is actually a grown-out buzz cut she got for her next film with director Yargos Lanthimos—a science fiction comedy called Bugonia. Of course, Stone's longtime stylist Mara Roszak made sure to trim the ends before the Oscar winner hit the red carpet in January.
"It's been growing out, and it's looking so stunning—very nineties in that nostalgic way," Roszak explained to Allure.
Like Stone, Brie Larson's brunette pixie cut—unveiled via Instagram in November—was performed in service of a forthcoming role in an West End production of Sophocles's Elektra. Cut by hairstylist Cervando Maldonado and dyed by colorist Jacob Schwartz, key influences for the transformation included the likes of Winona Ryder, Jean Seberg, and Edie Sedgwick.
"I love how this short cut suits Brie’s face and her personal style, as well as the character," Maldonado told Vogue of her edgy look.
Rihanna has never needed a reason to experiment with her hair, but transformative cuts have always been her favorite way to make a splash. She's tested out pixie cuts of varying lengths and colors before in 2008, 2012, and 2014, but the advent of Fenty Hair gave the singer the perfect opportunity to reprise the look. This time, she jumped at the chance to show off her natural curl pattern with a honey blonde highlighted pixie. It was clear the singer was feeling her look at the launch party last June as she posed for photographers on the step-and-repeat. But she also circled back to the look in campaign imagery for Fenty Beauty's “You Mist” Setting Spray in January 2025.
Emma Corrin's pixie technically dates back to 2024, but the Nosferatu press tour gave the actor a chance to accessorize the cut in exciting new ways. Corrin let their wispy baby bangs peek out from beneath a lacy black glam-goth bonnet at the film's Los Angeles premiere on Dec. 12. They also gave their ends a mullet-inspired flip at the horror movie's London premiere two weeks prior.
Just like bomber jackets and wedge sandals, consider the emerging pixie cut trend yet another sign that 2010s fashion is back. Perhaps we'll even see celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Watson, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, and Charlize Theron circle back to the pixies they once had with Rihanna leading the way.
I can recall a lot of mid-aughts fear-mongering about the awkward grow-out stages that inevitably follow a pixie cut. But I think society has evolved past the need for such warnings, thanks to the rise of trendy in-between haircuts like mullets, shags, and lobs. So don't be afraid to liberate yourself from that weary bob. It'll still be there for you six months later.
