Love or hate romantic comedies; you can’t deny their beauty influence. Think: Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, or Whitney Houston in Waiting to Exhale. Clearly, mid length haircuts with voluminous curls and waves clearly make for serious main character energy.
Such was especially the case in the late ’90s and early 2000, when rom-com stars wore layers haircuts that hit just above or below the shoulder. Julia Roberts (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Notting Hill, Pretty Woman, Mystic Pizza), Angela Bassett (How Stella Got Her Groove Back), Jennifer Aniston (Along Came Polly, Rumor Has It, The Break Up), Queen Latifah (Just Wright, Last Holiday), and Cameron Diaz (The Sweetest Thing, The Holiday) all rocked takes on the layered look, which had incredible movement as they did things like chase after their loves in airports.
After binge-watching some of my favorite films recently, I was inspired to chop several inches off my hair to get the same layered look. I opted for a face-framing butterfly cut, which my sister described as the new-and-improved look as “rom-com hair.” As a beauty editor, this was the ultimate compliment.
Because even modern versions of rom-com hair consist of mid length haircuts with the same dramatic volume and movement. See: Constance Wu in Crazy Rich Asians, Jennifer Lopez in Shotgun Wedding, Priyanka Chopra Jonas in Love Again, and, to bring us full circle, Meg Ryan in What Happens Later. Time—and trends—are a flat circle!
If you want to get a rom-com haircut in 2024, you’ll have plenty of inspiration. According to celebrity hairstylist Marc Mena, the look is an evolved version of what was worn in the ‘80s, ’90s, and 2000s. “It’s something that already exists, it’s just a different way of styling it,” says Mena, who cites the butterfly haircut and kitty cut as references. Rom-com hair is the perfect mid-point between long layers and a shag.
“It’s a haircut that you can have fun with without feeling like it’s such a long commitment, because the layers aren’t as short as those on a shag, and will grow out pretty quickly,” says Mena, who just gave Madelaine Petsch her own version of the chop.
