5 Celebrity Pixie Cuts To Inspire Your Next Super Short Haircut

For those who've given pixie cuts a try, you know that of all the short hair trends that have come and gone, the pixie remains iconic. It's not only an incredibly low-maintenance haircut, but it also carries with it a bit of an edge — especially in its early days. After all, women are supposed to have long hair, according to the patriarchy.

While women in the 1920s were considered brave for getting bobs, it wasn't until Audrey Hepburn took short hair even further that "brave" got a new definition. "Hepburn went a long way to making short hair mainstream and got a lot of credit for popularizing the pixie cut, particularly in her 1953 movie 'Roman Holiday,'" historian Rachael Gibson told Vogue. But while the cut was stunning on Hepburn, it wasn't until the 1960s when Mia Farrow and Twiggy took Hepburn's pixie cut even shorter, that people started requesting it at salons. Although there was a bit of a lull in the 1980s, the pixie came back in a major way when Generation X became adults. "The pixie cut will always remind me of cool, alt 1990s girls who wore a much more DIY take on the cut," Gibson told Vogue. "Chloë Sevigny in "Kids" [1995], Jenny Shimizu, and Winona Ryder are all amazing examples."

If you want to go pixie, nothing's stopping you. "A great pixie haircut is based on not just face shape but also the shape of the client's head," hairstylist Karie Bennett told Byrdie, adding that short hair is "basically influenced by bone structure." So don't dawdle; make an appointment and discuss with your stylist the best pixie for you.

Winona Ryder has always been the queen of cool. Whether she's Veronica in the dark comedy "Heathers," the relatable emo teen Lydia Deetz in "Beetlejuice," or the very definition of Generation X as Lelaina dancing to "My Sharona" with Ethan Hawke and Janeane Garofalo, in "Reality Bites," Ryder has always been the pure embodiment of what it means to be an original. Which explains why she's rocked the pixie cut multiple times throughout her life.

In 1994, Ryder graced the cover of Rolling Stone with one of her many incarnations of her pixie cut. Not only did the magazine interview Ryder, but also her "Reality Bites" costar, Garofalo, who said of Ryder, "I think Winona's the poster girl of every Trekkie, every computer nerd, every information-superhighway addict, every comedy head and every comic-book collector. And athletes, too. You know? She's so gorgeous that she crosses over." That sounds like an authentic soul who would boldly go into a pixie cut and never look back.

It was in 2007 that Michelle Williams first donned a pixie cut. At the time, she was in a relationship with Heath Ledger who would sadly pass away a year later from an accidental drug overdose. Over the years, Williams has talked about her pixie cut, the reason why she cut it, and tends to keep it short. In 2011, Williams sat down with Elle UK to talk about her upcoming film, "My Week with Marilyn," and the topic of her haircut came up. "I cut it for the one straight man who has ever liked short hair and I wear it in memorial of somebody who really loved it," Williams said of Ledger.

Although she's grown the cut out a couple of times, she always seems to return to her pixie roots. In March 2023, Williams arrived at the Oscars and she was, once again, back to her platinum pixie cut. She's still in pixie mode this year too, as we saw at the 2024 Met Gala. 

When you think of Halle Berry, it's hard not to think about her without a pixie cut. Even the few times she's grown it out, although it looks good, it's still not the Berry we were originally introduced to back in the 1990s. But we're not the only ones who automatically think pixie cut when we hear Halle Berry's name; even the actress loves the look on herself and credits the cut for her big break into Hollywood.

"When I got this haircut, I felt like my best self," Berry told InStyle in 2019. "I had no hair to hide behind. It was just all me. Take it or leave it. Love it or hate it. It was who I was. And I cut my hair short when I first became an actor, and finally got a job. And I think that was because the directors and the producers actually saw me ... it actually got me my first job on 'Living Dolls.' So, I have an affinity for short hair and I'll go back one day." Although Berry's hair is short again these days, rocking one of the best bob hairstyles of 2024, she's yet to go back to her super short pixie cut.

As we've written before, Emma Watson with short hair just makes sense. Although her short hair has varied in its shortness over the years, it's the super chic pixie cut that she debuted in 2010 while promoting "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" that really stood out. Not just because it was a shock for fans of Watson and the franchise, but because it was a bold step for the former child actress to show the world she was now an adult and, as such, it was time for her to embrace the woman she was becoming.

Although we gave a nod to Audrey Hepburn for being the first to make the pixie cut mainstream, Mia Farrow and Twiggy contributed to its explosion. But Farrow's cut isn't without some drama. One rumor that was spread shortly after she debuted her pixie was that she did it to irritate her husband at the time, Frank Sinatra, who then allegedly served her divorce papers over the haircut. Another rumor, void of scandal, was simply that she needed the cut for the 1968 film "Rosemary's Baby," in which Farrow starred.

In 2013, Mia Farrow put the rumors to bed in a piece she wrote for The New York Times: "I had literally cut it myself earlier that year — with a pair of fingernail scissors — while working on the 'Peyton Place' TV series at Fox Studios ... My then-boyfriend, Frank Sinatra, loved the cut, and so I kept it short. (I purchased some hair scissors; then, as now, I cut it myself.) Vidal Sassoon is mentioned in the book 'Rosemary's Baby' and the film. So, Paramount decided to stage a photo shoot in which Mr. Sassoon trimmed my 1 [and] 1/2-inch hair to 1 inch. The whole event was taken in good spirits. (I wore a wig during the earlier scenes.)"

Should you have a pair of fingernail scissors lying around and want to give yourself a pixie cut, that's always an option. But if this is your first time at the pixie rodeo, go to a professional.