Can You Actually Pull off 1970S Hair? Face Shapes, Upkeep, and Barber Realities

Are can You Actually Pull off 1970S Hair? Face Shapes, Upkeep, and Barber Realities something you want to understand? Find out the complete facts in our feature story.

Pulling off 1970s hair comes down to balance. The human eye reads longer hair as architectural mass, meaning the silhouette of your haircut changes your perceived head shape.

For men with oblong or rectangular face shapes, retro hair is an ideal aesthetic tool. When hair sweeps outward at the temples, a hallmark of feathered hair men wore throughout the late 70s, it adds width across the mid-face. That horizontal dimension visually breaks up a long forehead and prominent chin. Incorporating curtain bangs for men flatters an oblong profile by softening the hairline and shortening the upper third of the face.

Round or square profiles require a different strategy:

• Steer clear of wide, wing-like flares at the ear line. Adding width to the sides exaggerates facial roundness. Barbers recommend keeping the temples closely tailored and building volume upward through crown layers.
• Strong jawlines carry classic shags with ease. The natural disarray of textured layers softens sharp angles without concealing the jawline.
• Wider temple length and soft fringe elements counterbalance a pointed chin or narrow forehead, filling in hollows around the brow line.

Hair density also dictates whether a cut succeeds or falls flat. A layered shag requires sufficient density to generate stacked layers. Men with fine, thinning hair often discover that over-layering makes the ends look wispy, turning what should be a lush flow into an unintended mullet.