Half-up, half-down hair: Dudes love it.

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I dated a boy once who had a ‘thing’ for half-up, half-down hair (where you pull back the top part of your hair, but leave the bottom half out) in the same way Miss HEIDI MONTAG has a thing for plastic surgery. He was mad for it! Said it drove him wild! Asked for it all the time! And guess what. He wasn’t the only guy who felt this way. Boys LOVE THIS hairstyle.

Seriously, they do. Ask any guy near you right now. It’s pretty and it’s fresh and it’s hot, they’ll say. That’s why they like it. It’s got the trifecta. Breaking it down, the main appeal seems to be:

A) They get a full view of your eyes and face, because the hair that so often sits over it has kindly been pulled back.

B) Your lovely jawline and neck is visible, and men, love, necks. (This is why when we’re flirting us birds subconsciously pull the hair covering the side of our face and neck closest to the object of our flirting back - so all that lovely neck skin is on show. We’re such filthy lil’ vampires.)

C) The hair is still long and feminine at the back. I know, I know, I love short hair on women too, but men, in general, like a bit of length. And admittedly, this one requires a bit of length to be able to do (past your shoulders at least).

It doesn’t hurt that someone who is regarded as being one of the sexiest people in greater NSW, and sometimes even the whole universe, ANGELINA JOLIE (here at the Director’s Guild Awards this week) does the half-up, half-down all the time. Knows the power of it. Makes it look elegant and sophisticated.

And here’s the back, so we can see how she’s just jammed it all up there in pins…

Doesn’t she do it well. Loves the half-up, half-down. Cracks it out all the time.

I think the key to making this hairstyle look sexy and grown-up and chic, (or carefree and boho and curly and tendrily and ‘70s-ish) as opposed to flirting with schoolgirly, is to keep it backcombed and tousled and imperfect.

You do not want it to be tight.
You do not want to smooth it down to get rid of any rogue ‘bubbles’.
You do not care if some fringey bits fall out loosely ‘round your face.
You enthuse some of the ‘half-down’ part to sit in front of your ears if it wants to - it doesn’t have to sit perfectly tucked behind your ears.
You do not team it with a Hello Kitty tunic.

Here’s my two-second-pulled-back-with-fingers-and-jammed-in-with-bobby-pins take on it, in which you might be able to just see the dangly gold earrings. Earrings go GREAT with the half-up, half-down.

Do you do half-up, half-down?
Do you think it’s shithouse that as a modern woman we might wear a hairstyle just because we know it drives men a little bit wild?

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