A Viral TikTok Video Claims This Hack Will Determine If You'd Look Good With Short Hair

• The Internet is loaded with beauty hacks and tips, but not all of them are accurate.
• A viral video on TikTok claims you can tell if short hair looks good on you by measuring your face.
• Here, a hairstylist debunks that myth and explains what to do instead.

The Internet is full of interesting and helpful information, but it’s also loaded with falsehoods. For example, if you’ve heard the age-old makeup tale of matching your nude lipstick to your nipple, that’s actually true. But what about the beauty advice of measuring the length of your face to determine whether or not you look good with short hair?

Allow us to explain: a viral video on TikTok claims you can tell if a short hairstyle, like a bob or lob haircut, will look good on you by measuring your face. The video involves taking two pencils and putting one under your chin and one alongside your face by your ear. You then measure the distance between the two pencils. It claims that if the distance is greater than 2 1/4 inches then long hair looks good on you and if it’s shorter than 2 1/4 inches, short hair is for you. But is that true? We asked a hairstylist to be sure.

If finding out whether or not short or long hair looks good on you was simple as measuring your face, bad haircuts would be a thing of the past once and for all. Unfortunately, according to Nunzio Saviano, celebrity hairstylist, owner of Nunzio Saviano Salon in NYC, and Aloxxi brand ambassador, it’s not. “Anyone can pull off short hair,” he said. Ultimately, whether or not you personally feel a short haircut looks good on you comes down to three factors: your hair’s texture, your face shape, and your lifestyle (which is the case for any length of haircut).

Your hair’s texture will affect how a new haircut lays and your lifestyle will affect how it ultimately looks after you leave the salon based on whether or not you take the time to actually style it. Your face shape, on the other hand, can mean certain hairstyles accentuate your features better than others but it doesn’t speak to length specifically. “A jawline will determine what face shape you have – round, oval, square, etc. – but it doesn’t determine what length of hair looks good,” said Saviano.

If you’re contemplating trying short hair for the first time but unsure if it’ll be flattering on you, the best thing you can do is put down the pencils (or tape measure, or any other random inanimate object) and talk to your hairstylist. Saviano also recommended you “slick your hair back in a tight ponytail.” If you feel confident and like that style, it probably means you’ll feel confident with shorter hair. Moral of the story: don’t listen to everything you see on TikTok.