The Long and the Short of Getting the Chop

Article by BR Amelia

How many times have you twirled your long hair between your fingers and contemplated chopping it all off? Perhaps you’ve grown bored of the same long-haired look? Maybe you just feel like a change. But something stops you… and that something is the very understandable fear that you’ll come out of the salon filled with regret and the desire to find a cave to hide in until your hair grows out.

Some say you don’t know until you try, but celebrity hairstylist and founder of salons and products, John Frieda, has come up with a way to help you figure out whether you should chop, or not. It’s called the 2.25” Rule – or if you’re fond of centimetres, the 5.5cm Rule.

“It’s all about the angles,” said Senior Stylist at John Frieda Salons UK and International Training Director of Color Wow, Giles Robinson. “John studied faces and saw that the angle of the jaw bone determined whether or not someone will look best with short or long hair.”

So how can you figure out at home if you should be calling the salon and booking yourself in for an image-changing look? All you have to do is position a pencil under your chin, then place a ruler under your ear, check the measurement where the pencil and ruler meet, and you’ll have your answer. Less than 5.5cm and you can rock short locks. Anything more and it may be best for you to stick with a long and lush look. 

Of course, like any advice you can choose to take it or leave it – after all some rules were made to be broken. (And for the record, I come in at 6cm at have been known to look super cute with a chin length bob, if I do say so myself… but would I pixie it? Noooooo).

So why not get those pencils and rulers out and let us know where you stand on John Frieda’s rule. Have you chopped? Will you chop? Or do the measurements simply not add up?