What is a mum cut?

[saltnpepa]

Inspired by the other thread on long hair vs short hair, I'm wondering what a mum cut is? Pictures please!

I too have the fairly nondescript slightly too long bob.

I really like the choppy one BualadhBos posted! I've been wanting an updated "Rachel" hair cut for ages. It was my best look. (15 years ago, hmmm...)

I'm much to embarrassed to ask a hairdresser for it but that pic looks pretty much like it would do!

Some of us get the "mum cut" purely by accident :-(

I have a great head of hair BUT I have a double crown which determines how my hair is cut ;-(

If the layers are too short it sits in a sort of hump at front and looks like hairdresser couldn't decide whether to make it a long or short cut.

My hairline is also strange and determines my cut. If my hair is all one length it looks like a wig! So I am therefore resigned to being frumpy! ;-(

I don't think it's nastiness. I had a mum bob when DD was young. Back in the day if I ran a comb through it and brushed my teeth then that was the minimum. If I got time for anything else on top it was a bonus. Dry shampoo was my friend.
I only have one and now she's older I can find my own style again. I totally understand the need for a mum cut. I have walked in those (sensible) shoes.

I've got mum hair at the moment. A too short bob, growing out a too short pixie cut. Sigh. the pixie would have looked not dissimilar to the picture above, had I spiked the crown and added some colours. It's all in the styling. Although it did make me look older, too short.

Alexa Chung has a mum cut then?

Alexa Chung

What is the antithesis to a mum cut, actually? What's the least mumsy hairstyle?

So what isnt a mum cut? Examples please

This thread could definitely cross over to the feminism section - why is "mumsy" a derogatory term? Lack of femininity? Who decides what's feminine?

If you're cool, you're cool. Without hair, with hair, however it's styled.

Jane Birkin, anyone? Jane Birkin

I second the call for non-mum cut examples. Mine's a bit too long and I just wear it in a plait all the time. I need a change but I don't want to fall into a stereotype (DSis already slags me if I wear pastels).

Oh now I would have said that Nicola Sturgeon has a 'mum cut'. But I do see an awful lot of that weird spiky crown thing going on, especially with the odd red stripes. Generally on older women though.

This could be a very non-mumsy option:

Alek Wek

...or possibly this?

Veronica Lake

This is nice-

Any haircut could be mumsy if you stop putting effort into it, I think. Unless you're lucky enough to suit something very short and funky. Same with clothes (not the short bit!)

Bright sadly I think it's because mum is very feminine and denotes a rite of passage/typical age. So it can be snorted at by misogynists and ageists alike. Plus some women who think incorrectly that the way to be feminist is to avoid traditional female roles and markers. The stereotype is we are so wrap up in kids we can neither be the career woman nor the sexy young thing.
As ever it boils down to that Virgin (now more asexual/logical), mother or whore stereotype that the patriarchal society has always engaged with.

Though with regards to hair, mine really needs sorting. It has new mum tufts all over, I look like I've got hamster fur under my tresses!

I don't consider myself ageist or misogynist. I'd be very surprised to find that was suddenly the case.

It's not sexist to not like some hairstyles. If some of the above hairstyles were on men, I wouldn't like them either. In fact I have seen the spiky crown one on some younger men, and it looks bloody awful on them too. IMO.

To throw an example of good hair into the ring, Vera Farmiga hasn't got mum hair, even as Norma Bates.

I can see why the terminology would upset some people.

It's shorthand. Like beer belly, mom jeans, dad dancing.

Bright there's no way I'd pull off the Alex Wek style. I've been blessed with a round face and button nose. I'd look like a cheery egg

I have never heard of Mum hair or boots outside MN.

Jane Birkin looks gorgeous. All tousled.
I've just had two inches cut off ...I've told the hairdresser, never let me try and grow it again. It doesn't work.
So I have choppy bob.

bulahdbos I printed off that exact picture years ago and took it into the hairdressers. I was early 30s

I don't think it's the cut which defines "mumsy", more the styling.

Marina I'm sure the cheery-egg look would be very un-mumsy!

Would you consider Sam Cam to have a Mum cut?

I think it depends on your over all look whether a style looks good or not

Alexa chung looks great as it is loosely styled and healthy looking I think over styled and obvious colour is worse than a particular cut