Five Sophisticated, Short Haircuts for Women

Short haircuts for women feature cropped or razored edges that are decidedly shaggy, curly or super-straight. Oftentimes, your taste in music will dictate what kind of short haircuts you get at the salon.

Eighties flashback: Think Brigitte Nielsen meets Pink with this haircut. It's slick and smoothed down on the sides and in the back. But on the top portion, the hair is teased to promote volume and feathery layers. There are no bangs for this style, but the top front does tend to flop over the forehead just a little.

Bowl cut: Picture someone cutting your bob around a bowl placed upside-down on top of your head. Every strand in such short haircuts for women should be super-straight and shiny-smooth. The rest of the hair is tapered down the neck. This bob carries on the bowl shape in bangs, which should be cut to hang just beneath the brows. You can do a variation of this style by flipping up the edges of the sides and back.

Curly and voluminous: Short hair piled on top of the head in multiple curls offers a sophisticated, tousled look that works well in fine hair that doesn't get weighed down by the bulk of heavy hair. This style requires curling the hair with a 1-inch to 1-1/2-inch curling iron, then tousling it loose with your fingers or a brush. Hair towards the lower half of the head tapers in toward the neck for a slicked-down effect.

Short and spiky: Continuing the "lots of hair on top" effect, this short, spiky '˜do features close-trimmed sides and back with a heavily spiked and layered top section. This should be a messy, bed-head look, but at the same time styled to look sophisticated. You should not have any bangs with this cut.

Angled bob: This bob features a back length that hits a couple inches above the nape of the neck. It angles forward such that the front layers drape an inch or so below the chin. Part this bob down the side, straight up from the arch in one of your eyebrows. You can choose a set of angled bangs with this cut, but such short haircuts for women look more dramatic without them.