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5 Women’s Hair Lengths Explained (Charts & Diagrams)

Women's hair length chart - Illustrated

I like the above chart because it’s far more helpful than the more common terms, which are short, medium-length, and long hair. Some people may even say “very short” or “very long,” but again, one person’s view of what’s short hair may be different than someone else.

The charts above and below use anatomy to give some absolute definition to hair length, which is helpful.

Below, we define each hair length as a reference to women’s hairstyles.


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1. Very short = Above the ear or shorter

We acknowledge that some people may consider a very short buzz cut only. We get that, but we also include close-cropped cuts like pixie cuts in our short definition for women. For men, a short haircut would only be a buzz cut; for women, including a short pixie cut is not out of the question.

Very short ear-length women hair illustrated chart


2. Short = Chin and Above

Some people might consider above chin length short and not just very short. Again, defining hair lengths isn’t easy, and there’s room for interpretation.

Short ear-length women's hair chart


3. Medium-Length = Shoulder-Length

Shoulder length is a fairly true representation of medium-length hair length.

Medium-length-shoulder-length hair chart for women


4. Long = Armpit length

Armpit length or longer is long hair. Some might suggest armpit length as long, but we believe that’s medium-length in the big scheme.

Long armpit-length hair chart for women


5. Very Long = Mid-back or longer

Mid-back and longer is very long. This is not a common hair length relative to the other lengths, but it’s still done.

Very long mid-back length hair chart for women




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