Growing out a pixie cut: the awkward stage game plan

Growing out a pixie cut takes 12 to 18 months to reach a chin length bob, and closer to two years if you want it past your shoulders. Hair grows about half an inch a month, so the timeline is fixed. What is not fixed is how rough the middle bit looks, and that comes down to how you cut it on the way through.

The short version

Pixie to a chin length bob takes 12 to 18 months.

Hair grows around half an inch a month, six inches a year.

Keep booking a cut every 8 to 10 weeks while you grow it out.

The awkward stage is the sides and nape catching up with the top.

A cut and finish is £42 to £55 with us. Klarna is available.

Growing out a pixie cut: the three stages

Stage one runs from month one to about month four. The top gets long enough to sit over your ears while the sides and nape are still cropped. This is the point where most women panic and book themselves straight back to short.

Stage two is months five to ten. Everything is heading for the jawline, but nothing arrives at the same time. The sides flick out over your ears and the nape starts to sit on your neck.

Stage three is months eleven to eighteen. There is finally enough weight through the sides to cut a proper bob, and from there it is an ordinary grow out like anyone else.

The timing is not guesswork. Healthy scalp hair grows at about 0.35 mm a day, which works out at roughly half an inch a month or six inches a year. That figure comes from the medical literature on hair anatomy, not from us, and nothing you buy in a bottle speeds it up.

Why you keep booking cuts while you grow it out

Clients tell me they plan to leave it alone for a year and let it do its thing. I understand the logic, and it does not work. A pixie is three different lengths cut to sit together, so the moment you stop cutting, those lengths grow apart at the same speed and the shape falls apart.

We are not taking length off when you come in during a grow out. We are taking weight out and moving the shape along so the short bits catch up without you looking like you have a mullet by month six.

Every 8 to 10 weeks is the cadence. Any longer and the nape turns into a tail. Any shorter and you are cutting off the progress you came in for.

What we actually do in the chair

The nape gets tidied, not shortened. Left alone it grows into a point that sits on your collar and drags the whole shape down with it.

The sides get point cut so they tuck behind your ear instead of winging out over it. That flick is the one thing most clients hate about month six, and it is a cutting problem rather than a styling problem.

The top gets softened so it does not sit heavy over shorter sides. Sabrina and Sheree both do a lot of this work, and between the three of us we have grown out enough pixies to know where the trouble comes.

A cut and finish is £42 to £55. If we are changing the shape properly rather than maintaining it, that is a restyle at £60. A blow dry on its own is £28 to £35.

Getting through the awkward weeks

Texture spray and a bit of grip is most of the answer. Half up once you have the length, a claw clip, kirby grips at the sides on the days the flicks win.

Resist straightening it flat every single morning. The American Academy of Dermatology is blunt about it: excessive heat causes damage whatever your hair type, and they advise limiting blow drying and tools like flat irons. Wrecked ends during a grow out means cutting off the length you have spent a year waiting for.

If you are colouring at the same time, keep it simple the whole way through. A root tint at £40 to £47 or a toner at £35 to £40 keeps things looking deliberate without piling processing onto hair you need to keep.

When to book

If you are somewhere in the middle of a grow out and it has stopped looking like anything, book a cut and we will get the shape back on track. If you are only thinking about cutting a pixie in the first place, come and talk it through with me before you commit, because the grow out is eighteen months of your life.

Full prices are on our pricing list, and Klarna is available if you would rather spread it.

Call us on 01582 730381 or book online. We are at Shop 660, Jansel House, Hitchin Rd, Stopsley, Luton LU2 7XH. Open Tuesday and Wednesday 10 to 8, Thursday 10 to 6, Friday 10 to 3, Saturday 10 to 4:30, closed Sunday and Monday.