Defined by a hair style

Some statement looks – scarlet lips, caviar manicures, printed pajama pants – are here today, gone tomorrow. But others, like blunt bangs, tend to leave a more lasting impression, and in changing your entire face shape have the power to make people remember you because of them. They become your signature.

Would French pop be as effortlessly cool without Françoise Hardy‘s, France Gall‘s, and Jane Birkin’s enviable fringe? Would Naomi Campbell be as edgy if we could actually see her forehead?

For some people, leaving a strong impression is a deliberate thing. In Allure’s February issue, Zooey Deschanel admitted, “I’m bangs and eyes,” and she uses them as branding to promote her “adorkable” image.

But designer Erin Fetherston recently told fashionologie.com that she’s worried people recognize her for her platinum bangs alone: “I’ve had my bangs for such a long time and I know people really associate me with them. You don’t want to be defined by something like your haircut. I feel like it was starting to overshadow other things that I do in my life, which I think are more interesting.”

Of course, you don’t see her cutting them either.

As for me, I don’t consider my hair to be a promotional tool for anything at all, but my blunt bangs are still hard to shake. Because I am currently growing mine out, I swept them back the other day, only to have someone tell me that they barely recognized me. This sounded crazy to me, as I’ve had bangs for only a year. Still, the visual imprint of my fringe outweighs the vast majority of photos of me without it. (For the record, my parents, perhaps having a very clear memory of my 22 bang-less years, are very excited that I’m going back to my original style.)

If you have serious bangs, do you feel like you’re attached to them forever? Or could you grow them out and no one would notice? Leave a comment on our Facebook page.

Originally written by Alexandra Owens, this article appeared in Allure.