ThreadCurve readers have been voting on hairstyles: a heart or a thumbs-down under every photo in our hair articles, from pixie cuts and lobs to before-and-after makeovers. We’ve pulled it all into one report: 53,633 votes from 11,364 readers on 2,059 hairstyles, the reasons readers gave, and 5,341 answers to our hair polls.
Balayage won by a mile
How the colour was put in mattered more than the colour itself. Balayage drew 70% hearts; single-process, all-over colour drew 33%. Blonde, red and brunette scored within a few points of each other. For grey, natural grey (47%) beat grey blending (39%).
The lob is the length to beat
Collarbone-length lobs drew 60% hearts and long hair 55%. Bobs (37%) and short cuts above the chin (32%) trailed. Movement won everywhere: wavy hair beat straight (60% vs 40%), tousled beat sleek (56% vs 28%) and layers beat blunt one-length cuts (54% vs 37%).
Soft bangs yes, blunt bangs no
Curtain bangs (58%) and wispy bangs (57%) did well; blunt bangs (25%) were among the least-loved looks in the whole study. When readers explained a thumbs-down, the colour, looking dated and looking too severe were the top reasons.
The full report
The Hair Report pools the hairstyle photos by length, cut, bangs, colour technique, colour, texture and finish, ranks the most- and least-loved looks, covers the mistakes readers agree on, and adds why readers voted the way they did and 20 hair polls. It includes the full dataset.
Get the full report at StatwrenHow we did this
- Readers tapped a heart or a thumbs-down under each photo in 66 of our hair articles between Feb 19, 2026 and Nov 5, 2026. One vote per reader per photo.
- Votes are anonymous: no names, emails or accounts. Readers were reacting to photos, not trying the cut themselves.
- Percentages are the share of hearts. Traits such as length and cut were read from each photo; article groupings are ours.
- More on how we collect reader data: How our reader data works.