List Is Long for Short-Hair Styling Tricks

She sports a short, sassy style that’s the latest in chic, but Susan Gross, 41, can’t do a thing with her hair.

Not when it comes to matching the tricks of long-tressed women who, come party time, can mousse, gel, fluff, curl, bow, braid and tease themselves into glamorous shape for an entrance that knocks ‘em dead.

“When I get dressed up I try to pouf it out--as far as it goes--to make it look spiffier,” says the special-education teacher from Santa Ana who, since the fourth grade, has been a veteran of wash ‘n’ go, low-maintenance hair.

“But to be truthful, sometimes I don’t feel that glamorous. Society seems to look upon long hair as what’s feminine and sexy.”

Shame, shame society. Whether buzzed, layered or bobbed, short hair styles today are some of the sexiest, dressiest, most elegant head-turners yet. And likely not since Coco Chanel first cropped a ‘20s bob and women were inducted into the hair hall of fun, have short styles seemed so easy, fresh and pleasing.

But there are times short comes up short. “Women with great, short cuts get used to spending no time with their hair. It’s Number 15 on their list of things to do,” says Michael Leonetti, 36, of Orange, a stylist at Irvine’s Carlton Hair Salon. “Then a party or something special comes up, and suddenly it’s No. 1. They want some fantasy hair--something they don’t do day in and day out--and don’t know how. They’re stuck.”

Never fear, 911 for short hair is only an accessory away.

Clips, barrettes, headbands, bows--the means to hair glitz and glamour fill the store display cases in seductive array. For women with more sense of fun than funds, assistance toward fancy and fanciful hair awaits at fabric shops and craft outlets--even the neighborhood market--for make-it-yourself creativity. And with a little ingenuity and a lot of desire to dazzle, a woman can dress up her short tresses “definitely,” says Leonetti, “to impress.”

Simply popping on a beautiful velvet headband on a straight, chin-length bob, for example, will add instant glamour, say a number of hair pros. Combing the hair’s front and side sections up off the face into a classy rhinestone clip will, too. As will pulling side sections up and back with combs--available this holiday season encrusted with faux jewels, sparkling with sequins or rich with bits of velvet, brocade, beading or gold.

If longer than the chin, but still one length, bobs can be swept back into a “nice, slick, elegant, one-clip ponytail,” says Nicole Cody, 25, a Costa Mesa stylist.

And layered, graduated and shorter variations on the bluntly cropped classic can be transformed from sporty and neat by day into a feminine, sexy, toss of curls for evening with an at-home, one-night perm, she suggested. Simply twist small, freshly washed sections of hair around sponge rollers, rubber twistees (available at beauty supply stores) or strips of rag (which are then tied in a knot). And let the works dry. Presto, “you’ve got glamorous party waves,” Cody said, adding that by hanging the head upside down and spraying hair spray like crazy, this hairdo’s full, feminine look will outlast the longest party appearance.

And then there’s the eternal bow.

“This is a hot item because a lot of people who can’t wear anything in their hair can wear a bow,” says Leonetti, “and it will instantly make a very pretty look.” Indeed, bows are booming. Velvet bows, lame bows, bows both bold and beautiful.

“I can slick my hair back into a bow at the cape of my neck and it looks exactly like a chignon,” says Susan Edmonds, 33, a Long Beach flight attendant and mother of two whose short, blond bob is modified with straight bangs and even shorter shaping around her face.

“It’s no-care hair, perfect for my life style,” she raves.

While Edmonds’ hair normally falls neatly over her ears, for a dressier look she simply holds both sides of her hair back behind her ears with hair spray, puffs it out a little and dons the glitziest, ritziest earrings she can find “to brighten everything up.”

Earrings are, indeed, the quickest means to evening glamour for women with short hair, say stylists. And this holiday season, the bigger, the bolder, the more dramatic, the better. Jewelry and accessory designers seem to be reviving a ‘30s movement when Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli introduced fanciful, fantasy headdresses to complement their couture creations. Earrings are going long, longer, longest, and snoods, veils and other hair exotica are in abundance for decoration.

Of course, small women, or those with the shortest-of-short short hair, can be easily overpowered by large accessories.

But, say a number of stylists, glamour and sophistication are not only the province of dressy hair doodads: gels, color and other styling enhancements can assist women who may want to carry off a stunning, strapless sequin gown or, perhaps, break out of their everyday image.

“Sometimes I feel my short hair makes me look more conservative when others are flashier,” says Vivien Filippelli, 35, a Costa Mesa computer operator. “If I could go flashy occasionally, I would.” You can, say stylists, by applying sculpting gel all over short-short hair--slicking sides back and spiking ends out with your hands, if desired--for a hip, vaguely continental look. Other tricks include brightening, highlighting or altogether transforming hair color with one of the newest temporary rinses. Because they shampoo out, these rinses can help a blonde shine, a brunette go chestnut or a redhead match her dress.

On one evening occasion, “I was wearing a burgundy dress so I put burgundy highlights in my hair to complete the look,” says an adventurous Kim Torres, 21, of Huntington Beach. “It was kind of fun. And different!”

Indeed, doing anything different is going to feel like downright gilding the lily to the likes of short-haired women, several stylists agree.

“Sometimes they want to put something, anything, in their hair just to feel more decorated,” says Cody.

Happily, because even the smallest enhancement shows when added to a close-cropped head, a head where practically every wisp, every precise snip of the scissors counts in the creation of a distinctive style, even the smallest enhancement will do. Beautifully.

“Take one pretty comb or clip, stick it in. Period. Anywhere. There,” Cody laughs over the simplicity with which short-haired women can go from neat to knockout. “You’re set.”

Of course, some women of short cuts prefer no such shortcuts, thank you, and revel in creating fantastic “fantasy” hair with their own prodigious talents. And for these enterprising types, stylists encourage all kind of experimentation. Which, not incidentally, can mean a lot of hair glamour may be had on the cheap. “It’s amazing what you can do for your hair in an ordinary fabric store,” says Cody, “or a grocery store.”

Try on a luxurious length of velvet ribbon for a bow--for a buck. Glitter, rhinestones, appliques or other pretty and winning innovations can be sewn or glued on. The goods in a five-pack of plastic headbands from the grocery store can be wrapped with ribbon, twisted with a silk scarf, trellised with faux flowers or glued with beads and sequins. Ditto the do-it-yourself decorations on drug or grocery-store combs.

Even a fling with an inexpensive scarf (twisted thin or thick, tied around the head and topped in a bow) or satin ribbon (wrapped once around the head to tie in a bow at the nape, ends trailing down the back) will give short-tressed women a best-dressed look.

“The absolute greatest thing about short hair is the great thing about short hair,” says Cody. “Even when you want to dress it up or do something different, you don’t have to spend hours--in hot rollers or whatever. Just grab a headband, stick it on, spray and you’re done, out the door.”

And gorgeous.