17 Festive Hairstyles Over 50 for Holiday Parties

The bob is the cut I see in my chair more than any other, and it dresses up better than people expect. Whether yours is a bob or a lob (the longer version that grazes your collarbone), the party look starts with the part, not the iron.

Move your part deep to one side, close to the arch of your eyebrow. The hair on top now has to climb over to reach the other side, and that climb reads as height. Elle puts it simply: a dramatic side part creates the illusion of height and volume.

Then the waves. Take sections about two fingers wide, wrap each one once around a curling iron and let go. One pass per section. The American Academy of Dermatology, the professional group for skin and hair doctors, says to use the lowest heat setting and limit the time a curling iron touches your hair. In my experience, a second pass on fine hair mostly adds frizz.

Rake the waves loose with your fingers, tuck the short side behind your ear, and leave the long side alone.

Most of what people call a "salon blowout" happens at the roots, and you can do it at home. Kirsten Finnigan, a hairstylist at Hari's Salon in London, gives women over 50 with thin hair one instruction: "Use a root-lifting spray and blow-dry it upside down."

Upside down, the air pushes the roots away from your scalp, and they dry standing up. Flip back over and use a round brush only on the ends and the front pieces. The bounce is already built in underneath.

If your hair is thinning, the Academy's advice is to use the lowest heat setting on your blow-dryer and save curling irons and flat irons for special occasions. A holiday party counts. Five of them in two weeks might not, which is where a little planning helps.

Under two young creators' velvet-bow tutorials on TikTok (here and here), the comments keep circling the same worries. Will this work on thin or short hair? Why do my sections tangle? How did she tie that bow? Several commenters joke that step one is having hair at all.

Fair questions. Here are straight answers.

• Thin hair: yes, with a little help. Jennifer Korab, a celebrity hairstylist, says a regular half-up style can be "elevated by adding a simple knot that creates texture." That knot gives the bow something solid to sit on.
• The band: use a covered elastic and leave it a little loose. The Academy says to wear hair loosely pulled back with covered bands made for hair.
• Tangles: they happen when you grab sections with your fingers. Brush out dry hair first, then draw the section line with the tail of a comb from temple to crown on each side.
• The bow: buy it already tied, on a clip, so you're not tying it fresh each time.

Of all the Christmas party hairstyles, this half-up half-down look feels most like wearing a present. Celebrity hairstylist TerraRose Puncerelli calls the bow look "playful yet polished, a statement look that still feels effortless."

The curls underneath, which the commenters also asked about, are at #10 if you want them overnight and #12 if you want them from hot rollers.

A chignon is a bun worn low at the back of the neck, and Korab lists it among the looks that "can offer an elegant look for the holidays." Every gallery shows the finished one. What fine hair needs is the scaffolding inside it.

The stylists at Jean Louis David, a salon chain, build fine-hair chignons like this:

1. Decide exactly where the chignon will sit, low at the nape, and tie the hair there first with a covered band. Keep it loose.
2. Braid that ponytail into a small plait, or twist it into a mini bun. This is your base.
3. Backcomb a little for grip, or dust in a texture powder.
4. Wrap the rest around the base and pin it into the base itself, not just into hair.

They also say a simpler bun suits hair with little volume. Believe them. The fancy folded ones need hair to fold.

Then the jewelry. Jeweled pins and embellished bobby pins are heavier than plain ones, so slide them into the base, where they have something firm to hold, and angle them in from the outside edge. A pin pushed into loose hair alone will be on the floor by dessert.

"Avoid tightly controlled, pulled-back hair. That only works for wet hair on the beach or for celebs in full stage makeup." Gad Cohen, New York stylist, in AARP

Leave a few soft pieces out at the temples. The chignon will look chosen, not scraped.

Why does a French twist slip out halfway through dinner? Usually because the clip is the wrong size for the hair. That's the detail tutorials skip.

Teleties, a company that makes claw clips, sets out the steps in its guide to a clip French twist: gather a low ponytail, twist it, coil it up toward the crown, and close it with a claw clip. Then it gets specific.

A big clip on fine hair closes mostly on air, and the twist slides down the back of your neck. A small clip on a narrow, one-finger coil bites down on all of it.

If you want something dressier, hairstylist Seamus McKernan secures the same twist with bobby pins or decorative combs. You need enough length for a low ponytail, and that's it.

If you had a set of hot rollers once, you remember the little click of the lid and the warm smell of the heater. They're back for a good reason. Hot rollers give larger, looser curls, and curling irons give tighter, smaller ones, and loose and soft is exactly what most of us want for a party.

The sizing nobody puts in a gallery comes from tool maker Haircode. Short hair needs small to medium rollers, so your strands wrap around at least once or twice, left in 10 to 15 minutes, or until completely cool. Long hair needs at least 20 minutes. Roll dry hair, never damp.

Celebrity stylist Andrew Fitzsimons puts the ceiling at 30 minutes, and he says ceramic rollers suit finer hair because they "minimize the amount of heat damage." Los Angeles stylist Luna Viola says foam or velvet-wrapped rollers are "extra gentle especially for fine, dry and colored hair."

TODAY's shopping roundup, updated in January 2025, listed these:

Prices may have moved since. My honest take: if your hair is short, skip anything labeled jumbo, because short hair can't wrap around it even once. If your hair is long and fine, the ceramic Conair set is the one I'd try first. The $129 set is lovely and not necessary.

You build a half-up style, step back, and the top lies flat as a pancake while the back looks fine. That isn't you doing it wrong.

The most common kind of hair loss in women thins the top first. By 50, as many as 40 to 50% of women have some, depending on the source, and it's mostly a loss of density over the top of the scalp, right where a half-up style needs fullness. The Academy's early signs are ones you might recognize: a part that's widening, a ponytail that's thinner these days.

So volume at the crown has to be built. Three ways, in the order I'd try them:

• A cut with halo layers. Elle describes it as a cut that keeps your length but adds texture and dimension around the crown. This one needs your stylist, and it lasts well past the holidays.
• Root-lifting spray at the crown only, dried upside down, as in #16.
• Light teasing, if you must. I'd reach for spray first. For thinning hair, the Academy says to brush gently, only enough to style it, because tugging can lead to hair loss. Tease a few strands, not the whole crown, and comb out slowly that night.

Then set the half-up section a little higher than you think, just behind the crown. The lift you built stays in front of the band.

It's late on Christmas Eve. The dishes are drying and you'd like to wake up with waves and no curling iron. Good plan. The whole thing comes down to how wet your hair is when you twist it.

Color Wow, a hair-product company, says "evenly damp hair is the sweet spot versus soaking-wet hair." And if the insides of your twists are still damp when you take them out, the waves are more likely to lose their shape.

My test: squeeze a section near the root and again in the middle. It should feel cool and damp all the way through and leave no water on your palm. Wetter than that, and it won't dry by morning.

Twist loosely, two strands at a time if you like. Los Angeles stylist Cynthia Dhimdis says her two-strand twists look "more natural, like a natural wave." Secure the ends with covered bands.

The sleep habit that undoes all of it is piling the twists into a tight bun on top of your head. Dr. Amir Karam, a board-certified facial plastic surgeon, advises against sleeping with hair in a tight bun. Leave the twists loose.

In the morning, unravel them and separate the waves with your fingers. A brush turns them into a cloud you didn't order.

A cloud bun is the relaxed cousin of the ballerina knot: a loose ponytail on a covered band, twisted gently, wrapped once, pinned at the edges, then eased open with your fingertips until it looks airy. It suits fine hair because nobody expects a cloud to be dense.

It's also kinder to your scalp. The Academy warns that hairstyles that pull can cause hair loss from tension, called traction alopecia. Its rule of thumb is short: if your hairstyle feels painful, it's too tight. Loosen it or change it.

The same page says something the alarming headlines leave out. Wearing a tight style now and then is acceptable, and switching styles regularly is the real habit to build. So unless your hair is already thinning (in that case, the Academy says to skip tight styles altogether), the sleek knot for the one black-tie night is fine. The cloud bun is for every other party.

Clip-in pieces and toppers (a hairpiece that clips onto the top of your head) can turn a thin ponytail or a flat crown into the hair you remember. The question nobody answers is how long they can stay.

The Academy gives two rules. Wear extensions that are light, so they do not pull, and wear a professional weave or hair extension for 2 or 3 months at most. Its hairstyles page adds: remove them immediately if they cause pain or irritate your scalp.

That 2-to-3-month limit is for professionally installed pieces. Clip-ins are different: in my experience, they should come out every night, no exceptions, however tired you are when you get home.

With a topper, the clips need healthy hair underneath to hold on to.

And if a piece feels heavy by the second hour, believe that feeling. Take it out in the powder room and put it in your bag.

Growing out your gray is the brave part. Doing it right before a season of photos is the tricky part, because a grow-out can look like a missed appointment.

Abby Haliti, a celebrity hair colorist who runs her own color studio in New York, solves that with scissors. Her studio plans the cut and the color together, because the shape frames the silver as well as the color does.

Timing matters. A bridal hair company recommends any cut that changes your shape 6 to 8 weeks before a big event, with only small clean-ups, like bangs and face-framing layers, in the final 2 to 4 weeks, and no cutting the week of. It's wedding advice, but it works for a party.

Here's what that means on the 2026 calendar:

• For a New Year's Eve party, a new shape fits best between about Nov. 5 and Nov. 19.
• For a party on Dec. 19, the reshaping window has passed. Plan a bang and face-frame tidy between about Nov. 21 and Dec. 5.

A small trim around your face does a lot for a grow-out. The line people notice is the one next to your eyes.

These are the deep, glossy S-shaped waves from old movie stills, and they look harder than they are. Flower Avila, an educator for the hair brand Oli G, shared the method with Glamour:

1. Work in sections about 1 inch wide.
2. Curl every section in the same direction. "All of the hair is curled in the same direction, so when brushed out, all sections flow together."
3. Clip each curl flat against your head as it comes off the iron, and let all of them cool completely before you take any down.
4. Brush downward with a boar-bristle brush until the curls melt into waves.

Step 4 is the scary one. The first few strokes look like a mistake. Keep brushing. That's the moment it turns into waves.

Celebrity stylist Renato Campora uses a three-quarter-inch spring curling iron for the sculpted version. Los Angeles stylist Michelle Cleveland uses thermal curls, from hot rollers, for large Old Hollywood waves. If you'd rather keep the iron in the drawer, the hot-roller set from #12 gives a similar large, loose curl.

On fine hair, step 3 decides everything. A curl taken down warm drops before you've found your car keys.

If braids or locs are part of your life, the holidays are a chance to play with them. Los Angeles hairstylist Erinn Courtney says styles with chic, straight backs, or cornrows braided into hearts and other shapes are a fun way to express yourself. A swept-up bun of box braids with a few gold pins is about as festive as hair gets.

It also asks for some care at the edges. The Academy notes that more than half of African American women cite thinning hair or hair loss as their top hair concern, and it gives specific limits.

Constant pulling at the hairline can cause traction alopecia. A study in Africa found it in nearly a third of the adult women it examined. The Academy says to loosen braids around the hairline and wear them for no longer than 6 to 8 weeks.

The same page says thicker, shorter braids or locs pull less than long ones, since longer hair weighs more. For a season of parties, that's the style I'd pick.

Do the math before you book. Braids put in on Dec. 1 should come out between about Jan. 12 and Jan. 26.

A wig can be a whole new look for one night, or the most comfortable answer to hair you don't feel like fighting. What separates a wig that looks natural at 11 p.m. from one you're pushing back by 9 is fit.

The American Cancer Society's guide to choosing and wearing a wig was written for people losing hair during treatment, but fit is fit, and its rules are the clearest I've seen.

If you'd like to curl a wig for a party, check for that heat-resistant label before you buy, not after.

If your hair loss is medical, the same guide suggests asking your insurer whether it covers a "cranial prosthesis," which is the insurance term for a wig. Some plans do, and many want a letter or prescription from your doctor first.

Every holiday hair page shows you the style at the start of the night. Nobody talks about 10:30, when the room is warm, you've hugged forty people and the waves have gone flat.

A stiff, strong spray isn't the answer. It cracks when you hug, catches the light in photos, and turns into a helmet in a warm room. Glamour's stylists finish with a medium-hold hairspray on the mid-lengths and ends, where the shape needs holding, not at the roots.

What goes in your evening bag:

• Four bobby pins in your own hair color
• A tiny comb, for lifting the crown with its tail
• A travel-size version of the spray you used at home

Halfway through the party, slip into the powder room, re-pin the one piece that's falling, lift the crown with the comb tail, and you look like you just arrived.

Gray hair photographs beautifully when it has depth, and flat when it doesn't. Most of us were told the fix is a toner. Haliti uses something else.

Her studio hand-paints fine highlights and lowlights through and around your natural gray, "strand by strand," for depth. Then a custom gloss "steers the silver warm or cool" and adds the shine that makes gray read as deliberate.

That's the look that holds up under flash and string lights. Silver hair with highlights and lowlights catches light in some places and gives it back in others, which is what a camera sees as depth.

If you're still growing out color-treated hair, a different route exists. Colorist Jack Martin's Silver Lining service matches your natural gray with lowlights and toner, is meant for people who are 50 to 100 percent gray, and is described as "a one-day solution."

My view: already fully gray and want it brighter for photos? Ask for hand-painted depth and a gloss. Halfway out of dyed color and tired of the line? Ask about a one-day blend.

Haliti's studio posts no prices online; she quotes in person, at a consultation. Book that first, then fit the color into the calendar back at #16. Time the gloss last, because it fades: gloss services like Redken's Shades EQ typically need a refresh every 4 to 6 weeks, so ask your colorist how long yours will hold before booking around your biggest party.

If you wear hearing aids, here's the rule that no holiday hair list mentions: finish every bit of hairspray and product before they go in.

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health, says plainly: "Avoid using hairspray or other hair care products while wearing hearing aids." WebMD's hearing aid care guide says the same thing. The reason is the aids themselves: hearing-aid maker Oticon says chemicals in hair products, hairspray included, can damage them, and Phonak's warranty doesn't cover damage from "exposure to chemicals."

Party nights are exactly when this goes wrong. You're dressed, the aids are already in, you notice one flyaway, and you mist the whole head on your way out the door. So set the order once and keep it:

1. Style your hair.
2. Spray, and add any shine product.
3. Let it dry.
4. Hearing aids in.
5. Glasses on last.

Touch-ups at the party follow the same order. Take the aids out before you spray in the powder room, or skip the spray and use pins.

Glasses have their own pull on a hairstyle. In my experience, the arms flatten whatever sits above your ears and push it forward. So keep the fullness at the crown and the back. Sweep the sides back, or tuck them, and place any pins above the spot where the arms rest, never under them. Pins under the arms press into your head by the second hour.

When I finish someone's party hair, the last thing I do is hand them their glasses and look again. The sides always shift. Ask your stylist to do the same, and if you wear aids, bring them to the appointment, put them in after the final spray, and check the hair over them.

As for showing them off: that's your call. Only about one in five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually wears one, so you're one of the people who said yes. A low chignon with a jeweled pin above each ear looks wonderful with them.