15 Trendy Korean Shoulder-Length Hair Ideas
Annyeong! The Korean wave, or Hallyu, is celebrated throughout the globe through Korean dramas (K-drama) and popular Korean music (K-pop).
One clear example of the Korean wave’s reach is Lisa of Blackpink, The 2022 MTV Video Music Award for Best K-Pop winner and a Guinness World Record holder, having 86.3 million followers on Instagram.
Other Korean pop groups and K-drama personalities (men and women) have this huge following, too, which, when gathered, screams Korean world domination.
With that worldwide reach, many fans now recreate how they dance, dress, practice skin care, and how they style their hair in loose curls, straight locks, hair layers, bangs, and colorful hues.
To help you get into the Hallyu spirit, we’ve compiled the different easy-to-recreate chic shoulder-length Korean hair trends for your face shape that you can sport anytime and anywhere!
15 Trendy Korean Shoulder-Length Hairstyles for Women
We know you’re ready to learn about the different Korean hair trends for women listed in this article, but we have something more to offer than just hair trends.
For starters, there are seven acknowledged facial shapes: round, square, triangle, diamond, rectangle, oval, and oblong. [1]
In the following sections, we will offer specific Korean hairstyles for these face shapes, focusing on round, square, heart, rectangular, and diamond-shaped faces.
So, scroll down and find the best haircut that will suit your style and match your facial features!
Korean Hairstyles for Round Faces
A round face for women is described as having the following characteristics:
- Full cheekbones
- Slightly long but soft angles (e.g., chin)
- Wide hairline
Usually, the best Korean hairstyle for this shape consists of short-length, relaxed waves and side-swept or curtain fringes.
Get to know some of these hairstyles through this list:
Loose waves
Starting this list is Blackpink’s Jennie Kim, known for her beautiful round face.
Similar to the image above, a round-shaped face does not have many angles on one’s features, making you look young for your age.
So, loose waves hairstyles are essential to creating an illusion of texture to elevate a look and make you stand out.
To get this Jennie Kim look, use a curling wand from the middle to the tip of your fine hair and apply a round brush downward to create loosened waves perfect for casual and formal looks.
Side swept bangs
Another essential Asian hairstyle that individuals with round-shaped faces adore is side-swept bangs.
Side fringes are cropped front hair swept to either the right or left side of your face, depending on which side gives you your angle and which side offers better framing.
You can also make middle-parted double-side fringes like Jennie, with high bun hairstyles at the back for a more trendy Asian look.
Wavy Bob
Round-shaped faces can surely rock a bob, especially when it emphasizes your natural curls.
The key feature that makes this trendy Korean hairstyle an ultimate cop among rounded faces is the layers that shape the face, creating sharper angles and additional texture.
Korean Hairstyles for Square Faces
Next on this list of face shapes is the square face, which is identifiable thanks to these features:
- Wide forehead
- Wide cheekbones
- Wide jawline
To get around this facial shape, you need to play with medium-length hair that can complement the width of your face, like a blunt or soft wavy bob and feathery bangs, which are listed in this section.
Blunt Bob
First in line for the square-shaped face club is the blunt bob as sported by Jun Ji Hyun, one of the leads for the multi-awarded and nominated K-drama, My Love from the Star. [2]
You can instantly spot blunt bob hairstyles among all the other bobs because it has an even, short length as it is cut straight.
The blunt bob’s straightness will balance with your square-shaped face, reducing a bit of shape by highlighting the bob more.
Soft waves with curtain bangs
The second hairstyle you can try for your square-shaped face is this combination of soft waves and fringes.
Do you know why soft bends in hairstyles are crucial for your face? The answer is it softens the sharper visage of the squareness of your face. Aside from that, it makes you look younger while still letting your personality shine through.
Shoulder-long hair with wispy Korean bangs
Lisa has more to offer for her square-shaped sisters with this shoulder-length hairstyle paired with wispy bangs.
Wispy bangs are a styling variety that emphasizes different cropped bang lengths in a feather-like manner. Your baby bangs can suffice to pull off this style.
More importantly, this hairstyle combination will lessen the visibility of your broad forehead and cheekbones by emphasizing your eyes, nose, and lips.
Korean Hairstyles for Heart-Shaped Faces
Another interesting facial shape in this list is the heart-shaped face, which shows off the following characteristics:
- Pointed hairline
- Wide cheekbones
- Narrow chin
For this shape, the critical hairstyling tip to remember is to minimize the heart shape by using different kinds of bangs, similar to what we have in this section.
Short hair with side bangs
The primary Korean haircut you can try that most Asian celebrities sport is short hair with side bangs (which can also be a double-sided one).
Short hair with more layers can provide more volume, balancing out the narrowness of your chin area.
Moreover, the fringes can hide the pointed hairline, reducing the appearance of a heart shape.
Blunt bob with blunt bangs
Earlier, we learned that blunt bob hair works well with square faces, but the blunt bangs and bob duo can also help women with heart-shaped faces emphasize their eyes, nose, and lips rather than the pointed hairline and narrow chin.
The key thing to remember is that these blunt bobs and fringe hairstyles can only work if your stylist cuts around the bob in a straight manner.
Choppy crop with curtain bangs
We will learn about the choppy crop haircut with parted bangs to wrap up this heart-themed list of Korean hair for women.
This popular hairstyle involves cropped hair in varying layers, providing bouncy curls and adding width to the chin area for a more balanced heart-shaped look.
Korean Hairstyles for Rectangular-Shaped Faces
Rectangles are fun shapes, but it becomes tricky when it comes to facial matters. Yet, there is nothing that proper hair styling cannot do to soften and shorten the width of the following:
- Forehead
- Cheekbones
- Jaw
To get to know popular hairstyles for rectangular-shaped faces, check this out!
Uneven layers with middle part
To lessen the wideness of your facial features, you must incorporate uneven layers styled with a middle partition.
Although layers provide volume and texture, they can also tame your angles’ sharpness because they provide softer hair variations.
Also, a middle part is an essential hair-factor that can visually change the shape of your face and ease the angles by creating a slimmer forehead area.
Subtle waves with chunky highlights
We now know how subtle waves can benefit those with rectangle faces. But, to utilize its perks, you can also incorporate chunky highlights.
With highlights on your hair, you can have these benefits for your face:
- Create the illusion of a slimmer and sharper visage
- Provide symmetry and extra dimension
- Place emphasis on the eyes, nose, lips, and cheeks
Aside from that, this entire look is very much a Korean idol type of hairstyle. Adding highlights also gives the illusion of volume to thin hair.
To ace this Asian hairstyle, you must know your skin tone to get the appropriate color. With this, remember that ashy undertones for your hair flatter Asian skin tones.
Short hair with see-through bangs
Another Asian hairstyle that can elevate your rectangular-shaped face is the combination of short hair and see-through bangs.
The short hair hugging your jaw and neck area complements the angles of your rectangular face shape, as the former minimizes the latter.
Aside from that, it will reduce the width of your forehead with the help of see-through or wispy fringes.
TIP: Use a hair straightener or a hair curler on just the ends of your hair to make it curl inwards for more volume.
Korean Hairstyles for Diamond-Shaped Faces
Shining, shimmering, splendid! Indeed, diamonds can be defined by those three words, but is it still the same with the Korean hairstyle?
Of course, with the proper technique for a beautiful cut, and the right choice of face-framing layers, you can easily find the perfect fit for these diamond-shaped features:
- Slim forehead
- Wide cheekbones
- Narrow chin
Get your style from this list!
Face framing layers
Jisoo of Blackpink surely knows how to use face-framing layers to confidently strut the runways and concert grounds with her diamond-shaped face.
The face-framing layer is a Korean hairstyle that hugs the entirety of your facial shape to emphasize certain facial features, soften angles, and balance interesting face shapes such as the diamond one.
Aside from short hair, you can also pull off Korean hair trends like this with long hair paired with pastel hair or straight dark hair.
Wolf cut with wispy bangs
If we are talking about Korean hair trends, one of the hairstyles that is guaranteed to appear on every list is the wolf cut.
This style is a modern and female-friendly take on a mullet and is often used by Asian celebrities and fans. To get a wolf cut, what you need to remember are the following:
- A wolf cut has varying layers: bangs, short sides, and relatively long hair at the back (shoulder-length hair)
- You can emphasize a wolf cut with dimensional highlights in ashy hues or bold colour rather than plain dark hair
What is more important for this Korean hair trend is that it adds volume to the chin area, making it more proportional to wide cheekbones.
The fringes also cover the slim forehead to create a symmetrical overall appearance.
You may also like 24 Amazing Wolf Cut Hairstyles for All Genders & Hair Types!
Bob with side swept bangs
To cap off this style list for diamond-shaped faces, we have the bob with side-swept bangs that are flattering to a diamond-shaped face.
Essentially, a bob with fringes (even baby bangs) allows the face to look broader, particularly in the chin area, allowing it to be more attuned to the cheekbone’s width.
How much does a Korean shoulder-length hairstyle cost?
Each style from this list costs at least $10 for hairstyles that only need simple trims and can go as high as $200 for those long tresses that need to be colored and those which need treatment for damaged hair.
The prices will also depend on the following factors:
- Demands of the style (e.g., hair length, hair layers)
- Skills required (e.g., simple hair trimming, complex hair treatment)
- Professional stylist’s fee
- The location where you are getting your hair done
How can you do trendy Korean shoulder-length hairstyles?
To ace each popular Korean style, you have to follow this step-by-step guide:
- First, wash the hair with Aveeno Fresh Greens Blend Sulfate-Free Shampoo.
- Second, dry hair using a Revlon Compact Hair Dryer, as blow drying can perfect the waves and blunts.
- Third, comb the hair with the Mars Wellness 4 Piece Professional Comb Set.
- Fourth, trim the hair according to your preferred most popular hairstyle from this list using Equinox Professional Hair Scissors.
- Lastly, style the hair using the Conair Double Ceramic hair curling wand, a flat iron or hair straightener, hair colors, and other necessary products for fashionable Korean styles.
PRO TIP: Be patient and put forward a relaxed attitude when doing your hairstyle, as it’s your crowning glory.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Reading the information from this list surely implanted some questions in your mind. But we’re ready for that, as we have answered some of your FAQs in this section!
What haircut is best for shoulder-length hair?
All the short haircuts from this list provide a chic look for you that can complement your facial shape.
However, here are the best haircut choices for each facial structure:
- Round – Loose waves
- Square – Blunt chic bob
- Heart – Short length wide side fringes
- Rectangular – Layers with a middle part
- Diamond – Face-framing layers
Are Korean hairstyles low-maintenance?
The Korean hairstyles listed in this article are low-maintenance, which means easy styling that lasts long in both formal and casual events.
Final Thoughts
After every chic Korean style presented to you, these can surely inspire you to pull off your Korean Pop styling all year round.
Just remember to know your facial shape and match your hairstyles with it to get the full benefits of recreating hairstyles similar to your Korean idols!
Aida
Founder & Hair Beauty Specialist
I’m Aida and this is my blog where I write mostly about beauty and make up related stuff, but I like to spice it up a bit with lifestyle and photography posts. Or with whatever that comes to my mind. Hope you will enjoy the reading enough that we will ‘see’ each other more often!