Emma Thompson has shown off a multi-tasking new hair look as she appeared on the red carpet with her daughter Gaia – who truly is her mini-me. Gaia, 25, plays a younger version of her mother’s character in The Dead Of Winter, and the family resemblance was unmistakable as the duo walked the red carpet together to promote their project at the Locarno Film Festival.
Emma seems to have passed on not just her eyes and smile to her daughter, but also a flair for mixing up hair looks. Both mother and daughter experimented with two hairstyles in one day, but it was Emma’s new silver ‘vixie’ cut that should have won an extra accolade as she picked up the prestigious Leopard Club Award in Switzerland.
Her ‘vixie’, or versatile pixie, is a style that’s cut short at the back and kept longer towards the front, and is almost as multi-talented as Emma herself.
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For the festival photocall, Emma wore it swept back, but full of volume to keep it soft and flattering. Then, for the red carpet, she opted for a deep side part – a very simple switch that instantly turned her style into more of a glamorous, ‘event’ hair look.
The vixie is a style loved by hair expert and trend forecaster Tom Smith for its chic adaptability.
He tells GH: ‘Shorter shapes that have extra length on top and towards the front tend to be the most versatile of very short haircuts. In general, the greater the difference between the shortest part of the hair (in Emma’s case, the neck) and the longest part (the fringe area), the more designed, styled, and often feminine the shorter shape looks.’
Tom adds: ‘Having that extra length to play with gives lots of options for styling versatility, including sweeping the hair forwards and across the forehead, parting it in various locations, or sweeping all back.’
Even sweeping it back off the face offers different options, he notes. ‘This length of hair can be swept all the way way, or swept in a ‘rise-and-fall’ wave effect like Emma's in the photos where she’s wearing a patterned floral suit.’
‘Her rise and fall hair reminds me of Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada.’
The following day, Emma showed off her hair’s range even further by wearing it another trending style spotlighted by Tom (there’s a reason why he’s known as ‘The Hairvoyant’ for his accurate trend forecasting!)
‘Here she’s styled it as a Tinkerbell Pixie, which is a very feminine shorter shape and great for those wanting shorter hair but keen to retain softness. It’s on the longer side of the trending pixie cut, and incorporates a subtle asymmetry and side parting to make it extra flattering. Finer hair is made to appear far thicker with this style, and thick hair can be cleverly carved to manage the bulk’
There’s another reason that Emma’s vixie hair looks so great, he explains. The adaptability of the vixie cut has been further enhanced by her beautiful, bright silver shade, which makes the whole look really shine.
‘One of the reasons Emma‘s hair looks so good is because there’s a correlation between the colour and cut,’ Tom explains. ‘The shorter areas have more of her natural slate grey, while the longer areas have the brighter, whiter, silvery pieces.’
‘This is likely to be a characteristic of her natural colour, but can be easily recreated by adding brighter pops of colour towards the face where the hair is longest, gradually scattering fewer highlights towards the crown and even fewer towards the nape of the neck.’
‘This clever placement and thought out flow of colour texture helps to give that shimmery, alive-looking colour result in any colour palette.’
