Wolf Cuts Are the Go-to Styles for Anyone Who Wants Messy-Chic Hair

Cool names are often assigned to things to make them seem more appealing or to replace lame or out-of-date nomenclatures. It's why folks are selling "sun-dried plums" now as opposed to "prunes," or why my mom would make me a dish called "piping hot" instead of "eggs with an appalling amount of ketchup."

The problem with cool names is that sometimes they're a bit abstract, like the "wolf cut." What is a wolf cut hairstyle anyway?

You've probably seen tons of women rocking this messy shag/mullet combination hairstyle. It's called a "wolf cut" probably because wolves are wild creatures that have a strange kind of elegance to them, a lot like the hairstyle.

The cut's comprised of a bunch of wavy layers and shaggy portions, with a lot of volume up top that eventually tapers downwards, kind of like a Mad Max villain. The front part of the cut is all mullet, though with big front or side bangs. And like any good hairstyle, there are tons of different variations of the wolf cut that can be used for pretty much any style and texture of hair.

People are loving the haircut because, like any good mullet, it combines disparate hairstyle elements, but isn't as stark of a contrast with the whole "business in the front, party in the back" aesthetic.

There are a few things to consider before getting the cut, however.

What's interesting is that a bunch of people are following tutorials on how to give themselves a wolf cut and people's results range from pretty darn good to "oh my god you need to get better at following instructions."

If you have naturally straight hair, then you're going to need to spend some time styling it or you'll just have jagged, weird angles and your hair will look more like a modern piece of living abstract art than a bohemian rocker statement.

A TikTok-er by the name of Maddy put it best: "Everyone wants a wolf cut until they realize … your hair will be flat unless you style it."

A lot of people attribute the growing popularity of the wolf cut to Billie Eilish debuting her new 'do on Instagram. Again, everyone's got their own variation of the haircut down pat, and even though you may not have access to the same kind of stylist that Billie does (I mean, who does), there are some things to keep in mind when getting your wolfie done, along with different variants.

You can go super mullet-y with it, by keeping the back of your hair long, or you could rock it shorter and with more layers, which is probably what you're going to want to do if you've got very sleek hair.

If you have naturally curly hair, then wolf cuts can be pretty great with minimal styling, as the natural body your hair has will handle the heavy lifting. Maybe add in some texturizer/moisturizer, mess your hair up, and boom — you're good to go.

If you've got short hair you can still do a wolf cut, too; it's all about that bangs-to-side-hair to back-hair ratio. Or you could always just do a "soft cut" like Billie Eilish did if you're afraid of going full wolf.