This picture is of my mother from ca. 1952-1955. Judging from pics of other relatives from the same time this short hairstyle seemed to be very popular and I’m trying to find the name of it from something I’m writing. Does anyone know what it would be called?
I believe Kim Novak popularized it, but I may be wrong. I’ve definitely seem pics of Ava Gardner and Susan Hayward when they had similar hairstyles (albeit from movies as opposed to “real life” shots).
Might be what was called a “Pixie” cut. My mother ran a beauty shop for 30 years back then, and styles a lot of women’s hair in that style.
I can’t really find a name for it, just “short and curly” or “perm”. This page has some good pictures of it.
It’s a 1950’s styled hair day
Neither a pixie nor a poodle. But I don’t know what it’s called.
My mother had hair like that once. For 20 minutes. In 1967.
It’s an Italian haircut. First popularized by Gina Lollabrigida, it became very popular throughout the '50s. Sophia Loren was another who popularized this cut, as well as ELizabeth Taylor.
When my sister-in-law went to beauty school in the '80s, she was taught this haircut. Even then, there were lots of old ladies still wearing some version of it.
i think the generic name is a “bob.” That’s any short haircut on a woman.
I’d go with “bob” too. A pixie would be quite short. (No hair over the ears, taper cut.)
Based on this site , it’s an Italian Boy with maybe some poodle-ish elements. Definitely not a pixie.
So, yeah…what Jess said.
(That site has some great pictures!)
No, a bob is usually chin length.
No, a bob is merely short. Don’t ask for a specification on “short.” 
Gad, that was vile!
I salute you!
Audrey Hepburn goes into a barber shop in Rome in Roman Holiday and gets a haircut very similar to this, so I’m going with the Italian explanation.
Sampiro, your mom’s cute in that photo.
I think it looks more like the “Petal Curls” look on that page.
I agree. It’s a petal curl.
But isn’t a bob an all-one-length cut, not layered? (with or without bangs, horizontal or angled)
I’ve heard that referred to as a pageboy, or a Cleopatra bob. The existence of such specific modifiers implies, to me, that “bob” is a generality.
I just spoke with my sister-in-law and it’s all more complicated than I remembered. The Italian haircut was originally called an ‘artichoke cut’ or, sometimes, a ‘petal cut.’ But, once Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren started wearing it, it became increasingly known as an Italian Cut. At first, it was very short and gamine. It got longer and more… structured and dowdy as the '50s wore on. But the artichoke, petal, and italian are all the same basic cut. There could be some variation on the set and comb out.
There was a whole section on this in her beauty school manual. She was tested on it and everything. And, as I said, there were still old ladies wearing this style in the mid '80s when Wendy was in school. Probably still are!