30 Short Wavy Hairstyles

Whether you’ve got naturally textured hair that you want to embrace, or you’re looking to pump up the volume of your fine hair, a short wavy hairstyle can give you a look that’s manageable and fun. To play up your natural waves, be sure to invest in products that moisturize and define your hair’s texture, like leave in conditioners and curl defining creams. If you’re using heat styling to get those waves, apply a heat protectant product before you blowdry to help seal your strands and prep them for those soft silky waves. To help inspire your modern textured style, we gathered 30 of our favorite short wavy hairstyles below:

Cut with two distinct layers, this short shag hairstyle is perfect for thick wavy hair, allowing it to be playful without looking too heavy around the neck. Not only is this a fairly low maintenance style, but it’s a good goal for women who are trying to grow out a shorter pixie cut.

Shorter bobs like this can be difficult to wear for women with thicker wavy hair, and often benefit from some undercutting to help keep things looking light and bouncy. If your hair has a looser wave pattern, we’d recommend going a bit longer to give the texture some room to shine.

Take the classic pixie style worn by gamine icons like Audrey Hepburn and Anne Hathaway, and style it with some soft waves for a modern beachy take on the timeless crop. Use a curl defining product to encourage natural texture on the shortest pieces, and a skinny no-clamp curling wand on the longer face-framing strands.

While the typical stacked bob is styled with sleek, straight hair, we love this tousled wavy version of the style. This cut brings some softness to a look that’s often seen as professional and serious, and also presents an option for wavy haired women who find longer styles difficult to manage.

This is a great style for anyone trying to elongate the appearance of their face, and is surprisingly easy to style thanks to how short it is on the sides. With significantly longer hair on top, this pixie is cut into a faux-hawk shape that gets accentuated by waves and curls that help add volume on top.

Put a sultry edge in your bob by adding some soft waves with a curling wand or flat iron. Don’t stress too much about a uniform wave pattern all around, and concentrate your most defined curls around the face.

Fine hair is often cut into blunt bobs to maximize fullness, but that doesn’t mean straight styling is the only option. Kelly Ripa’s soft waves and side part are a great way to mix things up if your typical style is straight haired and centre parted.

A modern take on the Italian cut worn by ’50s icons like Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren, this wavy style is perfect for women who are looking to trade a younger looking cut for something more sophisticated and mature that still has sex appeal.

Who says you need stick straight hair to make bangs work? Thanks to the piecey cut of these bangs, they work well with textured hair, and are especially flattering when framing oval shaped faces.

If you’ve got thick waves that are hard to control when worn long, cutting them into a chic bob can make styling simpler, and you’ll won’t feel like you’re fighting with your hair. Depending on how coarse your hair is, a good stylist will be able to use textured ends or subtle layering to make hair look light and bouncy.

The short-haired version of those lazy, barely-there waves we’re used to seeing on longer locks, this messy blonde bob perfectly balances the harder edges of a dark lip and metallic dress.

With just enough wave so that the hair curls inward at the end of each layer, this shaggy bob is playful, sweet, and incredibly stylish. We especially love this cut with long, grown out bangs, but almost any fringe will work.

With a deep side part and bangs that sweep across the brow, these bangs are especially flattering on women with heart shaped faces. Not only do they create a forehead minimizing angle, but fuller hair near the bottom half of the face helps widen the appearance of the jawline.

Being cropped very close at the back and sides allows the layered waves on top of this style to lightly sweep across the forehead. If you feel like going sleek for a day, this style is still long enough on top to style with a flat iron.