In this Mia Farrow haircut, we look at her iconic pixie cut from Rosemary’s Baby. Also featured in Vogue, this Mia Farrow short hair style created instant buzz due to its very short nature. Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby sported this pixie cut 1960s look and since then many others have followed. Learn how to create the Mia Farrow pixie haircut by watching this tutorial and following along with the transcript.

Rosemary’s Baby Mia Farrow Haircut Tutorial

Welcome to the Jatai Academy. I’m Russell Mayes, Director of Content. Today we’re going to go retro with a classic done by Vidal Sassoon himself, the Mia Farrow pixie that she wore in Rosemary’s Baby. So let’s get started.

Addressing the Sides and Back

We’re going to start right at the side of the head halfway in the center of the recession to the quarter part. And we’re going to go to the drop crown, not all the way down to the occipital bone, but there we’re going to take this section on both sides.

So since I’m working in smaller tighter sections, a smaller scissor will give me much more control. So I’m going to use my Jatai Tokyo scissors in the 5-1/2 inch variety and then we’re going to start with a section that’s going to be parallel to the front hairline.

Now what I want to keep in mind here is I want to keep a little bit of length over the ear, but I’m still going to crop this in pretty tight. Pull this forward to the front of the section at 90° straight up from the head.

I want to make sure I leave some length at the bottom and then we’re going to go through, cut that straight down and through. Make sure my line is clean. If I need to take that in two sections we take it in two sections.

So that gives me my length here around the front and it also gives me a little bit of softness over the ear. I’ll take that next section parallel to the first section and I’ll comb these two into the center of both of those sections.

Hold it straight out. Cut that off. Comb each section to look at it. This section will go right back to the mastoid. I’m going to remove the first section. Now I have the second and third. I will combine those two and cut that down and through.

Now we’re going to continue that section all the way down into the nape and then this is where it’s going to change. So right at the mastoid I’m going to bring my fingers in and taper that in a little bit so I have a nice clean nape.

I have a little hair left over the ears but a nice clean taper into the nape. Comb that into the previous. I can remove the previously cut section. Now I have section three and four. Hold that straight out 90 from the head, comb that out, follow through.

Once I hit the mastoid, then I’ll change my finger angle and taper this in much tighter. So it’s going to be a little longer there and then it’s going to taper in nice and clean right here in the nape.

Follow the same guide as I work all the way back into the nape. So I’m going to work this guide all the way through to the center back of the head until I run out of hair. And I’ll keep going until I reach over the center half of the back of the head and I have everything tapered in exactly like I want that fits the head.

And I think that that’s looking pretty good. After I’ve gone through and cut both sides, I want to cross check it. And the way I’m going to cross check it is hold it out in the exact opposite way that I held it the first time to cut it.

So I’ll start here in the nape. I’ll comb right there parallel to my hairline. Comb that out. If anything sticks out, I will cut off. I’m not looking for big differences in length and big gaps in it.

I want this to be as smooth and as even as possible and the more precise I am with my technique in the beginning, the less cleaning up I’ll have to do. And that’s what I’m ultimately trying for.

That’s my goal is to try to get this as even and as smooth as possible in the first pass that I have very very little hair to clean up here on my cross check. If I have big pieces of hair sticking out, I need to go back in and recut that section vertically to make sure everything flows like I want.

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Blending the Top with the Bottom

So now after I’ve gone through and cut my entire underneath, I want to go through and make sure that the top will blend with the bottom before I even start to cut the top. So I’m going to take a parallel section to the previous section that I had where I separated the bottom from the top, comb this down.

And exactly like I cross checked it, that’s how I’m going to cut this. So I’ll take a small section from underneath hold that up and out. There’s my guide from underneath. So cross cutting the entire top just to make sure it blends and doesn’t hang over the underneath hair.

Now how much I cut off is all dependent upon how much hair was there previously on top, how longer that is, how much shorter it is etc. So I’m still continuing to work that through until everything is cut that could hang over.

I just find that it’s easier for me to cross cut this horizontally than it is to go through and vertically take each section. Because all I’m looking for here is a blend.

Check this out. Now we know that everything on the top and the bottom is going to blend. So let’s go through and do the same thing on the other side. Make sure that blends and then we’ll cut the top.

We got everything looking like we want on the bottom half and the top blends now. So now let’s go through and take a center section.

Addressing the Top of the Head

Now a lot of times when I’m doing short hair I need to make a preference between a round shape or a square shape. Since this is, you know, Mia Farrow and it’s a pixie, I want to keep this shape rounder and more feminine. If it’s more of a masculine shape, then I may keep it square.

So we’re going to start with a center section right above the nose. Now I’m going to take this section, pull everything straight up 90° off the head and cut everything the same length from front to back following the head shape. So I want to keep everything nice and round and soft.

Taking a small piece of my guide from my previously cut section and work that down and through into the crown and the nape.

Now we’re going to check it on my way back to the front to make sure I got everything nice and smooth. And that’s looking pretty good. So now I’m going to go through and take a parallel section to the first section that I cut.

Comb these two together and cut right into the center of each of those sections and still following the length guide that I established with my first section. So there’s the next two sections, the center and the first new additional section.

And now I will follow that all the way through. Now the hardest part about cutting hair is cutting directly on top of your guide and making the next section that you’re cutting the same length as the previously cut section without cutting into the previously cut section.

Now here I’m going to have very little hair that reaches that top section. Going to use my second section as my guide. Anything else that hangs over will get cut. And since we went through and already established a blend with the side, there should be very little hair to cut.

Now after we’ve cut the right side I’m going to go back, take my center section that I established as my initial guide and do the exact same thing on the other side. So I’ll add section one which was the center. I will add a parallel section. I will make sure both of these are cut into the center of these two sections.

So I’m basically walking my guide from the center over to each side. Small piece is my guide. Everything held straight up 90° from the head and follow that on through into the nape.

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Mia Farrow Haircut Bangs

The Rosemary baby pixie that Sassoon did to her for her movie was really really iconic and it was a blunter more solid shape. So I want to keep this kind of blunt and solid and I’m not going to add a whole lot of texture to it, but I do want to keep the bangs soft.

So instead of cutting them blunt across I am going to go through and point cut them just to make sure we can keep her fringe nice and soft. And I’ll go through comb everything down into my hand, roll the comb over so that the hair kind of gets combed down and then go through and just deep channel point cut some of this around the front to make sure everything is nice and smooth and gives us a little bit of something to play with around the face but still has that short kind of pixie shape.

There we get that. Cut that. Cut this. You have less hair over here girl. Do you sleep on the right side? I bet you sleep on the right side.

There we’re going to go through a little point cutting just around there to make that blend through and I think that that’s looking pretty good. Now let’s go through and dry it, take a look and see what we got. See if we need to add some more texture.

Final Mia Farrow Haircut Look

Here’s our end result. I think we got a really nice solid shape without it being chunky and lumpy. I think making it fit the head is really really important. And you know I think Sassoon really hit this haircut out of the park when he did it for her for her movie Rosemary’s Baby. And I love this. This is one of my favorite iconic shapes and just follow through. Practice and you’ll be able to do the same.

Check out the Jatai Academy. There’s all kinds of great information on there that will make you a better hairstylist and barber. Let us know what you’d like to see in the future and thank you so much for watching. We’ll see you next time.

Final Thoughts on this Mia Farrow Haircut

The Mia Farrow Vidal Sassoon haircut was an iconic haircut that has stood the test of time. Since then, there have been many other celebrities with pixie cuts. The style is popular among those who can pull it off. We hope you learned one version of how to pixie cut hair.

Note: This is not a tutorail on how to trim your own pixie cut. To do this is much more difficult since you cannot see the back of your head easily. Making sure the hair is even all around is difficult to do by yourself.