While short hair can be really cute, and a good short haircut can also highlight and accentuate the beauty of a woman’s features, nothing is more fun, versatile, and sexy than long hair. Long hair offers many benefits—just ask Hercules and Rapunzel.

It’s true that long hair requires more work and effort than short hair. It takes longer to wash, dry, and style than short hair, and it can be much more difficult to color—and then to maintain the color—and to keep it feeling and looking healthy. However, having long hair has many benefits that can make it well worth the extra work involved in upkeep.

While it’s difficult to get more than a few different looks with short hair, long hair has limitless possibilities for styling options, and offers many opportunities to change your entire look on a whim. You can go curly, straight, down, up, loose, pulled into a ponytail, bun, or topknot—and then, of course, there are braids.

Long hair can be made to look elegant and classy, and then with the simple pull of a hairpin, a spill of luxurious locks down a woman’s back takes long hair from classy to sexy in an instant.

So, what are some of the current trends in hairstyles for long hair that will have shorter-haired women reaching for the hair-growth vitamins?

Classy Coifs for Your Magnificent Mane

High-shine, gel, and sculpted bangs are the trends for fall and winter of 2019, when it comes to sleek and classy updos. This includes bangs that are slicked to the side in waves with sculpting gel, or decorative bangs that are twisted into loops and swirls in baroque designs against the forehead and temples. Or for a simpler chic look, high-shine glossing products to slick hair back into a wet-look ponytail is the most current look for elegance this winter.

Alternatively, if you want to avoid the highly-sculpted look, long hair offers the ability of achieving a wide array of classic coifs for elegant updos suitable for any occasion.

Classic Loose Low Bun

This look peaked in popularity in 2019, and isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s a beloved classic that makes long hair look incredibly elegant in a beautifully basic style with a twist. Simply part hair on the side, or slightly off center, and sweep over and back into a low bun at the nape of the neck. Then pull one or two locks loose on one side of your face. With a small amount of product on your fingers, lightly twist the loose lock to give it texture and shape as it frames your face.

The Do-able Double Bun

Another trending updo for those with long hair with curls or plenty of volume, is the classic double bun—and no, not the Princess Leia double donut look, but one bun below the other on the back of the head.

First, divide the hair into two layers, top and bottom. Pull the top layer away from both sides of the face toward the back of the crown and make a small ponytail. Then loosely twirl the tail into a bun, leaving a few flirty trailing ends loose. Then, pull the bottom layer of hair back and repeat the process at the nape of the neck below the other bun. The result is a lovely, elegant updo with a new twist on the classic.

Another option is to leave the bottom ponytail unwound and free, rather than twisting into a bun. For those with very long hair, this is a beautiful look for both straight and curly-haired women.

The Popular Pompadour

The popularity of the pompadour has come and gone, and then come back again, over the decades and even over the centuries. Today, the pompadour is back in a BIG way—pun intended. Today’s high-crown pompadour is a hairstyle that’s made to build dimension in the front of the hair by teasing it high off the forehead and then smoothing it back, ending with a bun at the nape. This gives a lift to the forehead and adds a new, chic quality to an old favorite.

Sexy Looks for Long Locks

Besides being highly versatile for braids, ponytails, buns, and updos of all types, long hair can also look sexy and gorgeous when simply falling long and loose. Whether it falls in a long, straight sheen of silk, or falls in tousled waves and curls, there is nothing sexier than long hair. Try these easy long-lock looks that are always a classic, but never more trendy than they are now.

The Lob

The “Lob,” or long bob, is a perfect look for medium-long hair and is the simplest long hair look to maintain. The lob is similar to the classic bob, with blunt and tapered ends, but with a long bob, the ends fall at or below the shoulders. Angled bobs with an off-center part for added volume and texture has given this beloved classic a sexy new lift.

Textured Loose Curls

This is a naturally sexy look for long hair. Start with clean hair, and brush very lightly with a wire bristle brush. Be sure not to over brush, because for this look you don’t want smooth hair, but instead, your hair should have some texture. Then spray your hair with a good heat protectant to prevent styling damage. Use a clamp-style curling iron with a medium thick barrel and curl first the locks framing your face. Start at the cheekbone level and wind hair away from the face into a thick curl, leaving out the bottom several inches to hang straight. Then, unwind the curl and immediately pull the ends, to loosen the curl into a long wave. Continue around the head, beginning the curl a little higher up once away from the face, and pulling each curl into a loose wave to avoid the curling wand look. If the curl is too defined, lightly brush it to loosen it.

Finally, lightly spray your hair all the way around with a texturizing spray or dry shampoo, and work through it with your fingers to lightly tousle the sexy, natural-looking waves.

Mermaid Mane Beach Waves

Beach waves are an ideal and easy look to achieve not only with mid-length hair, but also with very long hair—resulting in a really trendy mermaid look. To get a beautiful head of sexy, beachy long waves, start with a good curling wand and wrap one to two inch locks around the wand, first away from the face and then toward the face, alternating all the way around. Be sure to leave the bottom four or five inches of hair unwound. After each curl, separate the curl slightly, tousle, and lightly spray with a flexible hold hairspray so each curl remains defined and separate.

This is definitely one of the sexiest looks that works with long hair of any length all year round!