The 23 Best Styling Products for Pixie Cuts and Short Hair

Your styling routine just got short and sweet. We’ve done our research and here are the best styling products for short hair…

Maybe you’ve been rocking a short crop for years, like me. Or maybe you’ve only recently done the math (like the mind-blowing hack that tells you if short hair would suit you!) and decided to take it all off—because after all, you can always grow it back super long!

Either way, you know there are lots of reasons that short hair is awesome — and also that the best styling products for a pixie cut are WAY different than they are for long hair.

When those long locks were cut off, hopefully, the split ends and years of styling damage went with them: your short hair is now healthy and shiny and, of course, you want to keep your hair soft and smooth. There are a ton of different ways you can style short hair, which means you can go with tousled volume, sleek and slicked to the side, wavy and sexy, just-woke-up, bed-headed perfection… The list goes on. To get these different looks, you’ll need some styling products for short hair, so we’re here to help you out. 

Start your routine in the shower when you whip up a cleansing, moisturizing lather and finish up with that one surprising, essential item that every pixie should have.

1. Kiehl’s Amino Acid Shampoo

Best for: Healthy, shiny locks

Start your look off right in the shower with a shampoo that’ll refresh and hydrate (and oh, yeah, clean — sometimes I forget that part!) your locks. This gentle product is the best shampoo for a pixie cut, as it contains coconut oil and amino acids to gently cleanse and soften your hair without damaging your new, healthy locks. Its unique formula is designed to boost body and fullness, making it the perfect choice for those seeking a little extra oomph in their hairstyle. Transform your hair care routine with this gentle yet effective shampoo, specifically crafted to keep your pixie cut or short hair looking and feeling its best.

2. John Frieda Frizz Ease Serum

Best for: Smoothing dry, frizzy or coarse hair

Say goodbye to unruly tresses with John Frieda’s Frizz Ease Extra Strength Hair Serum, an essential styling product for pixie cuts or short hair. Specially formulated for extremely dry or coarse hair, this powerful serum is your sleek style’s ultimate companion. To achieve a sleek, smooth finish that will turn heads, simply apply the Frizz Ease Serum to each section of your hair before using a flat iron. This game-changing product will help you tame those stubborn frizzies and showcase your stunning pixie cut or short hair in all its glory.

Related: 9 Olaplex Dupes That‘ll Keep Both Your Hair and Your Budget Happy

3. Ouai Matte Pomade

Best for: Adding long-lasting texture to your short hair

Elevate your pixie cut styling with Ouai Matte Pomade, a versatile and long-lasting finishing paste that provides medium-control for the perfect look. With its easy-to-distribute formula, this exceptional product delivers matte texture, shape, and separation, ensuring your hairstyle stays looking good all day long. One of our favorite texturizing products for short hair, Ouai Matte Pomade expertly creates soft thickness and piecey texture for a long-lasting hold you can trust.

4. Amika Polished Perfection Thermal Straightening Brush 2.0

Best for: Straightening your pixie cut

Transform your short hair with the highly sought-after Amika Polished Perfection Thermal Straightening Brush 2.0. This fan-favorite thermal brush, often sold out due to its immense popularity, promises to deliver blowout-style results that will leave your hair looking fabulous. Combining the power of a straightener with the ease of a hairbrush, this innovative tool is one of the best products for styling your short hair. Whether you want to straighten your crop or add some volume, the Amika Polished Perfection Thermal Straightening Brush 2.0 has got you covered.

5. GHD Classic 1″ Inch Styler

Best for: Heat styling your pixie cut

If you’ve ever tried to iron a pixie cut with a regular-sized hair iron (like I have), you’ll find out (like I have) that it can be ineffective and downright scalp-singing. This classic GHD straightening iron is the perfectly sized product for styling a pixie cut.  No more ouchie attempts—this classic straightening iron ensures your short hair looks flawless and polished with minimal effort.

6. Living Proof Perfect hair Day™ 5-in-1 Styling Treatment

Best for: Treating and styling your hair at the same time

This ingenious 5-in-1 formula effortlessly styles and treats your short locks in one simple step, resulting in a smooth, voluminous, conditioned, strong, and perfectly polished ‘do. Suitable for all hair types, including color and chemically treated hair, this remarkable treatment is a must-have short hair styling product. Living Proof’s patented Healthy Hair Molecule and Thickening Molecule work together to smooth, boost volume, and condition your hair.

7. Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray

Best for: Adding beachy texture to your short hair

Discover the magic of Bumble and Bumble’s Surf Spray, a must-have product for styling a pixie cut. This salt spray is your secret weapon for adding texture to your short hair. Embrace your inner surfer with sexy, salty, sun-dried, and wind-swept styles, no matter where you are or what season it is.

To use, simply work the spray through damp or dry hair and let it dry naturally, or use a diffuser while blow-drying. For added lift and detailing, apply it to dry hair at the roots.

8. Garnier Fructis Style Pure Clean Styling Gel

Best for: Creating a wet-look hairstyle with your pixie cut

Trust me when I recommend a hair gel because I know all about hair gels. Sometimes I feel like I’ve tried them all. This is my all-time favourite short hair styling gel: it’s light and not-too-crispy and perfect for that slick and sleek look. If you’re trying to achieve wet-look hair with a pixie cut, this is your product. And as a bonus—it’s also the most affordable styling product on the list!

9. L’Oreal Paris Advanced Hairstyle AIR DRY IT Undone Style Cream

Best for: Air dried hair that looks like it was heat styled

One of my personal favorite styling products, this lightweight cream offers just the right balance of hold and shine to help you achieve that effortlessly chic look without heat styling. Plus, the gorgeous packaging is sure to add a touch of sophistication to your bathroom cabinet.

10. Amika Perk Up Dry Shampoo

Best for: Adding volume when you don’t feel like washing your hair

Shampooing your pixie cut too much can make it dry and frizzy, but leaving too long between washes can leave it oily and lacking volume. Sometimes a simple dry shampoo is the best product for styling a pixie cut. This one from Amika freshens up your hair while using rice starch to absorb oils and add texture. It’s also free of nasties, like parabens and sulfates, so you know you’re doing good for your hair. 

11. Tigi Bed Head Hard To Get Paste

Best for: Spiking or tousling your hair

No list of pixie styling products would be complete without hair paste — it provides texture and hold that’s perfect for spiking or tousling your ‘do. Just don’t forget to rub it between your palms to soften and warm before app lying so that you don’t wind up with chunks of it in your mane!

12. Oribe Gold Lust Nourishing Hair Oil

Best for: Adding lightweight shine and reducing frizz

Featuring argan and jasmine oils, this ultra-light oil is a must-have product for styling short hair. This multi-purpose product is designed to add lightweight shine, reduce frizz, quicken drying time and provide UV protection for your locks. Created in collaboration with one of the oldest French Fragrance houses, Oribe’s signature scent, Côte d’Azur, features sun-drenched notes of Calabrian bergamot, white butterfly jasmine, and sandalwood—embodying the glamour and heat of the legendary destination.

13. R+Co Freeway Defining Spray Gel

Best for: Styling without the crunchiness

Yes, you read correctly—it’s a gel product in a spray! For curly crops, this is just right for defining and controlling waves; for other hair types, it’ll help you achieve long-lasting volume that isn’t hard or crunchy. Infused with sandalwood extract, this is a multipurpose product for styling your pixie cut and making it look naturally shiny. Did we mention it’s also vegan and cruelty free? Yup. This is one short hair styling product that ticks all the boxes. 

14. Oribe Straight Away Smoothing Blowout Hair Cream

Best for: Styling short hair with curls

This is a must-have styling product for short hair with curls. A powerful, heat-protective blowout cream to coax waves, curls, and coils into sleek, straight styles that last. This perfecting cream helps you achieve super-sleek, polished blowouts with ease. The silky-smooth formula strengthens hair and protects against heat and humidity, resulting in straight, long-lasting styles with body and movement.

15. Kerastase Mousse Bouffante Hair Mousse

Best for: Volumizing and adding body to thin hair

This luxurious mousse provides controlled hold without leaving behind any crunchy or hard residue, ensuring a lightweight and elegant touch to your styling routine.

Perfect for adding volume to your pixie cut, this mousse helps maintain the extra body throughout the day, allowing your hair to move freely and naturally without falling flat. Super easy to apply to both wet and dry hair, this versatile short hair styling mousse is also an excellent choice for use during heat styling, straightening, or curling.

16. Bumble And Bumble Sumotech

Best for: Strong hold styling with a low shine finish

Introducing a midweight moulding compound that masterfully blends wax, paste, and crème for the perfect look that will last all day. The unique solid crème formula delivers a lo-shine finish and flexible texture, making it one of the best texturizing pastes for short hair—and one of the overall best styling products for pixie cuts.

17. Prose Custom Leave-In Conditioner

Best for: Smoothing flyaways and adding hydration

Discover the personalized power of Prose leave-in conditioner, a custom-formulated product tailored to suit every individual and not limited to just one hair type. This remarkable leave-in conditioner provides the ideal amount of hydration for your specific needs, featuring a unique blend of active ingredients carefully chosen to help you achieve your hair goals.

Not only does Prose leave-in conditioner offer exceptional hydration, but it also doubles as a heat protectant before heat styling your pixie cut—lab-proven to safeguard your strands up to 450°F. This versatile and hydrating formula effortlessly detangles and smooths flyaways, leaving your hair soft, polished, and manageable.

18. Aveda brilliant™ medium hold hair spray

Best for: Protecting your pixie cut against humidity

This non-aerosol hairspray offers medium hold to keep your style in place while protecting your hair against humidity. Ideal for all hair types, it adds brilliant shine and definition, ensuring that your locks look their best throughout the day. Enriched with black tea, certified organic chamomile, calendula, and aloe, Aveda brilliant™ medium hold hair spray not only keeps your hair in place but also provides nourishing benefits.

19. Olaplex No 7 Bonding Oil

Best for: Increasing shine, softness and color vibrancy

Introducing a highly-concentrated, weightless reparative styling oil for your pixie cut that’s designed to dramatically increase shine, softness, and color vibrancy. This remarkable formula minimizes flyaways and frizz, while providing powerful UV and heat protection of up to 450°F/232°C. Olaplex No.7 Bonding Oil goes beyond mere styling—it actively repairs damaged and compromised hair, strengthening and protecting the hair structure.

20. Paul Mitchell Flexible Style Sculpting Foam

Best for: Controlling frizzy hair and flyaways

Introducing Paul Mitchell Flexible Style Sculpting Foam, a coconut-scented mousse designed to help you control frizzy hair and flyaways without compromising on moisture. This exceptional short hair styling product delivers defined texture, increased shine, hydration, and volume, ensuring your pixie cut looks its absolute best.

21. Ouai Wave Spray

Best for: Adding texture to fine hair

This weightless texture mist is perfect for short hair. This versatile spray works wonders on both damp and dry hair, adding body, and enhancing texture for that perfect tousled look.

Unlike many other wave sprays, Ouai Wave Spray is infused with rice protein rather than salt, ensuring effortless style without drying out your hair. The added benefits of coconut water and panthenol provide hydration, keeping your short locks healthy and lustrous. It’s also scented with the captivating Ouai No. 2 fragrance, featuring notes of Italian bergamot, water lily, and white musk.

22. Aveda Scalp Solutions Stimulating Scalp Massager

Best for: Getting a squeaky clean scalp

With short hair, your scalp is far more visible than for someone with longer locks, making it super important that you cleanse it properly. This brush from Aveda is a game-changing tool that gently and effectively lifts impurities from the scalp while increasing micro-circulation.

23. R+Co Dart Pomade Stick

Best for: Styling your hair on the go

Whether you need to smooth flyaways and frizz, increase texture and hold or create comb marks in your hair, this pomade stick has got you covered. Enriched with castor seed oil and jojoba esters, the R+Co Dart Pomade Stick not only styles but also moisturizes your hair, leaving you with shiny, soft tresses. Its unique stick applicator makes application a breeze, allowing you to pop it into your purse for styling on the go.

Can’t choose from our massive list above? These are the award-winning best styling products for short hair: