noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hairdo
Explanation
A hairdo is what a stylist gives you when he cuts and styles your hair. You might go to the salon to get a fancy hairdo before your cousin's wedding. Hairdo is an informal word for "hairstyle." It's the way your hair is cut, dried, and arranged on your head, especially if there's some effort put into it. The way your hair looks when you roll out of bed in the morning isn't a hairdo, and pulling it back into a ponytail or covering it with a bandanna isn't a hairdo either. The elaborate beehive piled five inches high on your grandma's head? Now that's a hairdo.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This is not a tale where the heroine’s acceptable aesthetics are revealed by her removing her glasses or allowing her tousled waves to tumble out of a tightly pinned hairdo.
From Salon ● May 20, 2026
“It’s got to be one of those sideline Armani suits with his hands on his sides or something. That’s the best one, man, and his neat hairdo, looking stylish. That’s got to be it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2026
Never mind that it was said to have been dreamed up by kids at a soda fountain that Short frequented and referred mainly to her upswept hairdo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
Her nightmarish laugh, gravity-defying hairdo and ferocious temper were part of a carefully constructed character that ranks as a comic masterpiece.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2025
Everyone turns in their seats, and a few of the ladies nearer the front gasp, though whether because of my terrible hairdo or because I dared to interrupt, I ain’t certain.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
They walk the streets pomaded, braided, wearing strangely arranged hairdos meant to call attention to themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
The hashtag "hanfu" has been viewed over eleven billion times on Instagram-like Xiaohongshu, and is filled with posts of women in elaborate costumes and hairdos.
From Barron's ● Nov. 14, 2025
Everywhere I look, I see shop windows, prams and women's hairdos festooned with blue, white and red Norwegian flags.
From BBC ● May 23, 2025
They got crazy names, they got crazy music, they got crazy hairdos.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2024
I wish I’d done it in one of those new, beehive hairdos.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
