Shay Mitchell Showed Off A New Hair Transformation That Combines Major Trends

January is a period of transformation for a lot of people, and it seems Shay Mitchell is one of them. The Dollface star decided to switch up her hair game and unveiled the drastic change in a Jan. 15 TikTok. She must have been paying attention to 2022 hair trend predictions, because her new ’do combines more than one of them.

The big reveal came in her TikTok, which she captioned, “Long or short?” In it, Mitchell has a salon cape around her shoulders and two sections of her long locks in her hands. She pulls on the ends in time with the audio, and then the video cuts to her with her new hair: a bob, styled with waves, with wispy bangs.

The actor’s hairstyle can also be classified as a blunt shag, making her one of the many stars who have opted for the look. Celebrity hairstylist Nick Stenson, who is the artistic director at Matrix and senior vice president of store and services operations at Ulta Beauty, previously told Bustle that the shag is set to be “a go-to low-maintenance option reimagined with a curtain bang or fringe” in 2022. “Expect to see this style in various lengths and textures,” he added.

While Mitchell has kept her hair super long for years now, she’s also had fun playing with different styles in the past. In June 2019, the Pretty Little Liars vet decided to see how she would look with an electric blue lob. The answer was great, but it was just a wig. “We’re going to take off the whole thing. And we’re sad about it,” she wrote in her Instagram stories at the time. “Short hair, blue hair, just don’t care.”

The actor has yet to show off more photos of her new look, so while it certainly appears that she got a cut, there’s still a chance she’s managed to fool fans with a wig once again. However, the salon cape seems like a strong clue that she did indeed go for it. If she truly has opted for a short haircut, the shag’s low-maintenance aspect seems like a likely part of its appeal, given that Mitchell’s daughter, Atlas, turned 2 in October, and she’s busy with balancing mom life and her career. Speaking to Bustle in May, she shared how having her first kid and shutdowns had made it a challenge to stick to her usual workout routine.

“I wasn’t shooting anything, so I didn’t feel inspired to get off the couch,” she said. “Being a new mom with a delicious baby to play with didn’t help either!”

Mitchell’s hair transformation, permanent or not, also may have just been inspired by a desire for change, which is always fair. Whatever her reasons, she’s pulling off the new look.