When bangs-lovers or bangs-havers yell at me for getting so frustrated and critical over the state of bangs-centric hairstyles currently invading celebrity women’s foreheads these days, one of the most common comebacks is often, “Some people NEED bangs.” I disagree on that point, almost always. You have to have a particular kind of face, or a particular kind of forehead issue to make real, honest-to-goodness BANGS work. I’m not talking about some little pieces around your face to add some depth – I’m talking about full-blown bangs (trauma), with the currently popular thick, blunt-cut bangs that go past a lady’s eyebrows. My point is almost always: “Look at how much these women look without bangs.” Look at Lea Michele before and after bangs – she looks so much better without. Look at Christina Hendricks, Rihanna, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lopez, and Penelope Cruz, and tell me that all of them don’t look so much better withOUT bangs. My point? It takes a certain kind of face to make bangs look better.

So these are new photos of Carrie Underwood debuting her new bangs over the weekend. Does she pull it off? Well… they’re not the too-thick bangs that are currently going around – these are more old-school, more “country/western” bangs that look flat-ironed and stiff. This is a look that many Southern ladies still do. For comparison, this was Carrie’s last hairstyle:

She had some shorter piece up front to add depth, and… in my opinion, that hairstyle was so, so much better. These bangs ruin her very pretty face. They’re also too long and too stiff, by the way.

Photos courtesy of WENN.