For women too spineless to give up their long curl, I want to say that it looks neat to take about ear length, dye it black, streak it burgandy or baby blue, and give it that slightly tossled/slightly spikey look. If you have not enough courage to cut it, I have some more recommendations for you.
Crimping.
You should know short hair gets really floofy and can to all sorts of spiff frizzy antigravity things when it's short.
Wee pigtails.
Try to pull sections from the top of my head and put them in little brightly and colored rubberbands. Sometimes I love just do two in the front, and sometimes I do four, two in front and two in back. As a variation I use butterfly clips (or something similar) to hold them instead of rubberbands. More variety can be had by braiding the sections.
Pigtails.
Pull it all up into pigtails. Depending on where you place them, you can get all sorts of looks. For example, more towards the back can be more adult-looking (example would be Devi in "I feel sick," if you've ever read that), more towards the sides will give you a little-girl look.
Attachments.
I love to tie really long (butt-length and longer) ribbons into my hair. A blah ponytail changes to something really elegant when it has a long black velvet ribbon trailing from it. Just be careful not to sit on them. Be also prepared to face people wanting to play with them when you wear them. And then of course, there are pony falls for when you really want long hair.
