6 Of the Most Retro 90s Hair Trends Making a Comeback

Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Cardi B are doing their best to recreate some iconic 1990s hairstyles

Posted on

11 September 2019

6 Of the Most Retro 90s Hair Trends Making a Comeback

All Credits: PA

Judging by Instagram, it would seem like we’re basically living in the Nineties – but with the addition of social media. Everyone wears dungarees, bum bags and spaghetti straps, and now it looks like hairstyles are next to get the Nighties treatment.

Scrunchies have been back in business for a while now, and slowly but surely other retro hairstyles are infiltrating our feeds. This isn’t just the odd barrette but also major ways to style, colour or cut your hair.

Unfortunately, the iconic ‘Rachel’ is yet to become the 2019 haircut of choice. But who knows – the way fashion trends are going, we might be asking for a feathered, choppy lob curved around our face, just like Jennifer Aniston in Friends. In the meantime, these are the vintage looks being given a modern spin…

1. Chunky highlights

Celebrity hairstylist Andrew Fitzsimons recently gave Kim Kardashian chunky highlights. Back in the Nineties version, the colour difference of the highlights were glaringly obvious (think blonde hair with thick brunette stripes, kind of like a zebra) – but the contrast between Kardashian’s dark brown hair and coffee highlights actually work really well.

With super-sleek straight hair and a choker to match, everything about Kardashian’s look was the perfect throwback.

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Obsessed with these beige-brunette chunky 90’s-ass highlights I created on @KimKardashian for the latest @KKWbeauty campaign #AndrewFitzsimonsHair @makeupbymario

A post shared by Andrew Fitzsimons (@andrewfitzsimons) on Aug 20, 2019 at 2:46pm PDT

2. Frosted tips

Who knew The Great British Bake Off would become a prime source for beauty inspiration? Contestant Jamie Finn, 20, gave the nation an insight into Gen Z hair trends, and it turns out it’s not too different to when many of us were young.

In a boyband throwback that Justin Timberlake would’ve been proud of in his *NSYNC days, Finn sported blonde frosted tips – but his short back and sides haircut is decidedly 2019, not 1999.

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Jamie’s a waiter in Surrey who was taught baking by his grandmother. If things don’t go to plan in the tent, he could send in his identical twin brother! #GBBO

A post shared by The Great British Bake Off (@britishbakeoff) on Aug 20, 2019 at 1:47am PDT

3. Curled ponytails

A high ponytail is such a fail-safe hairstyle, in fact, it’s never really fallen out of fashion. However, Bella Hadid updated the look by taking inspiration from the 1990s, keeping her hair pony sleek for the recent MTV VMAs and curling the ends under.

Proving this look is well and truly back, a day later Kylie Jenner wore the exact same style on the red carpet. On her Instagram stories Jenner credited Hadid as her “hair inspo”, but she equally could have gone further back and thanked Naomi Campbell or Denise Richards over 20 years ago.

4. Claw clips

Last year barrettes and slides came back with a vengeance, with the high streets and catwalks full of clips. Now, we’re levelling up to something even more major: Claw clips. It’s an easy, practical way to hold up all of your hair into a loose chignon – as model Kaia Gerber shows us on Instagram.

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multipurpose chip clip

A post shared by Kaia (@kaiagerber) on May 28, 2019 at 4:23pm PDT

At this point we have to give a special shout-out to butterfly clips, the children’s party favourite also getting the 2019 treatment.

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A post shared by Dani Thorne (@dani_thorne) on Aug 24, 2019 at 9:44am PDT

5. Bantu knots

Bantu knots are a hairstyle steeped in history and culture, so it can be reductive to say when it has been ‘in’ or ‘out’ of fashion. What we do know is in the Nineties it was a popular look for women of colour to have two or more bantu knots at the front of their head, with half of their hair loose down the back – just call it the Scary Spice effect.

Cardi B used this particular way of styling bantu knots at a recent film premiere, piling on even more Nineties beauty trends by having the rest of her hair sleek and curled outwards at the ends.

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The dog walker.

A post shared by Iamcardib (@iamcardib) on Aug 25, 2019 at 6:35pm PDT

6. Crimped hair

Crimped hair is one of those fads we’re all happy to see banished into history. However, the high fashion crowd is doing its best to breathe new life into the zigzag style.

Luckily, it’s not quite so severe or tight a pattern as we burned into our hair for school discos in the Nineties. Today’s style is looser and softer, more like a carefully styled frizz. As so often happens, where the catwalks go we soon follow – so maybe it’s time to dig out your crimping iron.

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@christiancowan fabulous show style @patti_wilson makeup @isamayaffrench #hairbylaurentphilippon @bumbleandbumble

A post shared by @ laurentphilippon on Feb 16, 2019 at 8:31am PST