3 Easy Summer Hairstyles
The weather’s getting warmer, the summer collections are hitting our favourite shops and summer is definitely on its way. If your locks have been hiding under a woolly hat all winter, it’s time to give them a little refresh with our top tips for easy, quick-fix, summer-ready summer hairstyle :
Summer Hairstyle - Braids
image left: Giles SS14; top right: Rebecca Minkoff SS14; bottom right: Karen Walker SS14 (all from style.com)
We always seem to love sporting braided hairstyles in spring and summer, whether fun fishtail braids to keep the hair out of our face on breezy trips to the beach, skinny plaits and coloured strands to channel our inner Cali-cool, or romantic braided crowns paired with diaphonous maxi skirts, we just can’t get enough. All these braided styles and more were seen on the Spring/Summer 2014 catwalks, so it’s just a matter of choosing your favourite point of inspiration.
We loved the windswept, volumised side plaits at Giles (hairstylist Sacha Mascolo-Tarbuck said the movie Braveheart provided the inspiration); work volumising powder into the roots for extra texture, then smooth over a lightweight paste to keep the lift. Finish by plaiting a side braid - either a simple 3-strand one, or something a little more complicated if you feel inclined. The braided crowns at Rebecca Minkoff are perfect for those balmy spring afternoons where you need to get the hair off the back of your neck, and we can see legions of festival-goers sporting the laid-back skinny plaits and twists seen at Karen Walker’s east-meets-urban collection.
Summer Hairstyle - Waves
image left: Alexander Wang SS14; centre: Topshop Unique SS14; left: Diane Von Furstenberg SS14 (all from style.com)
Keeping in with the laid-back, effortless spring hair offered by braided styles, lived-in waves are set to be another huge hair trend this spring. Designers as diverse as Diane Von Furstenberg, Balmain and Alexander Wang all sent models down the runway sporting super casual but super chic wavy locks. The key to this trend is to keep it looking undone, but not overly messy; try rinsing your hair with water and just using conditioner on it to give it the textured lived-in effect without the grease and dirt.
At Topshop the inspiration was Daria Werbowy and the collection’s world-traveller theme: hair was lifted at the roots with mousse and waved in random sections with a one-and-a-half-inch curling iron. Nineties grunge was the biggest influence again at Alexander Wang, where legendary hairstylist Guido Palau bulked up the roots and used a powder to matt the ends of models’ hair before using a large curling iron to create loose waves for movement. Diane Von Furstenberg’s girls wore romantic S-shaped curls, their hair made sleek and glossy with a serum.
Summer Hairstyle - Floral Accessories
image left: Dolce & Gabbana SS14; top right: Anna Sui SS14; top bottom: Zac Posen SS14 (all from style.com)
You can’t say spring without a smattering of pretty blooms, right? Flowers have to be one of the oldest accessories in the book, from the ancient Greeks’ woodland garlands to Japanese flower combs and today’s fashion bloggers with their ubiquitous floral crowns. Flowers have been a symbol of life for millennia, so it’s not hard to see why they would become so popular as accessories during the springtime, with its ideas of rebirth and rejuvenation.
Backstage at Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring/Summer 2014 show, Guido said that the models’ hair, teased into romantic braided chignons, recalled the styles often worn in Ancient Rome. The exotic empresses also inspired the embellishments scattered over the models’ hair: coin-encrusted headbands, jeweled combs, and, of course, delicate flowers. We loved the small, simple floral crowns - much chicer than the oversized ones spotted at festivals up and down the country every summer - and the pretty floral wreaths wrapped under and around the chignons.
There were floral crowns at Anna Sui, too, but the inspiration here was more Pre-Raphaelite meets hippie chic with free-flowing locks and bejewelled floral headbands that cascaded down the back of the models’ hair. At Zac Posen, tiny flowers were pinned into voluminous updos, like a scattering of delicate blossom.