Forget Proper Party Hair, The ’90s Up-Do Is Back In A Major Way

It’s only 6pm and I’m already running back to my hotel like Cinderella, scooting away from Chloé’s highly secure backstage within Paris’s Unesco headquarters, curvy French pins falling from my hair with every step.

A few hours ago I was having my toddler-fine lengths curled and professionally pinned for the first time in a long time. A few years into a bob, I’m ready to let my hair up.

Naturally a “hair up” person, the business-woman-special chin length I’ve maintained, trim after trim, kept me living a “hair down” life. But after an awkward-phase summer and with the help of Omi Hair Growth Peptide gummies (tasty enough to remind me to actually eat them), my ends finally touch my shoulders when pulled completely taut. Cue the spring/summer 2026 runways, where up-dos appeared to be everywhere.

Backstage at Sandy Liang in New York, I found Evanie Frausto creating half-up hair with a dramatic “Clueless-style” curled tendril falling on one side of a model’s face. He praises the up-do’s transformative abilities, especially during growing-out phases.

“You don’t need perfect lines or a professional hand,” Frausto says, touting a certain unfussy energy over control. “You just twist, pin and suddenly you’re in a new mood. That immediacy is powerful.” He believes “hair has permission to be everything at once”, from ultra-minimal graphic up-dos to playful takes on height and shine. “After so many seasons of sharp bobs and centre parts, there’s a craving for looseness,” he says.

Filippo Fortis

There’s a balance, though. Those butterfly clips clamping hair artist Yusuke Morioka’s relaxed twists for Undercover’s collection presentation at its showroom would weigh heavy in my ultra-fine hair – I just know it. So, too, would the multiple covetable combs that superstar stylist Guido Palau used to hold The Row’s elaborate chignons. At Hodakova, Holli Smith “did some messy braids”, she writes, finished by simply rolling the end so that the tails disappeared.

Off the runway, and as the algorithm tends to do when your interest has been piqued in something, I’m being served “No-Tie Hairstyles From Princesses” videos on Instagram showing the Princess of Wales with her lengths deftly twirled into a gorgeous knot without a pin in sight.

Launchmetrics.com/spotlight

Back on the runway, even the most formal looks delivered a certain sense of ease. For Richard Quinn’s opera-themed London show, Sam McKnight, he of hairdressing royalty himself, wanted an “haute couture up-do” that served as “an ode to glamour and elegance”. Petticoats and corsets called for “a sleek French twist and volume”, misted with a product from his eponymous line that adds a grip in the spirit of the season, creating a dynamic yet easy up-do.

Launchmetrics.com/spotlight

Launchmetrics.com/spotlight

As it happens, I could use a little grip myself. An hour and 30 hairpins into my styling appointment, the time has come to dive into a car if I want to make it backstage to Chloé. It’s only taken one slippery, heat-protecting spritz of Shaeri Soin Quotidien Haircare Leave-In Spray to learn that, as my romantic ringlets melt into spaghetti strings, an old-school product may be essential for lifting my baby-fine strands.