STEM and the City: Four chic and (actually) easy hairstyles
A medical student with a degree in Fashion Design muses about style, love, and what it means to “have it all.”
Am I the only person who feels that Disney gave us misleading ideas about hair? While, ideally, we would all love to wake up to a head of big, bouncy waves—and a prince calling up to our window, for that matter—unfortunately, this isn’t the reality for most. Beyond the sad fact that we don’t wake up with picture perfect tresses, the vast majority of us have obligations that extend beyond keeping the evil Queen at bay. We’re simply too busy to go through the motions required to attain princess-perfect hair every morning.
Obviously, we still want to look great.
Distressed by this conundrum, I set out to find an assortment of contemporary and cool hairstyles anyone can pull off. All of these looks meet the following criteria: they take under four minutes, are actually cute, and are easy enough that I could do it. If you’ve ever fallen victim to a hair tutorial that purports to be ‘simple,’ and then proceeds to completely bamboozle you, you are not alone. This goes without saying, but dry shampoo and leave-in conditioner will be your mainstays on this journey. Beyond that, most of these looks rely on affordable accessories to do the work for you, so you can get back to your main hustle: studying alone at the library.
Polished pony
This is for any setting that requires a bit of professionalism, which are few and far between these days, or for those who just want to exude minimalistic cool. Simply tie your hair back into a low ponytail using a clear elastic or one close in colour to your hair tone, pull out a section from one side, wrap it around the elastic, and secure it on the underside with a bobby pin. You can also attach the bobby pin to the hair end before wrapping, which helps if your hair is on the finer side.
Products: Goody clear elastics ($10.26 for a pack of 250, Conair colour match bobby pins ($2.74 for a pack of 75).
View this post on Instagram
Put a bow on it
This hairstyle used to be borderline unattainable (how on earth do you tie the scarf so it doesn’t slide down?), but thankfully, the savvy developers of hair accessories came to that same realization and developed scrunchie-scarf hybrids. Use one of these in any setting that you would ordinarily use a hair elastic or scrunchie—half-up half-down, pony, bun; the world is your silky-clad oyster!
Products: These are available everywhere, but I can personally vouch for the sets from Anthropologie ($24.00 for two).
View this post on Instagram
In a (s)crunch(ie)
While writing this piece, I tried a handful of tutorials for chic buns and realized that ultimately, buns continue to be super difficult to master—most of us would already be rocking the perfect chignon already if it were easy. Thankfully, the internet came through and taught me that you can hide any lack of technical prowess underneath a giant—and trendy—scrunchie. Just do the same sad bun that you always do, throw a scrunchie over your elastic, and bam: New York City cool. Bonus points for statement jewelry.
Products: scrunchies are literally everywhere these days. I truthfully get most of mine from Dollarama, however, a true Kingston local will shop at Urban Outfitters ($24.00 for a set of 10).
View this post on Instagram
Re-claim your childhood (but make it fashion)
We all grew up using barrettes (remember clipping your bangs back with them? I’d rather forget). I will be the first to admit I never thought this summer camp staple would make a comeback, but alas, it has—and the results are surprisingly chic. These pearl-adorned barrettes have been photographed all over Paris lately, and as we all know, when it comes to fashion, the Parisians always get it right. Grab any random piece of hair and arbitrarily clip it to the side. Effortlessly gorgeous. So effortless in fact, that people will wonder: does she even know it’s on her head?
Products: You cannot go wrong with this steal from Amazon ($7.55 for four pearl barrettes).
View this post on Instagram
