Top of the class: The hair trends to follow this season

The teenage world is a fascinating — and sometimes — terrifying place.

Imagine Mean Girls, Gossip Girl, and even Young Royals, in between pavilions of classes, lockers, and social scenarios, the non-disclosed agreements of youngster interactions develop, whirl, and unfold, essentially creating social classes, oligarchical processes, and sometimes tense relationships.

In this very particular universe, everything is about style, some things are about personality and most things are about perceptions. That being said, where do the now idealised misfits fall into? Originally nowhere, but now, in the front page of the school gossip blog. For this editorial featured in the October-November issue of Vogue Scandinavia, we delve into the aesthetics of those who once were judged, but now exalted. Those who don’t care about conforming with society’s norms and rules but rather live everyday by expressing completely and with no care of other’s opinions. Those who will never be followers and might just become the next trendsetter.

Here’s a look into each style and the professional comments of Rudi Lewis, hair artist responsible for the creation of the styles presented in the pages of our latest issue:

“I’m like of that age where this look represents a kind of a mixture between nostalgia or shivers because this was what was in when I was a teenager, at least some version of it. By the time I became a hairdresser the trend was over, it was a bit too early 80s for me,” reminisces Lewis. “When doing this style, part of me was resisting it and my main question is why is it appealing now? Truth is that it’s made various comebacks over the years. For even us stylists I feel like every once in a while we get asked to do it both in a trendy way and in an ironic way — nonetheless, for the younger generations I don’t think it’s ironic anymore. They actually appreciate it”.

When it comes to getting the style, Rudi has particular comments on how to get it and who should get it. “It suits people with small hearted face shapes, but it’s not good for people with square faces or round faces. You have to take into consideration your face shape before getting the chop. This works well for people with natural curly hair, but straight haired people can work to get volume and texture by putting the curls in, which entails a bit more maintenance, which is somewhat contradictory for the hairstyle itself. For the front part, blow dry with a small diameter brush to get that pulled look. You round up the little sections and create volume with the hair dryer. The curls you just define and then you work with the bangs. It’s more about the haircut”.

“This is a colour based look. You can either get it from letting your hair grow out or do it on purpose to get the final aesthetic. That being said, bleach can be very damaging to the hair, so the main products I would recommend for this style would be colour protection formulas, nourishing moisturisers, and products that will revitalise the hair. I personally like the look of roots, I think that a recently bleached hair sometimes might be too much. Some people consider it lazy, but for me it's interesting as sometimes people even fake it — as in darkening the roots, giving it more contrast against the general blond-ness of the hair. Finally, this is a great way of managing bleached hair that you don’t want to put through the damage of bleach again and it’s all about the transition of the hair colours”, comments Lewis.

For this very clean, straight, style the key is all in the styling. “ In this case you want to have a cut that looks good when straightened. Not too many layers, as you’re presenting the whole body of the hair and there is nowhere to hide it in case there is something not right. My recommendation is to have a blunt line with a sharp end. I always avoid the feathery ends that were very trendy in the 2000s, it used to drive me crazy back in the time, it was very Victoria Beckham before she became a fashion icon,” says Lewis with a laugh. “Right now it’s about having more density in the hair. It’s not volume, rather density. For this look I was inspired by the Schiaparelli hairpins cause they felt a bit doll-like. I was going for a more exaggerated straight, but I think it could work on an everyday basis. You don’t want the hair to be big, but thick. Now, if you don’t have thick hair, the best way to make it look more strong and dense is having a blunt cut, not a jagged end. Product wise, stick to heat protectants”.

The neverending curls were quite a feat to get done, as here bigger is better and when it comes to volume, we always want more. “For this look, the term Poodle Perm implies that the hair is permed, but this obviously works with just curly hair or straight hair that you’ve worked hours to curl. What you need to achieve is the spiral curl and then onto that you just add a mouse”, explains Rudi. “By the time I started working as a hairdresser this is what people wanted to get done. Doing these perms was a whole activity, people would sit there for hours with thousands of these perming rods. It was torture, they had to sit down with their necks strained and then they had to get it washed and neutralised. It was truly torture but everybody wanted it, especially with this red colour”.

“The first step to achieve the look is starting off with a leave-in conditioner, whichever one works, the key product is the mouse, you want to coat the hair and work it through all the head. Now here comes the fun part, flip the hair upside down and dry it with a diffuser. This is the key action because you want the curls to sit on the diffuser and maintain the separation. With a normal hair dryer you would only be destroying the curl pattern. It was the first thing that I learned as a young hairdresser, dry with a diffuser. It was my whole job when the main hairdressers would perm someone's hair. You scrunch and dry, go for volume. At the end you might want to seal it all together with a setting spray to lock in the volume. This is definitely the most high maintenance style from all of them done”.

Non-surprisingly, this look is simple both to the eye and to the way of making it. As it’s meant to really embody the carefree-ness of the style. “ For me this look is a little bit soft and easier to work with. It’s a real easy look that just used a bit of a texturising product before finger blow drying. The final touches are the flicked ends, which can be done with a curling iron or a flat iron. It’s a bit reminiscent of the 70s and 80s without making it too hard. Wh a bit of a skater-surfer mood in there. She’s a little bit salty”, finished Lewis with a giggle.

“Finally, for this one, you want a really good smoothing product that has a lot of moisture because you’re going to be scraping the hair into a very tight ponytail so you want to take care of it”, explains Lewis. “After you have the base done, you attach strands of hair into the ponytail and start creating a very thick ponytail with lots of hair, after that you tie small elastics down the length of the ponytail. It’s a relatively simple style that achieves its volume and sculpture style solely out of the amount of volume that it has. That being said, the thing here is to be willing to explore and add colour, make it wow, fun, and bold. Doing a combination of hair that matches the base colour with a pop of shock is the best way. Then take care of the edges and finish with a strong hold spray to hold everything in place”.

And there you have it, ready for the school picture. What style will you be sporting today?