With their ruffled ends and unkempt bangs, you’d think the models had just rolled out of bed. At the Fall 2025 shows, they paraded down the runways sporting messy hair of all sorts: There were tousled tresses at Miu Miu, hasty ponytails at Prada, shaggy locks at Kenzo, fuzzy waves at Stella McCartney, crimped roots at Alexander McQueen, and flyaway volume at Chloé—just to name a few.
“It’s the irreverence that makes these messy hairstyles so modern,” explained Guido Palau, the stylist behind the “messed up” looks at Prada, Miu Miu, and Dolce & Gabbana. “Showing that you haven’t taken the time to do your hair gives it a nonchalant air that’s always very attractive.”
That said, don’t be fooled by the carefree appearance. The chicest messy hair may suggest a certain laissez-faire attitude, but it’s also not about looking lazy. Instead, it’s meant to suggest the type of woman who is in a hurry, whose life is far too exciting to waste time in the bathroom. She’s the type who, having danced all night, doesn’t have time to get home before going to the office… a visionary free-spirit who isn’t pressed about sticking to society’s rigid beauty notions. In other words, her messy hair isn’t a mess because she is—she’s just expressing her je ne sais quoi.
The look is “wildly disheveled, but still beautiful and feminine,” explains Palau, who says that messy hair “leads us to question the beauty of things when they don’t correspond to our idea of perfection. Who can say what is truly beautiful? Messy hair is always a source of debate.”
When it comes to achieving this sort of messy vibe, the idea is lightness, so do make use of airy mousses and salty sprays: “These formulas support the hair’s natural movement instead of breaking its bounce,” says Gill. “The motto is less is more.”
At the hands of hairstylist Gary Gill, the protocol to achieve a laid-back frizz at Chloé was as follows: texturizing spray, volumizing mousse, a shot from the blowdryer, then texturizing spray again. To achieve the final, electrified look, Gill then slid a balloon from roots to tips in order to “charge” the models’ hair with static. “These frizzes give a little something extra so that the whole thing doesn’t look too styled,” Gill says. “We want it to be natural—fluffy, not fussy.”
To that end, Palau recommends the following easy and effective technique for achieving the look at home: “Spray your hair with texturizing spray to add density but keep the movement natural,” he says. “Then, gently brush the lengths back into the hair to add hold, static, and lift.”
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