‘Overt femininity’: from Maga makeovers to Texan blowouts, big hair is back | Women’s hair

It’s big. It’s bouncy. And it’s back. From the catwalks to Capitol Hill, hair with added volume is trending. Raised at the roots and curled at the ends, big and bold hair has knocked relaxed, beachy waves off the hairstyle charts.

It’s the hairstyle Melania Trump loosely based her hair on for her official Flotus 2.0 portrait and it’s quickly becoming the signature style for her husband’s cabinet. Just days after being appointed White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt swapped her usual go-to straight and sleek look for it. Last year, Kristi Noem completed her Maga makeover with her previously short cropped hair in a shoulder-length style, alongside new teeth and fluttery fake eyelashes. This week, she posted images of herself attending her first deportation raid as homeland security secretary to X, her hair noticeably groomed and curled under a law enforcement cap. “Did she go to Drybar before this,” commented one user, referencing the hair salon chain that focuses on blow-drys.

But Republican hair is not just being championed by Maga and Fox News anchors. Since 2011, the Princess of Wales has been styling her hair in the same way. Last March, Beyoncé’s Super Bowl look, with her voluminised hair reaching even greater heights in front of a wind machine, led to requests in salons for “Texan blowouts”. On this month’s news stands, Pamela Anderson appears on the cover of Elle with her blond mane blown up and out, while at this week’s Copenhagen fashion week Danish showgoers who previously spearheaded neat, slick-back buns abandoned them for hair that commanded more space.

Melania Trump’s hairstylist, Mordechai Alvow has previously spoken about how she likes consistency with her hair. “There is a look about her where it’s almost like she’s the mother of the public. You want your mother to have one steady look.” Elizabeth L Block, an art and cultural historian and author of Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing, draws comparisons between the style and Utah curls, a type of waist-length and curled hair popularised by the reality TV show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. “In Melania Trump’s new official portrait, her hair is long, smooth, and deliberately placed with one side behind her shoulder and the other side cascading along the tuxedo panel for us to admire,” says Block. “But it is all very controlled. There is not a single hair out of place. No frizz. This hair takes time to achieve and money.”

Fatima Naveed, a senior brand manager at the London blow-dry bar Duck & Dry, says “big and bouncy” blowouts are the most requested look from clients. Naveed describes the style as “a return to a 90s style, full of volume and root lift”.

At 16Arlington’s spring/summer 2025 show, the hairstylist Sam McKnight used Velcro rollers and a hood dryer to give models “bombshell blowouts”. McKnight, who took his inspiration from 1980s Sloane Rangers and 90s supermodels, now sells a kit to emulate the look for £55. Elsewhere, sales of old-school rollers are up 14% at John Lewis stores and searches for “heated hair rollers” up 136% online. Marks & Spencer sells a pack of pink rollers for £8. Following the success of its 2020 Rise hot brush that gained a cult-like following on social media, the hair tool manufacturer GHD has added two new products to its blow-dry range including a two-in-one hairdryer brush that it says delivers three times more volume than letting hair dry naturally. On TikTok, there are tutorials on how to use a sock for “heatless curls”.

Dale Herne, a stylist at Hersheson’s salon in London, credits a corresponding rise in “curtain bangs”, a cut spearheaded by the pop star Sabrina Carpenter, with driving the trend. Softer than a full fringe, the cut gently frames the face and can easily be blow-dried or pin-rolled for extra volume. “It’s a powerful look,” Herne says. “It gives you width, height and shine. Any woman with that hairstyle is going to stand with their spine a little straighter.” However strong it looks, Block says “[what] they all have in common is an overt femininity”.