"Trends are no longer regional, they’re global. What’s happening in the States is similar to what’s happening here. The reason for that is we’re all so digitally connected.
A lot of what we’re seeing now in hair is heavy texture. We’re seeing a lot of structured curl again, and strong perimeter shapes where the hair actually moves on the inside.
The big global trend of 2021 is the mullet. What a mullet means is basically length at the back and length taken away at the sides. It’s a very graphic, disconnected haircut that was big in the 70s and made a bit of a comeback in the late 80s. It’s really strong as a high fashion statement; you see it in a lot of campaigns by the edgier designers who are really directional, like Yohji Yamamoto. You know when that’s happening, it’s going to hit the mainstream maybe a year or 18 months later. And you can just see it filtering into salons and people out on the street. It can be adapted and done on all ages as well, it’s not just an edgy young-person’s thing.
“Business at the front and party at the back”
Recently, we did an Electric Education session on Instagram Live and created a modern mullet. Both myself and DJ Muldoon, who joined us from California, ended up creating our own takes on a modern mullet without us communicating it beforehand.
Other 2021 hair trends
The shag is a wearable variation of the mullet. Again, it was big in the 70s and is composed of short layers on top and longer at the sides, so you get this shaggy feeling through the layers.
As I’ve mentioned, hair being free moving and having texture is big, the whole curtain bangs look is so likeable because it’s wearable on most people. It frames the wearer to give them a more oval shaped face, which works on almost everybody.
The job of a hairdresser is to advise a client on what they need, firstly what shape suits them. So you look at the person’s face and advise them on how you’re going to make them look great and feel great. Same when it comes to using products, for example if they’ve got dry hair you use certain products and advise them what they need to do at home while sharing it with a little bit of technique, so if they want volume you tell they’ve got to get your hair to one side and get your brush in their at the roots.
For about a decade we’ve had a trend where hair has been quite minimal maintenance. Looking at ombre and balayage, it’s stretched out people’s visits to the salons. But this sort of graphic haircut does need upkeep to be maintained so it’s going to require more visits to your hairdresser to keep it looking great."