How to have fun with hair accessories, according to eight Australian creatives
IMAGE VIA @tarachandra_/INSTAGRAM
WORDS BY ALLIE DAISY KING
“Sometimes, you don’t need new clothes – just the right accessories!”
Scrunchies, bows and hair charms, oh my! Since the rise of the bow in 2023, there has been a shift towards people having more fun with their hair. From the Damson Madder effect (scrunchies that match your clothing) to ‘trinket hair’, adorning one’s head seems to have all the fashion girlies in a chokehold.
For more hair talk, head to our Beauty section.
Hair accessories are as varied as can be, with endless opportunities for self-expression. To illustrate all of the different ways you can accessorise, we asked eight Australian creatives to show how they style their favourite hair accessories.
Marina Takeuchi, creative (she/her)
At the moment I’ve been loving hair accessories as a way to reinvent and refresh my outfits. My go-to has been my Good Squish scrunchies! Not only are they adorable, but as a lazy hair girl who prefers low-maintenance hair styling, these scrunchies make it so easy to look put together with minimal effort. I especially love these scrunchies with a slick back bun as they make this basic hairstyle a bit more fun and cutesy!
While they’re on the pricier side, they’re definitely a worthy investment (the cost per wear is so low). They instantly elevate any simple outfit and make me feel more feminine and girly – especially when wearing more unisex and masculine shapes. Sometimes, you don’t need new clothes – just the right accessories!
Tai, content creator (she/her)
I’ve never been very good at styling hair but as a trinket girlie, it is hard to resist covering myself with cute things from head to toe. When I discovered these little metal hair wraps that became possible. I love them because you can hang jewellery, pearls or anything really and they are super easy to put on. They inspired me to start hanging earrings in my hair too, sounds weird but it works! It helps to use a small rubber hair tie underneath them so they have something to grip and they don’t slide around.
Mungmung, musician (she/her)
Having hair done is just the icing on the look cake for me! It ties everything together and relieves the ‘Hmm… something is missing’ itch. I felt like going with Decora or Kawaii styling for this look (who wouldn’t want to cover up their head with a bunch of cuties?!). My ensemble includes Sanrio, Disney, Mashimaro, Beaded by Momo and other tidbits my mum and I have collected since childhood.
Phoebe McIlwraith, First Nations journalist and producer (she/her)
Now I hate having a bad hair day. Sometimes a greasy scalp or some flatness can be saved by a claw clip and delusion. But some days you just have to cave and cover it with a hat except you don’t want something that screams ‘nothing to see here folks’!
Enter the statement hat – to divert attention. I don’t just buy the first hat you see but experiment with shape, colour and texture to have an accessory that feels ‘me’. I often get my hats in gallery gift shops, which sometimes stock limited edition designs. It’s a confidence booster and a conversation starter – win win!
Angie King, content creator (she/her)
I absolutely adore accessorising my hair in the most maximalist way I can imagine. My favourite item of late would have to be braid extensions, I got these particular ones from INH hair. They elevate a look and make it so much more interesting in such an easy way! Being me and loving cute and colourful things, I, of course, had to top off the look with a beret, an effortless way to make an outfit that much chicer.
This pink one with a giant attached bow is from small Brisbane designer Elleni the Label. Finally, any hairstyle needs to be topped off with some cute clips and these are from a pop-up store in the middle of a Westfield!
Martina Calvi, author and founder of Martina’s Tiny Store (she/her)
With curly hair I find something simple goes a long way. I love tying back my curls with a silk ribbon from my craft box, it makes me feel like a Disney princess! Lately, I’ve been loving my jumbo personalised bow from ChouChou intimates. It’s still neat but makes a statement!
Carmen Azzopardi, content creator (she/her)
I started really leaning into hair accessories when I realised that they’re a relatively easy way to elevate my looks. I got the inspiration for this style from pinterest and the execution was so easy – all I had to do was slick my hair back then pop clips all over my head. In all honesty, this style takes less than 10 minutes (removing them is another story though!) and you can use literally any clips you have lying around. Candidly speaking, I never really put too much effort into my hair so anything that requires minimal effort but has maximum impact is an easy yes.
Photography by Micaela Chutrau.
Tara Chandra, content creator (she/her)
Most of my looks are inspired by my go-to hairstyle which has a base of four quadrants – two plaits at the bottom half and two pigtails at the top which I switch up for buns, plaits, or random creations.
For this hairstyle, I’ve added belly button piercings and silver hair rings which I looped through my plaits. I have some fun beaded earrings in my buns, lace ribbons I thrifted over 10 years ago, Sandy Liang-inspired flower scrunchies I made, and beaded clips from Moco Drops. I think accessorising my hair makes it look like I put so much more effort into my hair than I actually did (and also, it’s just cute).
For more on hair trends, try this.
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