Whether you seek inspiration from the storied streets of London Fashion Week or find it fresh off the runway, the British capital never disappoints when it comes to new-season beauty inspiration.
For AW25, there's been a distinctive shake-up from the safer beauty references of old (so long, quiet luxury), with make-up artists embracing bolder, more experimental colour (see the blotted lip stains and navy, monotone lips at Roksanda, glitter skinny eyebrows at Simone Rocha and wild, otherworldly lashes at Harris Reed).
Elsewhere, new hair trends are starting to trickle in too, with a few standout styles that not only easily translate into the quotidien but will likely soon be taking over our social feeds, too. From the side-parted pixie (2025's soon-to-be hairstyle of the year) and glass-like hair, not forgetting a fresh iteration of the famed bob, here are the five key hair trends to note from London Fashion Week...
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The side-parted pixie
From Emilia Wickstead to Richard Quinn, the short, formerly daring crop has been taking over the runway this season, upgraded this time around with an equally nostalgic side-parting. 'For Richard Quinn's AW25 show, we focused on the root lift at the hairline using Sam McKnight's Superlift for the shorter hair and pixie cuts, then blowdrying the hair with a small round brush for the side-partings. I kept the back sculpted to accentuate the silhouette,' shared lead hairstylist, Sam McKnight.
Creating this sculptural look in the wild might seem daunting but the trick is a heavy-duty root spray to mimic the volume as well as employing a blow dry tool, such as ghd's Duet Styler, to echo the same side-parting (simply blow dry at the root in the opposite direction for extra volume).
Extra-long mermaid waves
A far cry away from the jaw-skimming crops that have been dominating our algorithms, Annie's Ibiza made a convincing case for embracing extra-long hair this season. 'We looked at paintings and drew inspiration from the Renaissance era,' McKnight told us. 'It was youthful; a romantic renaissance,' he shared of the inspiration behind the long-flowing lengths and the braids that centred around the hairline.
The shaken-out, beachy finish is simple to recreate at home too, all thanks to a handful of impressive, new tech. Hershesons The Multi-Tasker tool, for one, has a 32mm waver which creates the perfect mermaid texture in seconds – you'll need heat protection, a touch of shine spray and little else.
The modern beehive
It was a classic Sixties film, The Bird, that inspired Emilia Wickstead's Aw25 collection, so naturally, the lead hairstylist for Bumble and Bumble, Soichi Inagaki, drew references from the era when it came to hairstyle ideation. 'We used specific Sixties hair techniques but made it modern with the shape and hair direction,' Inagaki told ELLE UK backstage. Unlike the classic, old-school beehive, this modern iteration adopts a more subtle conical shape and combines the 2025 trend for slicked-back hair.
To create it, 'blast the hair with mousse and some Surf Spray, then add Bumble and Bumble's Brilliantine on the surface of the hair to give it a nice elegant shine, finishing with Spray De Mode,' says Inagaki.
Glass hair
High-shine hair has been on our mood boards for some time. At Roksanda (where the sleek 'do was created by hairstylist Anna Cofone using Authentic Beauty Concept Cosmic Blowdry Jelly) and Harris Reed, however, it took on a more glass-like finish. Imbued with the same theory behind the viral 'glass skin' movement - when achieving a light-reflecting glow became the skincare goal of every skinfluencer - it was all about hair health and, ultimately, glimmering shine. It's not the kind of slicked-back hair that looks overloaded with gellé, but rather a focus on natural hair health. For the latter, you'll need a good scalp serum and scrub (containing salicylic acid) to properly cleanse your roots as well as a regular lamellar treatment and gloss (for coloured hair) to create liquid-like lengths.
The undone bob
While there might have been plenty of intentional childlike beauty references playing out at Simone Rocha's ethereal show, as models such as Alexa Chung, Fiona Shaw and Bel Powley walked the runway staged at Goldsmiths' Hall, there was one hairstyle among them which had a decidedly grown-up feel – an undone, messy and natural-looking bob.
'On the short and coily hair looks, we mixed Curl Pomade and Hairdresser's Invisible Oil, which is a product I absolutely love to create subtle movement and hold, yet not look like there’s any product sitting in the hair,' shared Bumble and Bumble hairstylist, Holli Smith. 'To finish the look, we used Spray de Mode to set the styles in place.'
The trick for recreating this somewhat tousled bob lies primarily in the cutting technique. 'Point cutting' – in other words, cutting into the hair with your scissors at an angle – will ensure a more undone, feathered finish. Then there's the products – you're not after a uniform finish or poker-straight ends, so put down the styling tools and invest in a good hair oil and sea salt spray.
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Amelia Bell is the Multiplatform Beauty Director for ELLE UK and Harper’s Bazaar, developing beauty strategy, writing, editing, and commissioning, and leading beauty content across both sites. Amelia has a particular interest in wellness and longevity, exploring the skin-mind connection, and decoding the latest treatments, tweakments and runway trends. She also has bylines for Women's Health, Refinery29, British Vogue, Harrods Magazine, and more.
