Rough Riders: Textured Hairstyles

The latest hair muses? Woolly clouds and spun cotton candy. New products bring mega-volume and airy lightness to styles that are all about matte, lived-in texture.

 There was a time, not so long ago, when it would have been as unthinkable to intentionally dull down a glossy head of hair as it would be to spray a coat of rust on a factory-new car. But if the recent rage for greige nails and prematurely gray hair has taught us anything at all, it�s to expect the unexpected. And while healthy, high-shine tresses remain a covetable attribute, a slept-in, just-hopped-off-a-bicycle look is what�s au courant. From the artfully ratty ponytails done by Redken Creative Consultant Guido Paulo at Calvin Klein to Jimmy Paul�s cotton-candy-like beehives at Vera Wang, models stomped down the runways at scores of spring/summer 2011 shows sporting strands that weren�t just insouciantly disheveled, but downright messy. And, yes, matte.

�Textured, matte hair looks really modern and sexy right now,� says Paulo. �It�s a little more unkempt and rock �n� roll, so it has a certain ease.� Bumble and bumble stylist Jordan M., who scrunched models� hair in his hands under a blow-dryer to give them fuzzy, fluttery flyaways for the Cushnie et Ochs catwalk, loves the casual effect it bestows on even the most prim updo: �You can put hair up into a bun or even set it, but a matte finish will keep it looking young and fresh instead of too ladylike and polished.� It�s something dry-shampoo enthusiasts have known for a while: There�s just something ineffably cool about soft-focus strands.

Bumble and bumble�s newest styling product�Bb. Texture�is designed specifically to create the rough, mussed style in one easy step. �We started seeing that sort of hand-done, second-day-hair look on the streets and on celebrities like Alexa Chung and Mary-Kate Olsen a couple of seasons ago,� says the company�s senior artistic director, Howard McClaren, �but stylists were having to use a combination of products�usually surf spray, hair powder, and styling cream�to reproduce it for shows. So we thought, there�s a real need here for something completely new.� After quizzing stylists and clients about their dream combination of qualities�dry texture with volume and no stickiness, memory and grip but also movability�Bumble�s product development team landed on the idea of a gel-cream hybrid: �It has the moldable hold of a gel, but separates and moisturizes like a cream,� says Jordan M., who recommends running Texture from roots to ends in wet hair before blow-drying it with a diffuser, or cautiously working it into just the roots of hair �to bump up body and give it that just-rolled-out-of-bed look.�

Whether used to make classic styles look edgy, to give a modern twist to wiglike �60s shapes, or to revamp the season�s big bombshell hair, �matte hair conveys a real nonchalance,� Paulo says. �That�s partly what makes it so versatile.� Indeed, McClaren says, �the whole idea is to look like you couldn�t care less. Even though, of course, you do.�