The Wet-Styling Hair Trick You Haven't Tried Yet

Yellow, Textile, Headgear, Portrait, Portrait photography, Vintage clothing, Makeover, Bonnet, Knit cap, Woolen, — (Image credit: Getty)

These days, cool-girl texture = flat, S-shaped oscillations, while the loose, tubular ringlets of red carpets and club openings past have faded just far enough into the twilight that now, they can only be seen on the most amateur of YouTubers or Z-list celebrities. But how to get that bend? A flatiron certainly gets the job done, but who *actually* knows how to manipulate her wrist at precisely which angle to create soft creases versus paper-crane sharp ones? Not me. So thank goodness for The Scrunch 2.0, a wet-styling technique that results in those Daria Werbowy rumples—with no heat, no fastening agent, not even a single product required.

A post shared by Sam McKnight Personal (@sammcknight1)

Credit for this method goes to stylist Kat Zemtsova, who's also given us detailed instructions for party buns and twist-outs, two slightly more labor-intensive ways to build non-spiral spirals. Here, all you'll need is a working shower, a towel, and hair that's not so straight and/or fine that it won't hold its shape. First, exit said shower. Next, towel-dry by pressing the excess water out—NO RUBBING. You want the lengths to be damp, not dripping wet. Then, with the towel, squeeze sections, holding until finger-shaped dents form. (Optional: Apply leave-in conditioner before this step for extra hold.) Finalement, air-dry without touching. Once the moisture's completely evaporated, you can shake out the chunks to break them up a bit.

So dead easy, so practical. And with Sam McKnight's work at Burberry, where the only styling aid he used was water to evoke early-morning-mist-in-an-English-garden vibes, and Anthony Turner's at Proenza Schouler, where the hair was freshly washed to celebrate the hair's "little mistakes," so incredibly chic.