Hailey Bieber’s zig-zag headband
The nineties hair accessory nobody expected back, and the one that actually holds a grown-out fringe.
Wearing: Off duty — A zig-zag headband, in place of the bandana or silk scarf
After two years in which the default hair accessory was a bandana or a folded silk square, Hailey Bieber has been wearing a zig-zag headband — the plastic toothed kind, with a wave moulded into the band, which most people over thirty last owned in about 1997.
It is easy to file this as pure nostalgia and mostly wrong to. The zig-zag band solves a specific problem the silk scarf does not. A folded scarf grips by friction alone, so it slides on clean hair and it does nothing to hold shorter pieces at the hairline. The moulded teeth on a zig-zag band bite in, and the wave shape spreads the pressure across a wider arc instead of concentrating it at two points behind the ears — which is why it holds a grown-out fringe all day and why it does not give you the headache a thin hard band does after two hours.
The look reads deliberately unserious, which is the point of it in 2026: it sits in the same maximalist, personality-driven turn that has produced bag charms and stacked jewellery, all of it a reaction against a decade of quiet luxury.
One honest caveat. Plastic teeth on fine or chemically treated hair will cause breakage at the hairline if you wear one every day. Alternate it with something padded.
What transfers
Hair accessories are held on by either friction or teeth, and the choice is not cosmetic. Friction — scarves, fabric bands — works on textured or day-old hair and slips on clean, fine hair. Teeth work on everything but trade grip for breakage risk. Match the mechanism to your hair before you match the colour to your outfit.
