Paris F/W '11: Hair accessories are your friends! Here are 4 supremely useful and on-trend ones to add to your beauty toolkit

While I’m no stranger to experimentation with hair colour—I’ve been everything from platinum blonde to strawberry to chestnut brown, and even Ombré—I am incredibly lazy when it comes to styling. Maybe it’s because I’ve found my Life Cut and am therefore pretty satisfied with how my hair falls, even when I let it air-dry (which is 99 percent of the time, if I’m being really honest here). Occasionally I will do a side bun/braid, or a top knot… but my go-to thing is either wearing it all down or just throwing the top parts back in a mini clip, and this needs to change.

Especially because there is a whole word of hair accessories out there, as the last gasp of Paris Fashion Week has reminded me. I’m talking about headbands, ribbons, low ponytails, sleek buns and a half updo that makes the one I’ve been doing look like doodoo.

Now, if you’re worried that I’m going to recommend some complicated 42-step tutorial, please don’t be. For once, there’s actually nothing too complicated about these looks, and I’m confident that every single one of us could successfully DIY.

So on that note, here are four new looks—with four corresponding hair accessories that I highly suggest adding to your beauty toolkit.

HAIR ACCESSORY #1: THE BLACK RIBBON OR HEADBAND (at Valentino)

Hot damn, I love the hair at Valentino. It’s kind of Grecian, don’t you think? (And Lord knows I love ancient Greece—it’s provided me with much inspiration for Halloween costumes over the years, as well as the excuse to smash plates and drink copious amounts of Ouzo while wearing a pink toga at this place.)

Anyway! The inspiration was not, surprisingly, drunken backpackers in Corfu, but the 1960s—which, like I said, are closing in on the heels of the ’70s trend we’ve been enjoying lately.

I knew immediately that the man behind this look was Guido Palau, because I’ve interviewed him before and he lurrrrves headbands. And when you look at these pics, what’s not to love, really?

You could actually do a real ribbon or (for a better hold) just a stretchy, thin black headband—I’ve got tons of them from Goody and they’re great.

Notice that the hair was backcombed at the crown for height before it was gathered into the ponytails. (And before that, it was blown out using Redken Velvet Gelatine for thickness and bounce.)

The ponytails, as we saw in London, were low—and so as not to fight with the main accessory, had hair wrapped around the elastic bands to conceal them.

And then, for the final look, Palau pulled out some soft tendrils on either side of the centre part:

HAIR ACCESSORY #2: THE MINI BOBBY PIN (at Louis Vuitton)

The hair at LV was styled into super-slick, super-tight ponytails… but check out the back:

Once again, we have the covered-up elastic. And so I must alert you to the tool you need to achieve it. Not regular bobby pins, but MINI ones:

Again, Goody makes these too, and they’re particularly excellent for this type of work because unless your hair is very thick, a longer bobby pin will show. They’re available in different colours to match your hair—noice!—but just remember to criss-cross them, otherwise they won’t hold.

HAIR ACCESSORY #3: THE GOODY SPIN PIN (not really at Stella McCartney… but it could be!)

I know I JUST talked about this one in my top 5 beauty editor’s picks of the week on Friday, but I need to mention it again. Even though these buns—by Eugene Souleiman—were achieved with the old-fashioned bobby pin, you could totally use the Spin Pin (in its regular or mini incarnation) to get this look.

Unlike the buns at YSL, which were a little too difficile to DIY, these ones are deliberately imperfect. And nicer-looking too, don’t you think?

No prodz used here, just a deep side part and a slightly rough texture at the crown (achieved with fingers—that’s it!).

HAIR ACCESSORY #4: THE HAIR COMB (at Miu Miu)

Do you remember the hair comb? It was kind of a big deal in the 1980s:

And guess what? It might be making a comeback, because check out the back of the half updo at Miu Miu:

I guess this means I have to upgrade! You can buy these tortoiseshell puppies from (again) Goody. This was another Guido Palau creation: hair was prepped with Redken Wax Blast 10 High Impact Finishing Spray Wax to give it a piecey finish, and then swept up on either side of the centre part.

Now ladies, there was just one more hair accessory that made the rounds at Paris Fashion Week, specifically Alexander McQueen:

But I wouldn’t DARE recommend that you fashion a helmet out of silver and black Goody hair barrettes. No I wouldn’t. Please don’t try this one at home, kids.

Anyway! Tell me:

Are you a regular user of hair accessories or a lazy beeyotch like me?
Might you be inspired to test-drive one or more of these looks?
Isn’t it sooper exciting that a hairstylist as famous as Guido Palau uses drugstore hair accessories? So, you know, you have a backup in case you can’t afford the stuff they used at Chanel.