Rory Satran
Along with skinny jeans and ankle socks, side parts were deemed tragically millennial just a handful of years ago. Influencers bashed them in viral TikToks with audio titled “Middle Part Baddies” in 2020 and 2021. Generation Z and Alpha trend dictators convinced their elders to slick their hair into centre-parted submission. Models, Kardashians, politicians, stay-at-home mums – they all spliced their hair straight down the middle in the 2020s.
Until now. The side part has inched its way back into the zeitgeist.
No longer shunned, the asymmetrical style is being embraced by some of the most followed women on the planet: actor Zoë Kravitz has been smoothing her bob to the side; singer Addison Rae channelled Marilyn Monroe with her side-parted Grammys look. Some of the most faithful centre-parters of the 2020s, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to beauty entrepreneur Hailey Bieber, have shifted their parts to one side in recent months. A revolution is afoot – or rather, ahead.
“It’s definitely creeping back,” says Doria Santlofer, a New York-based stylist who has been parting her own long, wavy hair to the side. She cited Bieber, Zendaya and singers Olivia Dean and Sabrina Carpenter as early adopters. “Once those girls do it, then it’s instantly cool again,” she says.
High fashion is also pushing the look. British designer Phoebe Philo – an eternal arbiter of cool, first at Chloé and Céline and now with her namesake brand – released a campaign in January with model Cathy Simmons wearing a leather jacket, big earrings and a severe side part. It’s a style familiar to those who remember Philo’s string of 2010s Céline ads, featuring her muse Daria Werbowy with a side-parted bob.
At Altuzarra’s spring fashion show in September, the designer, Joseph Altuzarra, sent a procession of exaggeratedly side-parted models down the runway. Paired with silk dresses and balloon pants, this was romantic, horse-girl hair that wouldn’t be out of place on the cover of a Danielle Steel novel.
“I’m a side-part girl,” the show’s stylist, Malina Joseph Gilchrist, said, adding, “I think it’s very complementary to features.” The idea behind the show’s hair, she said, was to “nod to the 1980s and embrace the freedom of beautiful texture”.
When I posted a photograph on Instagram from the show, of model Betsy Gaghan with her long, bouncy, side-parted hair, I was bombarded with comments. They were mostly from Millennials who were relieved for permission to return to their roots: “Finally!” and “I’ve been waiting for this!”
When the COVID pandemic drove everyone indoors – and online – in 2020, the trend cycle was accelerated by the always-on-social-media culture. TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube became hotbeds of generational warfare, pitting forward-thinking Gen Z against snoozy Millennials. Side parts, along with Stanley tumblers, Herbal Essences shampoo, the crying-laughing emoji, Wicked, golden retrievers, Golden Goose sneakers and lasagne were all proclaimed basic, “cheugy”, lame.
However, when the side part was deemed Millennial, “the writing was always on the wall that the tide would turn back – that’s just what happens,” says Casey Lewis, a journalist and trend researcher who writes the youth-culture newsletter After School.
Lewis says the side part’s renaissance made sense within the context of the return of 2010s indie sleaze and our nostalgia for 2016. “Right now, it seems like there’s no millennial trend that Gen Z isn’t bringing back,” she says.
Of course, hair parts have flip-flopped for centuries. Centre divisions reigned supreme in the 16th century – look no further than the Mona Lisa. British women in the Victorian era parted their curls in the centre, while women in the US, who wore updos, favoured side parts. Josephine Baker popularised a slicked-over side part in the 1920s, and Marcia Brady’s silky centre part was the ne plus ultra of 1970s hair.
The “middle part baddies” of the 2020s were referencing a 1990s minimalist look. As Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Bieber, Kaia Gerber and their followers adopted that era’s sleek, no-frills uniform of Levi’s, white tank tops and black leather jackets, they also grabbed Kate Moss’ flat, centre-parted hair. That look appears to be making way for a bit more oomph.
“I feel the side part gives that Old Hollywood glamour,” says Marki Shkreli, a hair stylist who has been increasingly using the style on his clients, including Naomi Watts and Uma Thurman. He’s been inspired by old photos of Jayne Mansfield and Natalie Wood.
Will today’s Addison Rae-approved side part soon be mocked on TikTok by an even younger cohort? Maybe not. Lewis sees a new embrace of personal style and inclusiveness among young people. “We’re headed toward a more fluid future where your teen might not be like ‘Ew, side part’ or ‘Ew, centre part,’” she said.
It’s an optimistic vision for the future: no need to choose sides.
The New York Times
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