Some people go to Paris to see the sights. Others to eat the food. I go to meticulously document how French women are dressing, the scents they’re wearing, and how they’re styling their hair. My latest jaunt – a whirlwind one-night work trip – allowed me 24 hours to update my Parisian observations, specifically the hair and how the girls are wearing it. In a word? Undone.
Think new Chanel – loose hair that’s free to frizz, puff and swish – and you’ll be on the money. The women walking around the capital had no visible interest in slicking, sticking or sweeping anything back. Very few wore their hair up. Instead, the vibe was modern boho with just a little more texture – a little more grit. Sienna Miller’s signature style, with a generous lashing of salt spray, is about right.
The messy, undone hair that was all over Paris has trickled down from the autumn/winter 2025 shows, entering the mainstream just in time for spring. Vogue France reported “tousled tresses at Miu Miu, hasty ponytails at Prada, shaggy locks at Kenzo, fuzzy waves at Stella McCartney, crimped roots at Alexander McQueen and flyaway volume at Chloé”. This unaffected style screams: not only do I not have time to style my hair, I don’t care to – my life is too big, too pressing to waste energy attempting to tame every strand into submission.
It would be dishonest to imply that achieving this look requires zero effort, though. Messy, “carefree” hair tends to require some thought. A little backcombing isn’t enough to create the gravity-defying volume of Chanel’s spring/summer 2026 fuzz. Nor is waking up rumpled and walking straight out of the door. In fact, “dishevelled” hair looks best with assistance from liberal amounts of mousse, air dry sprays or texture mists.
The quickest route to French-girl hair is to sleep with it in plaits – or two-strand twists. This will create the effortless, irregular pattern that, once combed through with the fingers, separates into something messy, undone and sensual. In the morning, a dense, bristled brush will create a natural puff, too.
If a slept-on style isn’t for you, take a medium-barrelled curling iron and use it all over the head, making sure to alternate which way you spin the barrel each time. Curling the hair in opposite directions creates a natural messiness, whereas curling in one direction creates uniformity, like an Old Hollywood wave.
