In college,
Emily was the
most popular female name
in my incoming class, so to
differentiate from “hippie
Emily,” “pink-hair Emily,”
and “nose-pierce Emily,”
my classmates deemed me
“long-hair Emily.”
Luckily, the nickname
didn’t stick. But my hair
remains the same, nearly
two decades later: dangling
just near my waist, anchored
by a heavy fringe. I’ve never
thought about changing it—
mostly because caring for it
requires so little effort: Wash,
dry, maybe a braid or a high
ponytail. Nineties supermodel
Liisa Winkler, who has had
hip-grazing, beachy waves her
entire life (minus a traumatic,
Samsonesque chop for a
2001 cover of Italian Vogue,
she recalls with a shudder),
agrees that it’s the “ease of
maintenance” that keeps
her from going short.
“My mom trims it once in a
while; that’s all I have ever
really done to it.”
Winkler found herself in
similarly coiffed company as
she walked the runway at fall
shows such as The Row and
Salvatore Ferragamo. After
seasons of blog-fodder bobs
and bowl cuts, long hair was
BEAUTY
Forget the
transformational
chop. This season’s
most subversive
hair arrives with
two words of
advice : Go long.
Great
Lengths
suddenly everywhere: Models
at Prada and Tory Burch
wore sleek, below-the-belly-
button braids, and flowing
lengths swung past tailbones
at Miu Miu and R13. At
Sies Marjan, the hairstylist
Duffy, himself a long-haired
ambassador, fastened about
a yard of “very effortless”
extensions into almost a
dozen models’ natural lengths.
“Someone with long hair
believes in herself,” he said
backstage of the appeal of
the “waist-length, uncolored,
unfucked-with” style. “She is
confident in who she is.” The
hairstylist Lacy Redway, who
has designed XXL looks for
Tessa Thompson, Tracee Ellis
Ross, and Awkwafina, puts it
another way: A woman with
long hair “doesn’t care what
anyone else thinks.”
I have never thought
of my light brunette strands
as a particular source of
power, although I’ve also
never thought about them
as being particularly on
trend either. In the annals
of headline-grabbing trims,
confidence belongs to those
who make the chop with a
sculptural Vidal Sassoon
five-point or, better yet, buzz
it off altogether à la Dree
Hemingway. But making
waves with long waves does
have precedent. As legend has
it, Lady Godiva rode through
the streets of eleventh-
century Coventry with only
her flowing mane to shield
her in an exhibitionist bid to
lower taxes. And the Seven
Sutherland Sisters, a late–
nineteenth century singing
group and P. T. Barnum
sideshow attraction famous
for their floor-length tresses,
were the envy of their
audiences, going so far as
to patent hair and scalp
remedies as some of the
industry’s first
EXTENDED PLAY
A new class of
supplements
aims to boost hair
growth. Model
Kiki Willems’s
mane attraction
at the Sies Marjan
fall show.
BEAUTY>58
VLIFE
52 JUNE 2019 VOGUE.COM
SONNY VANDEVELDE
