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Hunter Schafer is as bold with her beauty as she is with her fashion. Through her continued collaboration with stylist Dara Allen, she’s crafted memorable, high-risk looks and accumulated enough vintage Prada to start a foundation. But it’s with hairstylist Jillian Halouska that Schafer crafts dreamy, reference-rich hair moments.
And of course, hair was all part of the storytelling at Paris Couture Week, where attendees went fantastical and feminine with their beauty. The Kinds of Kindness actor attended Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s guest collection for Jean Paul Gaultier and leaned into the shipwrecked-chic aesthetics of the runway. She wore a plunging white lace peplum top with cropped flared pants and contrasting black cutout heels. The juxtaposition of some harder edges followed through with her tousled hair, which Halouska describes as “a hybrid of a pirate—à la Keira Knightley—and Kate Moss [in the] late-night-club days.”
“It’s an ode to imperfection, a tousled tumble of nonchalant and négligé, wavy, mussed-up curls,” she explains, “a little disheveled, perfectly imperfect, and very sexy.” It’s as if she’s been dancing all night, her hair a little neglected, but she’s past caring. The hairstylist came armed with Oribe Gold Lust Nourishing Hair Oil, Bumble and Bumble’s Sumo Liquid Wax Spray, and multiple sizes of curling irons.
She started by curling random pieces with different-size curling irons before roughing them up using the cool setting on the blow-dryer for a windblown effect, pulling some strands more straight and scrunching other bits to create various textures. She applied a generous amount of hair oil throughout to give that lived-in, come-hither attitude and used the spray wax on the roots to flip Schafer’s hair to the side. Halouska cut the front pieces to fall over her eye, giving a “laissez-faire moment.”
“It gives it a life of its own, its own personality,” says Halouska. “I love the freedom and sultryness this gives her and how the naughtiness of the hair plays with the lace. It feels nostalgic yet new.”
The Euphoria actor also attended a benefit for AIDS charity Sidaction, channeling elfin royalty in a cream, off-the-shoulder Jean Paul Gaultier dress with a black leather jacket to offset the angelic. Her oak blonde hair was worn long, with tiny plaits framing her face—a delicate, whimsical look that Halouska says took inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s tragic coming-of-age film (and one of fashion’s fave cinematic references) The Virgin Suicides.
To achieve this, Halouska used Shu Uemura Pomade to give Schafer’s hair some shine and Sisley Hairspray to construct the hair so that it lay directly alongside the braid. To give even more sheen, she added Bumble and Bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil Lightweight Shine Finishing Spray, which is soft enough to keep the natural movement in the rest of the hair.
Halouska has some tips for achieving the teeny twists: “Be clean with your parting for the braids,” she advises. “Use clips to hold the rest of the hair away while the braid is being constructed. Put the paste on fingertips so the braid stays smooth. It keeps down flyaways and gives the braid a grip and enough stability to keep its integrity and not fall apart.”
“I started the braid alongside the face, feeding and weaving pieces only from the top hair and letting the braid be low on the hairline to face frame,” she says. “I continued the braid to the nape of the neck, which allowed me a place to put a pin to secure loose hair in front to perfectly align with the braid. Using the YS Park Tail Comb, I was able to mold the front pieces with a flexible hairspray, locking in the shape without looking stiff or sticky.”
The results reflect Schafer’s spirited, full-spectrum style. “They are micromini,” Halouska says of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em plaits, “a peekaboo for the eyes! The rest of her hair feels light and poetic, perfectly constructed to skim the playful braids around her face.”
This push-pull between the siren and mischief maker perfectly articulates Schafer’s longtime look. The last time we saw her at the Cannes Film Festival last spring, she wore a white slit-skirt milkmaid dress with the addition of a cutesy Prada headscarf over a tight chignon. What early-’00s film, pail-toting peasant, or ’90s It girls may Schafer’s beauty reference next?
