Break out the hairspray and rollers, because big hair is back – Sali Hughes on beauty

Don’t worry – the stiff helmets of 1980s TV soaps are a thing of the past. Here’s how to bulk out your bouffant the 2024 way
Sali HughesSat 19 Oct 2024 03.00 EDTShareThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
If you’ve spent the past 10 years trying – and failing – to do those loose, carefree, beachy waves, then you can finally put down your tongs, tend to your burns and give it all up as a bad job. Hair is changing. And, it seems, expanding outwards.
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Big hair is back on the catwalk, with models wearing backcombed bouffants befitting the Oil Baron’s Ball. But, says revered hairstylist Sam McKnight, who took inspiration from Princess Michael of Kent and 1980s Sloane Rangers for the hair at Vivienne Westwood SS25, and backcombed big, pouffy supermodel blowdries at 16Arlington, the new big hair is nothing like the helmet hair of 80s fashion.
The new “Dynasty hair” is strong, but much softer-looking. And thanks to an explosion in DIY hair tutorials online, it’s something that can be achieved fairly quickly at home. “It’s not about a proper, painstaking blow-dry with loads of sections and a round brush,” McKnight told me post-fashion week.
Just rolling your hair up in jumbo bendy rollers will give it way more volume come morningHis key to modern big hair is in blasting it upwards with the dryer to lift at the roots (having sprayed them first with Hair By Sam McKnight Cool Girl Superlift Volumising Spray, £26), then either doing some very cursory tonging of large sections, or throwing in four to six big rollers (heated are best, Velcro are fine. My favourites are by Babyliss, £60, and Kitsch, £15 respectively), or skipping it to get straight in with some backcombing.
To do this at home, hold the hair close to the root and, using a small brush or comb, gently tease backwards, spraying each section with hairspray and leaving it to dry.
When set, take a soft bristle brush and skim over the top, making it fluffy but leaving the guts untouched beneath. “The modern way is about using hairspray as a styling product, rather than to set the finished style hard,” says McKnight, who mists in his Modern Hairspray Multi-Task Styling Mist (£24) as he goes.
Even if this “easier” way to volumise is above your pay grade, just rolling your hair up in jumbo bendy rollers will give it way more volume come morning, as the heat from your head moulds it. Believe me, I was sceptical. But a light mist of dry shampoo such as Batsite Overnight Deep Cleanse (£4.25), one Satin Jumbo Flexi-Rod by Kitsch (£19 for four) at the front, winding backwards, another at the back winding under, and one at each side, worn to bed, give my flat, fine barnet major bounce at breakfast.
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Lighting tech: Declan Slattery. Hair and makeup: Sarah Cherry. Model: Emily I at Nevs. Top: Rokit