Hair Trends Everyone Ditched This Decade

Ahead of 2020, The List consulted with hairstylists about the hottest hair trends to try in the new decade. From micro bangs to curtain fringe to Farrah Fawcett-inspired feathery layers, the experts revealed a mixed bag of trendy cuts to embrace at the start of 2020 and beyond. But, as exciting as it is to look ahead, we can't help but also glance back at the past.

Although all of us probably hope for our favorite hairstyles to stick around forever, that's never really the case, is it? Over the last decade, we experimented with a lot of hair trends and, uh, some of them didn't exactly stand the test of time. Much like the Kate Gosselin 'do circa 2009, there were quite a few hairstyles we thought were cool over the past ten years, but we ended up being more than happy to leave them behind. 

Can't remember the craziest styles you attempted? Allow us to remind you. These are the hair trends we were all guilty of trying — and ditching — between 2010 and 2019.

We have one word for you: Bumpit. The volumizing, as-seen-on-TV "hair inserts" enabled the wearer to achieve a "bump" or pouf near the crown of the head, which gave the hair added height and, you know, style. It mimicked the 1960s bouffant hair trend.

Despite being around in 2009, Bumpits took off at the start of the next decade. "Should it be interpreted as a sign of the apocalypse, or just a really big trend, that both Hillary Clinton and Snooki have been accused of wearing Bumpits of late?" wrote The New York Times reporter Eric Wilson in 2010. The article also revealed that Bumpits made possible Leighton Meester's iconic Gossip Girl hair.

Almost as quickly as BumpIts came on the scene, though, they were gone. "I'm over the pouf, just because it's everywhere, and people always associate me with the pouf," Jersey Shore's Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi told The Denver Post in January 2011. "I don't want to be known for just one hairstyle." With Time also rating the Bumpit as one of "the 50 worst inventions," it's easy to see how this style lost its en vogue status. And, well, we're not complaining.

When the top knot — or as it is also know, the high bun — hair trend started to take off in 2011, not everyone was sold. Regardless, the trend persisted for years. By late 2014, it started fading into obscurity, before being briefly revived at Marc Jacobs' Fall 2015 runway show. "The top knot is back and it's higher than ever!" Harper's Bazaar reported in May 2015.

The newer high bun was "much more complicated," Guido Palau, who created the 2015 iteration for the Marc Jacobs show, explained to the publication. The super-high bun involved blow-drying the models' hair both upside-down and forward.

Despite its brief resurgence, Jennifer Sitto, hairstylist and founder of The Gypsy Vault, confirmed to The List that most everyone ended up ditching the high bun and the sock bun, which was yet another way we tried to fake voluminous hair in the 2010s. Good times, good times.

As we alluded to at the outset of this article, you're going to see All. The. Bangs. in the new decade. Well, except for one style. Despite baby bangs, long bangs, and curtain bangs being a sure bet in 2020 and beyond, you won't see anyone rocking side-swept bangs.

We all — especially Taylor Swift — loved the hair trend in the early 2010s. However, Terra Harvell, founder and hairstylist at Salon Five Zero Four and CEO of Harper Ellis Hair Co., told The List that "thick bangs swooped to the side and slightly curled under" is a look has since been retired. Yes, even Tay Tay traded in her sweeping bangs for a more modern style, as she showed at the 2019 American Music Awards (via CNN).

If you're interested in a look similar to Swift's updated shag, hairstylist Devin Toth told PopSugar that it's an especially flattering cut, especially with bangs — albeit, not side-swept ones. "It's so popular right now because it adds a different, more interesting kind of geometry around the face," he revealed to the publication.

As far as hair trends go, ombré stuck around for a long time. Hairstylist and founder of The Gypsy Vault, Jennifer Sitto confirmed to The List that the two-toned style was a big deal in 2011. By 2012, Glamour confirmed that the trend was "still going strong." However, it eventually started showing signs of fading. Within subsequent years, the ombré trend was replaced. First, with balayage and then with color melting.

"This [color melting] is similar to regular balayage only with an added color melt or root-fade done after," Chad Kenyon, celebrity hair colorist and Olaplex ambassador, explained to InStyle in 2016. "With the melt we're not so interested in having those stark 'pops' of light around the face. They're there, but instead of being so obvious they're underneath the color melt in a more iridescent, glowing way." In the new decade, you should expect to see both of these techniques again, but don't get your hopes up for ombré.

"Back in 2015, glitter roots were everywhere," StyleCaster revealed. "What started as a festival trend moved on to everyday life." If you dove into the hair trend headfirst, you may still be finding random sparkles around your house. The trend had all but died out until Julianne Hough briefly revived the style at the 2019 America's Got Talent finale. According to PopSugar, Jill Buck, a hairstylist at Nine Zero One salon, was the brains behind the look, which surely marked just one stage of Julianne Hough's stunning transformation over the years.

Despite a small resurgence, glitter roots were replaced by a far less messy sparkly trend just months later. Dubbed hair tinsel, a hairstylist for Tips & Toes revealed to Harper's Bazaar that the trend is "created by [a] thin ... glitter thread that is tied into the hair in different sections close to the scalp." According to the stylist, it can last up to two weeks and, because "the threads are made from polyester," you should still be able to blow-dry and straighten your hair.

In 2016, Cosmopolitan dubbed "boxer braids" the "[one] hairstyle to wear when you don't feel like doing your hair." Both Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian sported the braided style that year, which undoubtedly propelled the look into the mainstream. However, not everyone was a fan. Many took issue with the famous Kardashian and Jenner women donning the style, citing cultural appropriation. Actress Amandla Stenberg, for example, explained in a comment on Jenner's Instagram post (via Teen Vogue), writing, "When you appropriate black features and culture but fail to use your position of power to help black Americans by directing attention towards your wigs instead of police brutality or racism."

To the relief of many, these hairstyles — as a hair trend — fell out of favor later that year, Jennifer Sitto, hairstylist and founder of The Gypsy Vault, told The List. Of course, braids as hairstyles are still around. "Black women have been wearing braids for a very long time, and that's another part of the frustration," Euphoria star Zendaya explained to PopSugar. "We've been using that as a protective style, as a hairstyle. That's been in our culture and our community for a very long time." 

In 2018, "glass hair" became the go-to trend for summer. But it wasn't invented that year. "The 'glass hair' trend is not new to the beauty industry," celebrity hairstylist Cynthia Alvarez revealed to Yahoo! Lifestyle. "It's actually referred to as 'silk press' by beauty professionals and has been around for many years." She continued, saying, "Instead of using a traditional hot comb to straighten natural hair, a silk press is achieved by using a flatiron. Using a flatiron allows natural hair to be very straight, shiny, silky, soft, and most importantly, gives the hair tons of body and movement."

While shiny hair will probably never go out of style, the glass hair trend isn't going to make it into 2020, Jennifer Sitto, hairstylist and founder of The Gypsy Vault, told The List. In fact, it didn't really make it beyond 2018. Getting the glass hair look involved a super hot — we're talking 400 degrees — straightening process whereas the trends of the new decade call for a more natural, less heat-treated, and thus healthier approach to shiny hair.

Who could forget the unicorn hair trend? Although you may want to, it'll be cemented in your memory for a long time. Although this may be one of the defining trends of the 2010s, it later officially went extinct, along with other hair trends everyone ditched in 2019. You may think that people have traded in their unicorn hair because it requires a ton of upkeep, costs more money, and does not last as long as other colors, but that's not the case.

While all of those things are true, people aren't necessarily going to give up vivid colors in 2020. Instead, the "fantasy colors" trend has taken the place of unicorn hair, Tonya Reid, hairstylist and owner of the beauty salon T. Reid and Company in Charlotte, N.C., told The List. Although this look still calls for multiple colors like unicorn hair, "the new take will be multiple colors on the same strand," Reid shared. "The outcome will be a more banded effect."

Natural gray hair is expected to be a huge hair trend in 2020, but the artificial gray trend has already met its end. The trend was especially popular in 2014, but Susan Hurley, color director at Chicago's Art and Science salons, revealed to The Atlantic that "very few people" were able to achieve a dynamic silvery color.

"The actual gray hair you see on Helen Mirren can't be [recreated]," the expert explained, "but if you want that more bold Gwen Stefani steel feel, that is something only a small population can achieve." Dying your hair gray was also potentially very damaging. All things considered, it makes sense why dyed silver hair met its demise. Although dyed gray hair won't be around in 2020, you will still see some smokey shades, but they will call for the addition of other hues like purple. And, as highlighted above, you will certainly see more and more women embracing their natural grays.