’90s-Era Long Hair Is Back, Thanks to Timothée Chalamet

The tendril is back. It’s that lock of hair that falls upon the forehead, only to be adorably shaken out of the eyes or tucked demurely behind the ears. It often comes with a mid-length haircut that says, “I am the most popular boy in your high school and I will pursue you after you are revealed to be the heir to Genovia, but I will eventually betray you.”

If you were born before Harry Potter was published but after the Reagan presidency, you know this look, which hit its product-heavy peak on the heartthrobs of the ’90s and 2000s. It crystallized at the new millennium, passed from Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio down to CW and WB stars. Think Chad Michael Murray in Freaky Friday or celebrities in the pages of Tiger Beat.

Leading its return is Timothée Chalamet. Hairstylists say that their male clients are clamoring for the Wonka actor’s look.

Tobias Bell, a U.K.-based hairstylist, gets “tons of requests” for Chalamet’s cut. The length “can complement lots of face shapes and hair types if done well,” he says, incorporating “heavy, shaggy, tapered layering.”

It’s a return to an earlier time, Bell says, “almost like an effortless, grown-out version of Johnny Depp’s iconic ’90s style. A roll-out-of-bed-and-ready-to-go, tousled look.” Of course, achieving the look actually requires product. Bell recommends a curl cream and sea salt spray.

Gen-Z men, who are simultaneously relaxing gender rigidity and flaunting their youthful hairlines, are at the front of this trend.

“Why would I not want to look like one of the sexiest people of my generation?” says Zach, a 26-year-old who showed a photo of Chalamet to his stylist at a recent haircut. While he felt embarrassed by the reference, Zach likes that the actor is “kind of that femme-forward male figure in popular culture right now.” Also, he says, “to me it’s giving mid-’90s vibes, just shaggy, not really caring.” (Zach uses a curl-enhancing cream.)

Chalamet’s current haircut — medium-long hair, combed back behind the ears and falling into the eyes — indicates a combination of sensitivity and ruggedness, a tendency to ignore you in the cafeteria only to stand beneath your window hours later, arcing pebbles at the glass. It calls to mind soft, Pre-Raphaelite romance, as opposed to over-militaristic utilitarianism (think Dawson’s loose style to Pacey’s buzzcut). To put it in terms the internet understands: F*ckboi meets Babygirl.

It’s seduction by curl-enhancing product. It’s Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) in 10 Things I Hate About You, listening to the sonnet he inspired, hands clasped to his chin, silver pinky ring visible. His partially defined curls frame his face.

“I hate the way you talk to me and the way you cut your hair,” Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) begins her poem. Noticeably, the hair takes center stage.

Timmy is not the only star to emulate this look today: Tom Holland has been sporting Y2K-era boy bangs since 2021, and Harry Styles wore his hair long for years (RIP). Variations on this look are everywhere: Mean Girls’ Christopher Briney looks like he sprang to life off the side of an Abercrombie shopping bag; Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña has been giving cologne model — in the best way; even Brad Pitt has been flirting with length again.

But it’s Chalamet whose mid-length hair inspires trips to the stylist.

The long-hair trend for men started before the pandemic, says Sergio Slavnov, a Manhattan-based men’s hairstylist. “But the pandemic made it permanent.” In a recent YouTube video, Slavnov gives a Chalamet-inspired cut to a young client, who says, “The best haircut I have ever received.”

“Haircuts are fun again,” Slavnov tells Bustle. “Long hair is back.”