18 Career-Making Model Hair Transformations That Stole Our Hearts

18 Career-Making Model Hair Transformations That Stole Our Hearts

There’s a reason that old Coco Chanel quote, “a woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life,” is tossed around so often. Forty-six years after the designer’s death, it still rings true, and nowhere is that statement more substantiated than at Fashion Week. On runways from New York to Paris, models continue to greet each new season with startlingly inventive takes on beauty. These can be career-making transformations—haircuts and dye jobs that shift the proverbial tectonic plates of aesthetics, and make the rest of us reconsider our own sense of allure.

Most recently, the look of the moment was delivered in the form of a neon tomato dye job on baby-faced Australian beauty Lily Nova at Miu Miu's Fall 2018 show. Pulses quickened and Instagram feeds were washed in supernatural shades of crimson as models, street style stars and, later, celebrities followed her lead. That is the power of a good makeover.

And the moment current catwalk star Imaan Hammam ditched her straightened lengths for a natural cloud of curls, her model card filled up faster than the bounce of a ringlet, while Adwoa Aboah shaved off her relaxed lengths and made a chameleonic buzz cut her signature as she became one of the most in-demand faces of the year.

Look back further and more infamous moments in supermodel history spring instantly to mind: Edie Campbell and Arizona Muse each enjoyed the 'Snip, Dye, and Skyrocket' effect, ditching their sunny shades of brunette and blonde, respectively, for darker takes on more textural cuts—Campbell nearly single-handedly bringing back the mullet with her moody, jet-black iteration, and Muse doing the same for the swingy bob.

Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne, and Maria Borges drew more eyes to their striking cheekbones when they took their swingy blowouts into micro-pixie territory—each inspiring their respective generations to shake off the notion that only long hair can be feminine. And let us not forget the ultimate beauty chameleon: Linda Evangelista, who tried on just about every visual persona, keeping her audience guessing and career at full blast. Here, 18 model transformations to remind you to keep your eye on the runway this week—because your best self just might be found on the other side of a bang trim.