Hair fashion moves at lightning speed these days! What was hot just months ago can quickly fade into yesterday’s news. This year brought major shifts in the hair world, with some styles falling flat while others rose to superstar status. Let’s check out which trends lost their magic and which ones became the new must-haves of 2025.
1. OUT: Money Piece Highlights
Those bold face-framing highlights we couldn’t get enough of? They’re taking a backseat now. The high-maintenance upkeep and obvious grow-out phase finally pushed clients toward more subtle dimension.
Most women realized they needed touch-ups every 3-4 weeks to maintain the look.
2. IN: Shadow Root Balayage
Purposeful root shadowing paired with hand-painted highlights creates dimension without the harsh grow-out line. This technique mimics natural sun-kissed hair with minimal maintenance requirements.
Clients now visit salons every 3-4 months instead of monthly.
3. OUT: Blunt Bobs With No Layers
The sharp-edged, one-length bob is stepping aside. Women discovered these severe cuts lack movement and versatility, often appearing dated without proper styling.
Many clients complained about the dreaded triangle effect when their hair dried naturally.
4. IN: Textured Midi Cuts
Mid-length cuts with invisible layers and soft texturizing are everywhere now. The subtle interior shaping creates movement while maintaining length and versatility.
These cuts look equally fabulous air-dried or styled, making morning routines faster.
5. OUT: Platinum Blonde
The ultra-bleached, icy platinum look is cooling off fast. Hair health concerns and the rise of natural aesthetics pushed this high-damage style out of favor.
Most platinum devotees experienced significant breakage despite using bond builders.
6. IN: Honey Caramel Blends
Warm-toned blondes with honey and caramel dimensions have taken center stage. These shades complement most skin tones while causing significantly less damage than their platinum predecessors.
The multi-tonal approach creates natural-looking depth.
7. OUT: Severe Side Parts
The dramatically deep side part that dominated for years has lost its appeal. This harsh styling choice often created an unbalanced look and caused excessive styling stress on one section.
Many women reported thinning along their part line.
8. IN: Soft Middle Parts With Movement
Relaxed center parts with subtle volume at the roots have become the new standard. This approach frames faces symmetrically while allowing for natural movement and versatility.
The style works with virtually any hair length or texture.
9. OUT: Chunky Highlights
The Y2K-inspired chunky highlight revival quickly fizzled out. These bold, stripy sections looked too artificial and created harsh contrast against base colors.
The distinct lines of demarcation made grow-out particularly unflattering.
10. IN: Ribbon Highlighting
Ribbon highlighting uses varying widths of lightener application to create multi-dimensional color. The technique produces subtle variations that catch light differently throughout the hair.
The result mimics how hair naturally lightens from sun exposure.
11. OUT: Sleek Glass Hair
The pin-straight, ultra-glossy ‘glass hair’ look has lost its shine. The style required excessive heat styling and product buildup that damaged hair over time.
Most women found it impossible to maintain throughout the day.
12. IN: Lived-In Texture
Natural-looking texture with subtle waves and movement has become the gold standard. This approach celebrates each person’s natural hair pattern while enhancing it slightly.
Heat styling is minimal, focusing on strategic pieces rather than every strand.
13. OUT: Overdone Curtain Bangs
The exaggerated, heavy curtain bangs that dominated social media have fallen flat. The excessive weight around the face proved unflattering for many face shapes and difficult to style consistently.
Humidity was this trend’s worst enemy.
14. IN: Wispy Face Framers
Delicate, wispy pieces that softly frame the face have replaced heavy bangs. These strategic bits of shorter hair enhance facial features without overwhelming them.
The low-commitment approach allows for versatile styling and easy growing out.
15. OUT: One-Dimensional Red
Flat, single-toned red hair colors have lost their vibrancy in the trend world. These monochromatic shades often appeared artificial and faded quickly to unflattering orange or pink tones.
Maintenance was extremely demanding and costly.
16. IN: Copper Dimension
Multi-tonal copper with varying depths of auburn, amber, and gold has erupted onto the scene. This approach creates a more natural-looking red that catches light beautifully.
The dimension helps disguise fading between salon visits.
17. OUT: Excessive Hair Extensions
Ultra-long, obviously fake extensions have fallen from grace. The damage to natural hair, combined with the unnatural thickness-to-length ratio, made this look increasingly unpopular.
Many women reported traction alopecia from heavy installations.
18. IN: Strategic Hair Pieces
Targeted, lightweight hair pieces used for specific purposes have gained massive popularity. These temporary additions add volume or length exactly where needed without compromising hair health.
Most are undetectable even up close.