With the men’s shows wrapping up in Paris on Sunday — save for the lonely laggard, Saint Laurent, which will show its men’s looks during the couture schedule this week — it’s time to parse not only what’s been sent down the runway, but how hairstylists and makeup artists have styled models to complement the collections.
This fashion season doubled down on the traditional on many fronts, with plenty of conservative styles and tailoring, references to bygone decades and re-examinations of archival looks. It was also a season obediently focused on the clothes, despite big events like Véronique Nichanian’s last dance at Hermès after a whopping 38 years with the house. It was fitting, then, that the hair and beauty looks that accompanied the garments were relatively modest and restrained.
Here are five trends that stood out.
We’re doing mullets
Fine, mullets aren’t restrained, modest or traditional — but consider them the exception to the rule this season. Two shows in particular cemented the mullet’s moment.
At Dior Homme, Jonathan Anderson clearly aimed to shock, presenting a punkish, grunge-tinged collection for the luxury house. When the third model walked in his “aristo-youth” show, one could almost feel the room sit up, eyes focusing on the shock of yellow hair that entered the conversation in the shape of a mullet-cut wig. It was a motif throughout the collection, with several models sporting the same highlighter-yellow hairstyle that gave the clothes even more of an edge.
Meanwhile, at Rick Owens, digital artist Bernardo Martins — whose AI images had caught Owens’s eye just days before their collaboration — imagined a series of his signature skullets and other elaborate mullets for models. Some had shaved crowns and long strands down the back. Others were coloured with animal print–like patterns or with pops of pink and blue.
Models at both Kartik Research and Willy Chavarria also sported long hair that had been coiffed into mullets, though following Rick Owens and Dior, these looks read as practically formal.
Slick it back
With its skew to the back, the mullet could be seen as the edgy cousin of the biggest hair trend on the runways: slicked-back hair. While many seasons feature slicked hairstyles, it can sometimes feel less like an artistic choice and more of an afterthought. This season, the slicked-back look felt more intentional.
For instance, at Setchu in Milan, hair was combed back with a mirror-like finish across the crown of models’ heads, then curled up — drier and airier — at the neck. Qasimi’s models, meanwhile, had their hair pressed down so tightly and neatly against their scalps to the point where it looked painted on.
In Paris, at Lemaire, hair was similarly pasted to the scalp, sometimes with rigid straightness, other times with a softer, almost architectural swoop. And at Maison Mihara Yasuhiro, some models’ hair was pulled back against the head with barely perceptible comb lines, while others looked as if their hair had been slicked back roughly with their bare hands.
By extension
Extensions have long been a mainstay backstage at women’s shows, and while they’ve always been present in some capacity at men’s shows too, it felt like hairstylists wanted to draw attention to them this season. Thus, one can’t help but wonder if we’re entering an era of extensions for men.
At Kiko Kostadinov, in Paris, the extensions were colourful and angular, worn low over the eyes in a manner that gave them a mask-like quality and called to mind supersized lashes. There were, of course, the aforementioned mullet wigs at Dior, but also what one might call hair hats: soft-looking two-tone blowouts that only revealed themselves to be wigs after seeing them from model to model. And at Walter Van Beirendonck, models sported colourful extensions layered under and over their natural hair, with visible contrasts in both texture and colour.
Soft touches
In seasons past, makeup artists have gone high-impact, with pops of colour, big rosy cheeks, kohl-rimmed eyes fit for a smoking section. This season, the approach seemed to be softer, with many faces standing out for their innocent simplicity.
Even at shows where the makeup is usually elaborate and intricate, things were stripped back. At Simon Cracker, in Milan, there were subtle touches of lip colour applied and barely a dusting of blush on cheeks. A similar approach was taken at Dior in Paris. Walter Van Beirendonck’s models looked almost pallid, bereft of any eye-catching accoutrements or embellishments. And by the lofty anti-beauty standards that Daniel Sällström has imprinted into Rick Owens’s runway shows, the Fall 2026 looks felt less jarring — long eyelashes don’t make people quite as uncomfortable as some of Sällström’s previous work.
At Kiko Kostadinov, there was a tasteful wash of metallic makeup applied across cheekbones just below the eyes, but it brought more of a dreamy feel than anything else. At Auralee, which has carved out a niche as one of the foremost purveyors of understated luxury, the models sported more subtle makeup in contrast to some of the shinier, wetter looks that have dominated runways in recent seasons. And at Ami, which has become a de facto reference for Parisian style, the makeup was the definition of low-key.
Sometimes, less is more.
Clean lines
One of the few brands to feature more visible makeup looks was Victor-Hart, which showed a small collection in Milan. Models sported straight but slightly flared lines down the centre of their faces, painted on in an inky black.
Elsewhere, the lines appeared in hair.
At Kolor, hair was meant to look windswept, with thin strands pressed down against foreheads and cheeks, which created crisp diagonal and horizontal lines on models’ faces. There were also the aforementioned lines of demarcation between colours at Kiko Kostadinov and Walter Van Beirendonck. And at Juun.J, Dries Van Noten and more, hair was parted precisely and sharply enough to display a visible line of scalp.
In a season where pinstripes featured prominently on the clothing, it was clear to see that the lines didn’t stop there.
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