Backstage at Brandon Maxwell was the usual craziness: Frantic blow dries, speed-raced manicures, and makeup brushes brandished. Amidst it all, Bella Hadid had a novel way to zen out. We spotted her playing hairstylist to her childhood friend Ally Aflalo, slicking her thick, wavy hair into a runway-ready ponytail using a boar bristle brush and Aveda’s Air Control hair spray. She declared, “perfect,” as she cinched it with a mini-scrunchie. (Oh yes, a scrunchie.)
“She said she was making it look like when I was little,” said Aflalo backstage, but it was also a dead ringer for the volcanic ponytails of ‘80s supermodels in a George Michael video—in other words, the predecessors of Hadid herself.
Here’s the thing: Bella’s backstage ‘do may have been a way to pass the time, but she did a near-professional job, even getting a thumbs up from Aveda’s key hair artist Bob Recine. You know, just in case she needs a fall-back career from modeling.
