Trends are challenging. And they sure aren’t flattering all the time. Yet each trend, no matter how bizarre, finds its bunch of followers. 2015 was witness to many outrageous styles. Plastic bin-liner dresses, elfin/Mr. Spock ears, eye jewellery, Yaeba teeth, colourful crotchet shorts for men, pixelated hair, bubble nails, glow-in-the-dark hair… I am not making any of this up. These are in practice. Give them a shot if you want to break away from the monotony of life. (P.S. We aren’t responsible for the pink slip which may or may not follow.)
Beard art
There’s something about men with beards. Maybe it’s the gravitas that appeals. And then there are men with beards who make your jaws drop, and I don’t mean that in an I’m-going-weak-in-the-knees kind of way. While the Internet and fashion glossies throw up numerous interesting beard trends, Instagram shows us a whole new dimension. For example, there’s Incredibeard started by Isaiah and his wife Angela Webb that showcases a mindboggling range of beard styles and shapes like an axe, stilettos, wolverine’s claws, pretzel… “My wife asked me to grow my beard out. After about six months, we started playing around with the beard and then took a funny picture and my wife said we should start an Instagram page and do more designs. From there, I just ran with the idea and it kept growing,” says Isaiah. He’s got 1,38,000 followers emulating his looks. “Our ideas are mostly from me. My wife is the one that actually shapes a majority of my designs. Many of our designs are so intricate that it requires more than two hands to create,” he says. All you need to get started though is hairspray and a blow dryer.
Remember the floral beard trend that started last year? Well, The Gay Beards, a page started by two best friends Brian and Johanthan from Portland, takes it up a notch. For them, it’s all about jazzing up facial hair with accessories and even baubles. Rainbow-painted, stuffed with cheese puffs, cereals and popcorns or adorned with flowers and Lego pieces, it’s a riot of colours and ideas. “We wanted to create something positive that was based around art, inspiration, and encouragement. One day a friend came over, photographed us with some flowers in our beards. We posted a few of these images online, and the reception was overwhelmingly strong. From there we knew beard art would be something big. Quirky beards appeal to all ages; we know this from seeing pictures,” they say.
Facekini
This one’s got to be the most practical one, especially for us battling the intense sun. Facekini is like a bikini for the face. It covers the face but has slits around the eyes, nostrils and mouth. Well, it could make you feel like the creepy guy from Scream, but anything to keep those UV rays away, right?Made popular by China, it’s a staple among kids and women on the beaches there. Though this trend surfaced a few years back, 2015 is when it found many more takers in countries across the globe and it isn’t just the middle-aged brigade. It may not do justice to your sexy designer swimwear but at least it helps save sunscreen expenses. Apart from bright bold colours, now there are designer facekinis with various prints and patterns — and yes, it still looks just as weird.
Sproutcore
I am pretty sure the movie CJ7 (about a tiny furry alien with a green antenna on its head) sparked this trend. Suddenly people in Beijing started sporting sprouts on their heads. I suppose it’s wise to have a healthy snack on you, just in case you get hungry. Pluck and eat… Can it get any more organic than this?
Initially, it was a tiny two-leaf sprout, then the number of leaves grew and eventually the sprouts grew bigger. Now experimentalists craftily fix broccoli, bonsai plants and various shrubs on their heads. And if you want to match your dark purple outfit to your hair accessory go right ahead and clip on an aubergine plant, nobody is judging you. And for those of you who love your gardens, this is a great way of carrying it around with you.
Sold on this trend? You could grow your own sprout, create your own using wool and felt or buy them online. Thankfully, eBay has green bean sprout head clips for around a dollar. Pin them on tactfully and there’s your chance to be Daisy-Head Mayzie from Dr. Seuss.
Glitter root
This does seem like a sly way to conceal dandruff. What else are we supposed to make of that thick carpet of glitter along one’s hair roots? Just as we were getting used to rainbow hair and a gaggle of divas colouring their mane, with the hues of the rainbow (Rita Ora seems to be the biggest fan of this trend considering the number of times she showed up with different combinations of coloured hair), here comes yet another wacky trend. Around a month back, Instagram feeds had photos of trendy girls with sparkly hair roots. While pink, gold, green and blue are the hot favourites, the more adventurous ones even have pearls and glitters in other shapes like hearts and shiny stars. Given how often most colour their hair, it is a clever way of hiding the roots when the colour starts stripping. And the best part? You can do it at home without spending big bucks at the salon. All you need is hair gel and a pack of glitter. Men feeling left out? Beard glitter is a thing too. According to the founders of The Gay Beards, over the last couple of months, 9,000 pictures of glitter beards have been posted on Instagram alone. All the best in washing them off.
Unibrow
It’s hard to believe that something I get rid of every 10 days is indeed crawling its way into the limelight — the unibrow. After years of being referred to as the caterpillar, the geeky brow now finds itself on fashion runways. At the Paris fashion week, Atsuro Tayama’s models had unibrows drawn on them. Kendall Jenner’s veiled look at the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week for Chanel created the effect of a unibrow. Recently, at a plush shopping mall in Delhi, a couple of girls sported monobrows and dressed in outfits that looked deeply influenced by Frida Kahlo. And then there’s Kajol who totally rocks the unibrow, be it as the prosaic Simran in DDLJ or the ultra glamorous Meera in Dilwale. Just in case you are tempted to experiment there are fake eyebrows for sale online or there’s always YouTube with its tutorials (it’s more intense than just sketching a line with a kohl pencil).
It’s time to put away those tweezers, for now.
