Zendaya Wears This Summer’s Hottest Hair Accessory

Reported by Vogue.

Short hair in summer is both a gift and a curse. The weight is gone, the neck is free — and then the heat hits and you realize your bob is too short for a ponytail and too awkward for a baseball cap. Zendaya, currently rocking a bixie courtesy of stylist Ursula Stephen, just reminded everyone that the answer has been folded in a drawer this whole time.

The actor was spotted at Rakestraw Books, a California indie bookstore, posing with copies of Dune: Messiah and The Odyssey — two films she has forthcoming adaptations in, the latter alongside husband Tom Holland. The outfit was stripped back: white tee, jeans, a micro French manicure with barely-there white tips. The only real style statement was a navy polka-dot bandana, folded on the diagonal and wrapped around her crown, holding her crop neatly in place.

The Bandana Is Doing the Heavy Lifting This Summer

This isn't a new trick, but it's having a serious moment. According to Vogue, last summer the hair kerchief became a go-to for everyone from Hailey Bieber and Alexa Chung on beach holidays to Anya Taylor-Joy and Gracie Abrams performing at Glastonbury. Celebrity hairstylist Bobby Elliot put it plainly: "What I love about a bandana is that it elevates a look without much effort. It also can be a way to give your hair a break from heat styling — just spritz in a little salt spray and go." For anyone deep in a situationship with their hot tools, that's genuinely liberating advice.

Since Stephen cut her hair into a jaw-skimming crop earlier this year, Zendaya has been methodically testing what the style can do — wet and tousled, curly and flippy, sleek and side-swept. The bandana is just the latest experiment, and arguably the most practical. It's the kind of accessory that requires zero commitment: one cloth, infinite configurations, works on bobs, pixies, and crops alike.

If your short hair has been frustrating you all season, a five-dollar bandana might genuinely be the solution you've been overthinking.

Read the original at Vogue.