ROSALÍA’S HALO HAIR IS OUR LATEST METHOD BEAUTY OBSESSION
words by PHOEBE GIBSON-DOUGALL
For the uninitiated and offline, “method dressing”—the style phenomenon that’s been lately dominating newsfeeds—is when an actor pays homage to the film they’re promoting through clothing and styling, and this can, of course, also manifest in the form of method beauty. Cynthia Erivo’s Wicked nails aside, the release of Rosalía’s groundbreaking album LUX—and her subsequent debut of halo-dyed hair—marks an interesting new dawn in the “method” world, one where a project’s deeper influences and allusions can be reflected in an artist’s aesthetic choices.
ROSALÍA via instagram @rosaliafilm
The artist debuted her new hair—an angelic ring of bleached blonde atop her signature brunette locks—at a Brooklyn listening party for LUX, a move that sparked frenzied chatter amongst fans. The new hair is courtesy of Evanie Frausto, the cult hairstylist behind iconic looks from the likes of Bella Hadid, Lana Del Rey, and Julia Fox.
Crowned as Rosalía’s best work yet, on LUX the Spanish artist constructs her own house of worship, a cathartic masterpiece awash with thematic and sonic references to religion and sainthood. Across the album’s fifteen songs, Rosalía explores the lives of female saints, their contradictions and their radical choices, all the while using them to examine her own role as a public figure, woman, and lover.
ROSALÍA via instagram @rosaliafilm
With such nuanced exploration at the core of her work, the star’s choice to dye a blonde halo in her dark hair goes deeper than pure aesthetics. Just as the female saints she conjures on LUX are not perfect—Santa Olga de Kyiv was thought to be a vigilante-esque killer of men—Rosalía wishes to assert her own complexity. In the context of the album, the halo loses its status as a symbol of perfection and purity, and becomes the embodiment of the tension within Rosalía’s own aspirations and relationships. Just as human paradox is what drew her to the lives of these saints, through her eyes the halo is reimagined and repurposed to the very image of womanhood’s many contradictions.
The halo motif has clearly resonated with fans, who are flocking to TikTok to document the dying process of their own copycat halos. Forget Barbie-pink, we’re here for the era of subversive aesthetics and vengeful saints—Amen, indeed.
ROSALÍA via instagram @rosaliafilm
