The Accessory Rhode Didn’t Make, But Probably Should
Hailey Bieber has been spotted repeatedly wearing a zigzag headband – the kind of hair accessory that sat in every middle schooler’s bathroom drawer circa 2002 – and the frequency of its appearances is starting to feel less like coincidence and more like a deliberate aesthetic signal. It’s the sort of detail that reads as throwaway until you notice it three times in a row on someone whose every outfit gets dissected for brand clues.
The zigzag, or scalloped-edge headband, was a Y2K staple. Plastic, teeth underneath to grip the hair, a wavy ridge on top. It showed up in every drugstore beauty aisle for about a decade, then quietly disappeared into the same cultural storage unit as butterfly clips and frosted lip gloss – until those came back too.
At this point, Bieber’s repeated reach for this specific style is hard to dismiss.
What the Headband Actually Looks Like on Her
The way Bieber wears the zigzag headband is worth noting because it doesn’t feel costumy. She’s not dressing around it, not making it the centerpiece of a maximalist Y2K look. The headband appears as a functional object – hair back, face forward – which is exactly the kind of low-effort-high-impact styling that has defined her beauty identity since she started building the Rhode aesthetic. Clean skin, minimal product, and one detail that quietly anchors everything.
That restraint is the point. The headband isn’t doing a nostalgia performance. It’s just there, the way a good skincare routine is just there – foundational, uncontrived, effective. Bieber has built an entire brand around that particular brand of effortlessness, and the zigzag headband fits neatly into that framework without requiring any explanation.
It also photographs well. The zigzag ridge catches light and creates a small but distinct silhouette along the crown of the head, which reads clearly even in candid shots. For someone whose casual appearances generate as much coverage as her red carpet moments, that kind of photogenic consistency in a small accessory is not accidental.
Y2K Hair Accessories Aren’t Done Cycling Back
The return of Y2K beauty has moved in waves, and hair accessories have been among the most consistent returnees. Butterfly clips came back first, then claw clips surged, then satin scrunchies found their way onto the wrists of people who had previously sworn off scrunchies forever. Nostalgic beauty trends have been cycling back with enough regularity that the question is no longer whether something will return, but when and on whose head it will reappear first.
The zigzag headband fits a specific niche in that cycle. Unlike the claw clip, which was genuinely useful and got adopted by people who cared nothing about the nostalgia angle, the zigzag headband is purely aesthetic. It doesn’t hold a lot of hair. It doesn’t solve a problem. It exists to sit on the head and look a particular way, which means its revival is almost entirely vibe-driven – and vibe-driven revivals tend to be the ones that stick longest in a certain crowd.
Bieber’s version of the headband, based on the photos, appears to be the classic drugstore variety rather than a designer reinterpretation. No embellishments, no rebranded version from a luxury accessories house. Just the original object, worn as if it never left.
Which raises the obvious question: if Rhode’s founder is this publicly and repeatedly attached to a single hair accessory, and Rhode has built a product line around the exact aesthetic that accessory represents, how long before a Rhode zigzag headband shows up in the same drop as the next lip treatment?
