Hailee Steinfeld Brought the Beach to the VMAs

Hailee Steinfeld on the VMAs white carpet. (Photo: Getty Images)

Right after you pick your jaw up off the floor at Hailee Steinfeld’s Balmain minidress, you’ll notice just how perfectly her hairstyle at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards matches it. At first glance, they’re vibrant and pretty; upon closer inspection, both dress and hair are so much more intricate, befitting the 19-year-old fashion-conscious singer and actress.

“For Hailee Steinfeld’s VMA look, we decided to experiment and have fun,” celebrity stylist Mark Townsend said. “The Video Music Awards are the one event where there are no limits, so we really went for it in terms of texture.”

To get the look, Townsend applied Dove Curls Defining Mousse to her damp hair and rough-dried it to keep her naturally wavy texture. He then added S-waves with a Harry Josh flatiron. After teasing her roots, he applied Dove Volume Dry Shampoo.

That isn’t just a simple braid atop Steinfeld’s head. First, Townsend pulled back the front of her hair into what he called a “loose almost braid” and secured it at the top with a Blax elastic. Then he made smaller braids with that hair and added leather and velvet pieces to them for a modern boho feel. To keep that beachy, tousled texture on a humid New York City summer night, he sprayed the ends of her hair with Ouai Wave Spray and Oribe Après Beach.

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