The Shag 2.0: Why It’s a Viral, Cross-Generational Sensation

We’re only a few years into the 2020s, but the shag, in all its different viral iterations, has already cemented itself as one of the decade’s biggest beauty trends. First popular in the 1970s, the heavily layered cut — worn by stars like Jane Fonda, David Bowie, and Tina Turner — embodied that era’s rebellious spirit. Today, the shag’s boundary-pushing appeal has only grown in size and scope, with heavily fringed looks of all shapes, sizes, and textures widely embraced. And this time around, the shag isn’t just speaking to a new generation but to all generations. 

Shagged cuts — think: mullet, shixie, octopus, butterfly, wolf cut, etc. — have garnered billions of views on social media. Why are these textured chops resonating with Gen Z TikTokers? The way 23-year-old activist and GenZ Girl Gang founder Deja Foxx sees it, the shag (and its many spin-offs) are a way for young people just coming into their own to usher in a new chapter. As the saying goes, change your hair, change your life.

“When you still have so many possibilities ahead of you, of who you can be, it can feel really empowering to make a big hair choice and a rebellious hair choice at that,” says Foxx, whose journey to getting a ‘70s-inspired shag was documented in the Emmy-nominated TikTok, Boom. From influencers like Foxx and Bretman Rock with their fluttery, Farrah Fawcett-esque layers to stars like Jenna Ortega and Billie Eilish, who’ve put the wolf cut (a choppier, new-age mullet) on the map, Gen Z is reimagining the vintage cut. It’s all about daring shapes, celebrating one’s natural hair texture, and putting your individual stamp on the look. “People might say that [Gen Z is] recycling a lot of trends, but we’re doing it in a way that inverts them and makes these nostalgic, historic styles for us,” says Foxx. 

“Just like with fashion, everything comes back and evolves, and every new generation adds their sprinkle it,” says celebrity hairstylist Ursula Stephens, who gave 25-year-old model Anok Yai a transformative deep blue curly shixie (a shaggy pixie) earlier this year. 

Still, you don’t have to be of Generation Z to embrace their mindset. “The shag just says that you’re a risk-taker,” Stephens adds. She’s been crafting different iterations of the shag for clients including Jodie-Turner Smith (grunge mullet) and Natasha Lyonne (jellyfish cut). Now more than ever, fearless self-expression has no age limit.

Just ask Edward Tricomi, co-founder of the Warren Tricomi salon in New York City. According to Tricomi, who has been cutting shags for more than 50 years, when the cut first burst onto the scene in the ‘70s, it was a symbol of youth counter-culture — a “fuck you” haircut, as he calls it. While it continues to be radical for younger and older generations, it’s perhaps even more so for the latter. 

Molly Ringwald, 55, has a new choppy red shag; French actress Isabelle Huppert, 70, debuted one front row at Milan Fashion Week in February. Recently, Tricomi cut shags on both his 60-something wife and his longtime friend and client, legendary makeup artist Sandy Linter, who is 75. They’re bucking antiquated ideas of what hair “after a certain age” should look like.

“It’s a very adaptable haircut,” says Linter, who has rocked a shag on and off since famous hairdresser Mr. Kenneth gave her a style inspired by Jane Fonda in 1972’s Klute. “It can look punk, it can look rock ‘n’ roll, it can look good on a 75-year-old woman,” she emphasizes. As Linter puts it, a shag later in life sends a clear message: “I’m not done.”

No matter how the shag is helping someone defy the status quo, it’s all about individuality — from the cut itself to how you wear and style it. “The shag of the ‘70s is very different than the shag of today,” says Tricomi. He notes that newer hair-cutting techniques supply better precision for “chipping layers” to achieve a more tailored and easy-to-style look. Mischa G, celebrity hairstylist and owner of East Village salon Treehouse Social Club, distinguishes between the past's more traditional “hair-dressing” and “hair-doing” of today. “Whereas the shags of the ‘70s and early ‘80s were more dressed with rollers, teasing, backcombing, and tons of hairspray for that disco more-is-more feeling, today, a lot of shags are wash-and-wear with natural texture,” she explains.

In 2023, the shag is anyone’s for the taking. Whether splicing up your natural lengths or using wigs or hairpieces to help you achieve your desired fringed look, it’s all about exploration and having fun. “There is a way to make it suitable for every gender, hair texture, every age,” says Mischa G. “It can be dressed up, it can be dressed down, it can be air dried for freedom and ease, or it can be styled like the ‘70s with rollers and lots of products it. These days, it can evoke whatever you want it to.”