Any avid Sex and The City fan can easily recall that the breaking point in Carrie Bradshaw and her boyfriend Berger the writer’s relationship all came down to one harmless hair accessory: the scrunchie. (Well, after the scrunchie there was that now infamous office supply, the Post-it Note, but you know what we mean.) The issue started when Berger shared his already published novel with Carrie, who loved everything about it, except for one teeny, tiny plot detail. “You have your leading lady running all over town with a scrunchie,” she says before slapping him on the forehand. “No woman who works at W magazine and lives on Perry Street would be caught dead at a hip downtown restaurant wearing a scrunchy!”
Famous last words. Now it seems like everywhere you turn a chic woman is holding up her hair with all kinds of iterations of this once maligned hair accessory. There are silk scrunchies, velvet scrunchies, scrunchies with bows, scrunchies made from vintage Hermès scarves. Women are wearing them at the beach and to dinner, with their office attire and during date nights. There’s no denying the scrunchie revival is alive and in full force, so here at Over The Moon, we asked ourselves that age old question—are they basic or not?
Over The Moon co-founder Alexandra Macon, for one, recalls that specific Sex and The City episode well. “I always remember that and as a result, I would never wear one,” she says. But co-founder Andee Olson thinks Carrie would’ve reconsidered the trend by now. “I think she would be all over it!” she argues, even though she admits she’s still personally not comfortable trying it out. “I don’t know if I am cool enough to pull off a scrunchie. For some reason, they seem intimidating to me.”
In contrast, contributor Anna Mack has jumped on the bandwagon. “I got inspired by RBG’s scarves after I saw the movie, On the Basis of Sex, and decided to try a scrunchie out,” she shares. “I bought a Ganni one in orange that looks like Hermès, and I love wearing my hair in a slicked back low bun with it. I love the pop of color, and it’s cute on the wrist as well!”
Vogue.com Beauty Editor Jenna Rennert is another fan of the scrunchie renaissance, although she prefers simple cotton ones over the more elegant types you might find on Net-a-Porter. “I have a ton from Goody in every color. But I’m not into those silk ones; that’s almost too much for me. It feels extra.” She credits their rise in popularity to fashion’s recent infatuation with popular accessories from the 80s and early 90s, such as as scrunchies, summer camp bracelets, and barrettes. “For me, I like anything that I liked as a kid,” she explains. “It’s some sort of funny nostalgia factor, it just makes it cooler.” And while some might like reliving their childhood, others, like Alexandra Macon are happy to leave it in the past. “Scrunchies take me back to seventh grade when I had green glasses and hadn’t started shaving my legs,” she adds. “Those are fashion and beauty moments I’m not exactly looking to recreate.”
