Mandy Moore’s Emmys Bangs Were Inspired By This ‘60s-Era Icon

When Mandy Moore stepped onto the 2021 Emmy Awards red carpet in a sweeping, scarlet ball gown by Carolina Herrera, her accompanying hair and makeup managed to hit the ultimate goal for casually glam beauty moments. Moore looked downright French-girl chic in a set of faux bangs. The aesthetic, which is the very embodiment of shrugged-off sophistication, is nearly as coveted as an actual Emmy — so even if Moore didn’t win her long-overdue gold statue for modern classic drama This Is Us, at least she got an all-time red carpet moment out of the evening. Mandy Moore’s Emmy Awards hair, the perfect balance between polished glamour and youthful effortlessness, is one for the books.

According to Moore’s hairstylist, Ashley Streicher, the bright red gown — just plucked from the runway — served as the primary inspiration for her hair, along with another (spiritually) famous actor synonymous with the French-girl look: Audrey Hepburn. Using an army of Garnier products, Streicher got to work on Moore’s artfully disheveled ponytail with long, face-framing tendrils and brow-skimming curtain bangs. “We decided to go a little Audrey Hepburn with it to keep it young and modern,” Streicher explains in a press release, revealing the complete step-by-step breakdown for Moore’s hairstyle.

To kick things off, Streicher details, Moore washed her hair the previous day which just left some prep and styling ahead of the award show. After concentrating some Garnier Fructis Style Mega Full Thickening Lotion primarily at Moore’s roots, Streicher used a small round brush and the T3 Fit Dryer to blow out the hair around her face — this smooths and preps the hairline for the ponytail’s formation, she says.

From there, Streicher took the T3 AireBrush Duo Hot Air Styler’s round brush attachment and ran it through the rest of Moore’s hair for added smoothness, volume, and texture — and for extra grip, she spritzed on some Garnier Texture Tease Dry Touch Finishing Spray. As Streicher gathered hair to form the major ponytail, she added in a light coat of hairspray to help hold the style’s shape. Crucially, Streicher says, she isolated face-framing sections of hair before fastening the actual ponytail. A dollop of Garnier Fructis Style Pure Clean Finishing Paste and some hairspray help clean up and secure rogue flyaways, and it’s time for the grand finale: those bangs.

The false bangs require some serious strategy to look as camouflaged and realistic as Moore’s. “I made sure to have some of her natural hairline in there to keep them looking as real as possible,” Streicher explains, before she secures the hairpiece to Moore’s head. Once the bangs are installed, she runs a flat iron over them and then sprays on some hairspray for that piece-y, Parisian look.

All that’s left at this point are finishing touches — but anyone looking to transform a casual ponytail into something award show-worthy knows the devil’s in the details. To nail that sexy, rumpled look, Streicher sprayed the completed ponytail with more Garnier texture spray, then “brushed it out a little bit giving the pony itself some volume and texture,” she says. “Then I sprayed a bit of Garnier Fructis Style Flat Iron Perfector Straightening Mist into my hands and ran them through her ponytail giving her a bit of shine and protection, and then wrapped a few long pony pieces around the barrel of the T3 SinglePass Curl Iron.” After a light backcomb and one farewell blast of light hold hairspray, Moore is ready for action.

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