Bella Hadid Tried Out Y2K-Inspired Baby Braids

As a final goodbye and good riddance to 2021, Bella Hadid blessed us with fit pics on her Instagram that potentially won the whole year. The cool girl winter outfit featured a multitude of colors—baggy black tracksuit pants, a yellow Kenzo tee, a pastel fluffy hat and scarf, and yellow sunglasses— and it was her baby braids that brought the playful look together. To top it off, Bella accentuated her face-framing braids by wearing a beanie complete with dangling pink, green, and blue gems attached to the hat on delicate silver chains.

Peaking out from under the beanie, Bella wore sectioned thicker braids coming out from a ponytail at the back and then two tiny braids dangling over her sunglasses. The hairstyle was clearly inspired by the early aughts, where small braids were often featured randomly throughout hair or styled as face-framing strands with crimped ends. While Bella’s ends weren’t crimped, she did leave undone ends, using two black mini hair ties to secure the look.

In the past two years, baby braids became once again all the rage, with Ariana Grande herself swapping her signature high ponytail for the look. The look is exactly as it sounds: two braided strands framing either side of your face, instantly elevating any up or out-do. Bella had already been seen jumping on the trend in 2020, along with her friend Devon Lee Carlson. Creators on TikTok also swear by not putting a hair tie at the ends, keeping it extremely undone. As long as you know how to do a three-strand braid, you can emulate the look, making it one of the most accessible trends to try for 2022.

Bella is often rocking slicked-back-up-dos we’ve come to know and love her for but we’re also living for this more relaxed look. As her pre-new year’s eve outfit taught us, baby braids are not just fit for a beach vacation, but they can be a playful way to style your hair for beanie weather. With a few months of winter left, we might be taking a page from Bella's book and combining fluffy beanies with baby braids (and maybe even beanie jewelry) as we attempt to steer away from dreaded hat hair.