Bobby pins as hair accessories: Why we hope this trend never dies

by Souzan Michael May 6, 2015

Unless you just landed on planet earth (in which case, welcome!), you probably know that Rihanna made quite the statement at the Met Gala on Monday night, wearing a 55-pound canary yellow dress that took 50,000 hours to make. But after she changed out of her incredible Guo Pei gown, we couldn’t help but notice another bold look she was sporting at the after party—exposed bobby pins. The singer’s been wearing bobby pins as accessories for some time now, which means that it’s finally time for us normies to try out the trend. Back in 2013, Rih wore a doobie wrap (a method of preserving straight hair) to the American Music Awards and secured her wrapped strands with pearl-encrusted bobby pins. Fast forward two years and she’s taken to wearing bobby pins by the dozen. (Subtlety is not a look suitable for a badgal.)

Of course, she’s not the only celebrity to wear bobby pins as accessories. Kate Mara debuted a multi-pin ‘do at a House of Cards premiere last year that instantly updated her minimalist bob. Lily Collins secured her updo with oversized bobby pins, and Kaley Cuoco covered the entire backside of her head with scattered pins.

The formerly hidden hair accessory has also made appearances on the runways, most notably at Dior‘s Fall 2009 show and Zac Posen‘s Fall 2014 show. Of course, there was nothing subtle about those looks (we counted approximately 2.3 billion pins in each model’s hair at Dior). In the same vein as lingerie as outerwear, we’re into any look that exposes what’s normally hidden (#freeyourpits! #freethenipple! #freeyourpins?). And what better way to expose your hair accessories than by covering your head in them?

The only question we have left is, when do we ditch the name ‘bobby pins’ and start calling them ‘Rihanna pins’? Who is Bobby and what does he have to do with all of this?