Australian Fashion Week has always been about more than hemlines and front rows. Somewhere between the frantic steamers, half-zipped gowns and trays of lattes backstage, beauty teams are building entire worlds with a comb, a straightener and a very specific idea of what cool looks like right now.
This season, the mood shifted away from perfection. Hair moved. Flyaways stayed visible. Skin looked expensive rather than overworked.
Across Sydney, beauty directors leaned into texture, individuality and restraint, creating looks that felt less like runway costumes and more like the fantasy version of real life.
Aje Resort 27 ‘Siren’: Salt-kissed Texture and Windswept Romance
At Aje, the beauty direction captured the feeling of an Australian summer afternoon just before sunset. Hair Director Mary Alamine for O&M created a look that felt windswept, sensual and instinctively cool, as though each model had wandered in from the coastline rather than a backstage beauty chair.
The hair was intentionally imperfect. Texture was enhanced rather than controlled. Flyaways remained untouched. The finish had softness and movement, avoiding the lacquered effect that dominated fashion week for years.
The collection itself, titled Siren, explored the Australian landscape through fluid silhouettes and faded tones, and the beauty look mirrored that same undone elegance.
Backstage, the process focused on working with each model’s natural hair pattern rather than forcing uniformity. Roots were lifted subtly to frame the face, while the ends retained softness and shine. The result felt expensive without trying too hard, which is increasingly becoming the defining beauty language of modern luxury.
How the Look Was Created
Hair was prepped with O&M Atonic Thickening Spritz through the roots to create shape close to the face. Models’ natural texture was then enhanced during the blow-dry process, keeping the finish sleek rather than fluffy. Front sections were clipped into place and lightly heated to create soft framing around the face before the hair was brushed through for a more relaxed finish. O&M PS Balm and C-Spray were then worked through the ends to create moisture, separation and that satiny, lived-in texture.
Mariam Seddiq: Sharp Noughties Glamour Returns
Mariam Seddiq delivered one of the strongest beauty statements of the week with ECHOES, shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney and opened by Jessica Gomes. The collection explored tension between softness and strength, and backstage beauty followed suit. Hair referenced early-2000s glamour with ultra-sleek finishes and razor-sharp silhouettes, while skin remained sculpted, matte and velvety.
Hair Director Madison Voloshin leaned into polished noughties nostalgia, creating hair that looked expensive, glossy and slightly rebellious. Some models wore sharp jawline-grazing extension bobs to create strong linear shapes against the collection’s fluid tailoring and sheer fabrics.
Meanwhile, Skin Director Isabella Schimid focused on modern matte skin that still looked alive under runway lighting. The prep stage centred around cooling and calming the complexion before makeup application, helping create that softly blurred finish dominating beauty trends internationally right now.
How the Look Was Created
The Shark Glossi Ceramic Styler attachment was used first to stretch and smooth the hair before the Silki attachment refined and perfected the sleek finish. Hair was then straightened while maintaining gloss and softness. Select models received custom-cut extension bobs to sharpen the overall silhouette.
For skin, the CryoGlow LED Face Mask was applied during prep to visibly calm and refine the complexion before makeup, creating a softly sculpted matte finish with subtle luminosity beneath the surface.
Nicol & Ford: The Avant-Garde Hair Moment Everyone Is Talking About
At Nicol & Ford, hair became performance art. For the label’s AFW26 collection FEINT, O&M COR.creator and Hair Director John Pulitano transformed the runway into a surrealist beauty fantasy, pushing texture, shape and proportion into dramatically sculptural territory. The result was one of the boldest beauty moments of Australian Fashion Week.
Inspired by overlooked Australian queer artist Adrian Feint, the collection explored camp aesthetics, theatricality and the strange intimacy of Feint’s still life paintings. Designers Katie-Louise and Lilian Nicol-Ford built the collection around exaggerated forms and artistic tension, and the hair direction followed suit with unapologetic ambition.
Backstage, Pulitano approached hair less like styling and more like installation art. Shapes were oversized, directional and deliberately exaggerated, creating silhouettes that felt sculpted rather than simply dressed. Texture was manipulated into almost architectural forms, giving the runway a surreal energy that blurred the line between fashion and fantasy.
Despite the scale and drama, the hair still retained movement and softness in places, preventing the looks from feeling costume-like. That contrast between structure and fluidity became central to the beauty direction.
“I love pushing hair to the next level,” Pulitano said backstage. “In this case, we didn’t just take it to the next level, we took it ten levels higher.”
The backstage atmosphere reflected that same experimental spirit. Teams worked meticulously across 25 models, building ambitious hair shapes with precision while still maintaining an organic finish under the lights. Every detail was intentional. Every silhouette told a story.
In a fashion week dominated by understated beauty, Nicol & Ford delivered a reminder that runway hair can still shock, provoke and completely transform a collection.
How the Look Was Created
The backstage team began by prepping the hair with O&M Atonic Thickening Spritz to build volume, grip and structure from the roots through the lengths. Hair was then manipulated section by section to create exaggerated sculptural forms, with texture and scale becoming central to the final silhouette.
Rather than smoothing everything into perfection, John Pulitano embraced raw texture and directional movement to give the looks an artistic, almost surreal quality. Strategic bends and shape were worked through the hair to create dimension and dramatic form, while maintaining softness in selected sections so the finished result still felt alive under runway lighting.
To finish, O&M Surf Bomb was applied through the mid-lengths and ends to add separation, grit and an intentionally undone texture that stopped the sculptural looks from feeling too rigid or overworked.
