Roksanda makes a splash by bringing back the wet look at London Fashion Week

Wet-look hair is shaping up to be one of the defining beauty trends to come out of London Fashion Week.

Across runways and front rows, models and attendees alike have been sporting slicked-back buns, glossy lengths and sculpted pixie partings that shine under the lights.

After several seasons of natural texture and long “lived-in” waves, the return of high shine, short cuts and hard lines feels like a decisive swing back towards more precise hair styling.

Nowhere was that shift clearer than at Roksanda’s 20th-anniversary show. Under the direction of session stylist Anna Cofone, models emerged with hair that seemed almost liquid, a gleaming frame for the designer’s bold, sculptural clothes.

Cofone said the inspiration was drawn from Barbara Hepworth, the British sculptor whose clean lines and abstract curves informed the entire collection.

She explained that she and her team wanted the hair to echo the garments’ graphic shapes, talking about a “duality of femininity and masculinity” expressed through “beautiful curved shapes” balanced by “square sections directed back and very hard lines” with “comb lines for extra detail” to keep the overall effect “very clean, very graphic, very sculptured.”

Rather than just coating hair in gel, Cofone’s team layered creams, serums and sprays to create defined sections and reflective surfaces without stiffness.

“We used the glow serum to create really great glass straight hair with obviously fantastic heat protection,” said Cofone, which was key to creating the look without damaging the hair.

Long lengths were slicked down but still moved like fabric, while short styles were sculpted into crisp shapes.

The result was dramatic but wearable, signalling that wet-look hair is no longer a gimmick but an intelligent way to frame a collection.

Other designers have been leaning the same way. On New York Fashion Week runways this season, LaQuan Smith sent out models with stylised, hard-set wet finishes, while at Khaite, damp buns and slicked-back roots evoked a subtler, Nineties-inspired gloss.

What distinguishes this new wave of wet-look hair is its architecture. Stylists are using shine as a sculptural material, creating combed-back ridges, square sections or curved waves that echo the clothes rather than compete with them.

It’s a more crafted, less grungy take on gloss.

For those interested in bringing this trend off the catwalk, Cofone suggests a slightly softer approach: concentrate product through the top section, leave the ends natural and tuck behind the ears for a nod to the runway without going full gloss.

After years of undone hair dominating the narrative, there is a clear shift back towards more precise beauty – shine, structure and finish rather than laissez-faire texture.

In that sense, Roksanda’s show signature message was that sleek, sculptured, wet-look hair is the season’s splashiest trend.