Ariana Grande Is Making Scrunchies Great Again

For all the '90s trends that have found a place once again in our routines and our hearts—chokers, brown lipstick, Steve Madden platforms, Cucumber Melon—there's the scrunchie, the butt of all bad-hair jokes and the last thing I ever thought would touch my head again.
                                                       

You can't exactly blame it for the bad rap it's gotten. It's like if a sock were also a hair tie. But as recently demonstrated by celebrities like Bella Hadid and now Ariana Grande, the scrunchie can actually look...dare I say...cool.

It sounds crazy. I get it. But we all said the same thing about mom jeans and here we are. Given that the cushy fabric is gentler on hair, Ariana might be onto something. Plus, the Heathers references are too good to pass up. So, I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.

This look on Ariana isn't an overly gelled pony of yore (i.e., 1998). This scrunchie is velvet and looped at the end of her loose side braid, which looks very cool-girl-in-the-locker-room (liberally spray said Cucumber Melon for the full experience). Yeah, the space buns might make the whole thing feel dated in a year, but other than that, I can see this having staying power.
So literally shake the dust off the tie shoved in the back of your high school closet, or go pick up a set for $12, because they're sold at Urban Outfitters now (the official arbiters of "this trend is hip again"). While Carrie Bradshaw wasn't wrong when she ranted to Jack Berger that no chic woman on the isle of Manhattan would wear a scrunchie back in 2003, times change. They're decidedly not French, but these days scrunchies have a definite je ne sais quoi.