- [Narrator] It's one of the most iconic
hairstyles of all time: bangs.
Also known as fringe.
But we'll get to that later.
Bangs have been immortalized by countless movie stars
and cultural icons.
So, where did bangs come from?
How does one cut them?
And what does having bangs say about the women bold enough
to wear them?
This is how bangs took over the world.
Bangs date all the way back to the 8th century.
People often credit the Egyptian queen Cleopatra
for bringing them into style.
But that's just a myth.
Historians say the credit should go to this guy.
His name was Zuriab,
an Iraqi Renaissance man known to have started the trend.
Which, as this painting shows,
was also adopted by his female fans.
Over the next thousand years, bangs became an institution
evident in countless paintings of European women
in the 18th and 19th centuries.
With the dawn of motion pictures,
silent film stars like Louise Brooks
made bangs an iconic style of the Roaring Twenties.
Then came the era of the pinup girl.
Pioneered by the notorious Betty Page.
Europe moved back into the spotlight in the swinging 60s
with iconic looks by model Peggy Moffitt
and singer Jane Birkin.
Only in Europe, they don't call them bangs.
They call it fringe.
Which is what the style is known as pretty much everywhere
except the US.
So fringe continued to evolve.
And sometimes the results were mixed.
But the look has endured and some of the most iconic women
in the world have made sure that bangs, or fringe,
whatever you want to call it is one of the most sought after
styles on the planet.
And those brave enough to get them
usually come with inspiration.
- I love Taylor Swift's bangs.
- Taylor Swift
- Taylor Swift.
- Emma Stone.
- Reese Witherspoon.
- Alexa Chung.
- Natalia Dyer.
- Zooey Deschanel.
- Zooey Deschanel has some great bangs.
- [Narrator] So, how does one actually get bangs?
Well, that depends on the type of bangs you're going for.
There's blunt, wispy, shaggy, choppy, curly,
side swept, the options are endless.
We went to Prema hair, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan
to see how it's done for both straight and curly hair.
- When someone with straight hair comes in for a fringe,
generally we'll want to blow dry all of the hair forward
to make sure that we don't have any partings in there.
Draw the hair to the center,
go ahead and cut and then soften that line in through there.
When someone has curly hair,
because the hair doesn't quite sit the same way,
I like to go through and cut each curl individually
to make sure that it's A, following the line
in through there but also shows movement as the curls move.
- [Narrator] But you don't have to go to a salon
to get fabulous bangs.
Lots of women prefer to do it themselves.
Carefully.
- Bangs.
(laughs)
- [Narrator] So why do women get bangs?
Well, let's ask them.
- My bangs are 100% a part of my identity.
- I just kind of wanted this whole new look
for a new chapter.
- Sometimes I just like to switch it up.
- It's kind of cliche but I actually went to Paris
and a lot of girls had them and they just looked so good.
- I like the way that they frame my face.
I feel like I like myself with them more.
- I grew them out once and I absolutely hated it
(laughs) and never did it again.
- It was the first time my haircut really felt like me
because it wasn't my mom picking my hairstyle.
- For the first couple of days
it might want to live like this.
After a week or so, that fringe will start to settle in
to it's new position and make your life a whole lot easier.
- [Narrator] Bangs may look effortless
but maintaining them is anything but.
- Bangs are super high-maintenance.
It's easy to put them in your hair but once they're there,
it's a commitment for sure.
- I straighten them every day with a straightener.
- The day's just split up between pulling out the comb
and brushing them back down.
- When it's really windy out and the wind's hitting you
in both directions, and then it goes up.
And then you're like, no, that's not how I look, I promise.
- [Narrator] In fact, they can be so high-maintenance
they make some women swear off fringe forever.
- I actually am trying to grow out my bangs right now.
- The one reason why I hated them
was because it was just like an extra step in the morning.
- I had bangs as a baby because in the 90s
that's just normal.
Do you see this?
Look how cute I was.
I don't know what happened.
- People usually ask me, oh why, I loved when you had bangs.
I'm like, you loved me with bangs but you wouldn't love
having them yourself, that's pretty much what it is.
It's just too much work.
- [Narrator] But there are shortcuts.
Like these clip in bangs which don't require the months
it takes to grow them back out.
Bangs have been around for centuries,
representing some of the most iconic
style moments of all time.
They may be a lot of work but one thing is pretty certain,
they're never going out of style.
- I don't know, my face was way too round for them.
And then after awhile I'd wear them on the side like that.
Like, you can't really see that.
But like, they wouldn't fully cover my head.
And another thing, is when you're growing them out, like,
some of these pictures I have,
this is a picture of me ... whoops.