Taylor Swift’s Evermore French Braid Has Many Hidden Meanings

Taylor Swift just announced the release of a new studio album, her second one this year, and fans are wondering if she had been hinting at the surprise project for awhile now — right under our noses. Coming from the queen of hidden messages and Easter eggs, we certainly wouldn't put it past her.

On Thursday, Swift shared a photo, much like one she shared for the release of folklore in July. The singer is pictured from behind, with the back of her head as the focal point. For folklore, Swift's blonde hair was done up in two low, braided buns. For this new album, called evermore, her hair is styled in a long French braid.

This album art isn't the first time in recent history that Swift has sported a French braid. In October, when Swift virtually presented the CMT music award for Breakthrough Video of the Year to Gabby Barrett, she had her hair up in the same exact same style. For some artists, this may just seem like a coincidence, but for Swift, no detail is insignificant. Within an hour of posting the evermore album announcement, fans were already hot on the trail and looking to her hair for more clues. Before long, they were finding hidden messages all over the place.

In Swift’s song "seven" from folklore, there is a telltale lyric buried in the second verse. "Your braids make a pattern / Love you to the Moon and to Saturn," Swift sings. Braids themselves are a pattern, but fans think Swift is using different styles of braids as a pattern to announce new music. Also, one incredibly astute fan spotted an important detail in the braid: Swift is turning 31 in a few days, the mirror image of her favourite number 13, and also the numerical date of her birthday. If you look closely, there are 31 turns in her braid in the evermore album photo. This is quite a lot of little details, but luckily her fans know to leave no stone unturned when it comes to the artist's careful moves.

Swift also posted an evermore tracklist of 17 songs, including collaborations with Haim, Bon Iver, and The National, and also teased a music video for her new song "Willow. According to the teaser, Swift wears a French braid in the video as well. Perhaps there are even more hints and hidden messages woven into the song — we'll just have to wait until midnight (Eastern Time) to find out.