The Little Mermaid Would Have Loved These Runway ‘Dos

To be fair, Valentino's spring 2015 collection wasn't actually inspired by mermaids. Instead, hairstylist Guido Palau explains, this season's muse was an American girl who is in Italy for finishing school to learn about culture and the arts. Along the way, she's apparently picked up a penchant for translucent chiffons, coral-reef and starfish motifs, gladiator sandals, and peekaboo cutouts — all par for the course, if you ask us.

Topping off her stylish update is (naturally) a new approach to hair. "It's almost like she's been in the sun for the first time," Guido says. "There's a real softness to conjure up the spirit of the summer, with waves and a center part that hangs slightly over the ears." To achieve a soft, elongated curl, he sprayed Redken Fashion Waves sea-salt mist into dry hair until it was damp, and then rough-dried. "After, we went over select pieces with an iron to break it up and enhance the curls, but then added Wind Blown texture spray to make it deconstructed and beachy." On the short-haired girls, there was minimal curl, but more of a separated, piece-y effect (try a texture clay for a similar feel). If you already have curly hair, just spritz salt spray all over dry strands, and a good diffuser attachment should easily do the trick.

For even more of a mermaid vibe, Guido added "beautiful tiaras with seashell details" to the backs of the heads. "[The designers] Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli have such a great idea of beauty for their woman, so they just have a way of coming up with all the things she'd want. We do a lot of accessories for this show," he says. His team wrapped hair around much of the tiara for a rope-like effect, so that it seemed more like an extension of the look instead of a standalone piece.

Now, if only we had the patience to wait until spring 2015 to buy these baubles for ourselves...well, hopefully Zara will come up with a solution. Because, we want to be "part of that world," like, now.