Anne Hathaway’s 80s hair is sparking retro beauty revival says expert
Anne Hathaway’s 80s hair is sparking retro beauty revival says expert
Kathleen O'BoyleSat, September 26, 2026 at 9:00 AM UTC
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Anne Hathaway's 80s style has fans captivated -Credit:Warner Bros
Anne Hathaway is giving fans a new reason to look back at 1980s beauty with her look for her new thriller, The End of Oak Street.
The iconic actress stars alongside Ewan McGregor in the movie, which is a new sci-fi thriller set in 1982, and her distinctly retro appearance in the movie is getting attention as interest in the decade’s beauty trends continues to grow throughout social media trends.
New Google search analysis from Fresha, the AI-powered booking platform for beauty and wellness, using Glimpse, found that searches for “Anne Hathaway hair” have increased 65% year on year, reaching approximately 13,000 searches in the past month. This comes after Hathaway paid tribute to an 80s style icon, Dolly Parton.
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Interest in the movie has also picked up, with “Anne Hathaway The End of Oak Street” generating around 21,000 searches over the same period. The numbers come as searches for 80s beauty more broadly continue to rise. Searches for “80s hair” have increased 37% year on year, reaching approximately 162,000 searches in the past month, while searches for “80s makeup” have doubled, climbing 100% year on year to around 29,000 monthly searches.
Fresha’s analysis does not suggest that Hathaway or The End of Oak Street directly caused the wider increase in interest, but her latest on-screen transformation arrives at a time when beauty trends from the decade are clearly attracting renewed attention.
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In the film, Hathaway wears big, textured hair that fits with the suburban styling and nostalgic aesthetic of the 1982 setting. According to Danielle Louise, a beauty expert on Fresha, the appeal of 80s beauty today is less about completely recreating the decade and more about taking certain elements and making them work for a modern look.
“Anne Hathaway’s look in The End of Oak Street is a really good example of why 80s beauty is so recognisable. There’s volume, texture and a sense that the hair has actually been styled rather than being deliberately effortless. What’s interesting is that we’re seeing people search for these looks again at the same time that beauty has been moving away from the very polished, minimal aesthetic that dominated for years," Danielle says. "I don’t think most people are going to walk into a salon and ask to look exactly like they’ve stepped out of 1982. What they are taking from the decade is the volume, movement and personality.”
The 1980s were known for big hair, curls, perms, blow-dries and heavily styled looks, making the decade different from the sleek and understated hairstyles that have been popular in recent years. Searches for “80s makeup” have also doubled over the past year, according to Fresha’s analysis.
Louise said modern beauty fans are taking individual elements from the decade rather than attempting to recreate an entire 1980s makeup look. “The modern interpretation is much less about recreating every part of an 80s face at once. Blush is probably one of the easiest ways we’re seeing that influence come through. Instead of keeping it very subtle and concentrated on the cheeks, people are becoming much more comfortable with visible colour and taking it higher towards the temples."
Hathaway stars alongside Ewan McGregor -Credit:Warner Bros
"The same applies to eye makeup. You can use blue, purple or another brighter shade without recreating a full 1980s look. It’s about taking one element and making that the focus," she said.
Hathaway’s transformation comes during a particularly visible year for the actress, but The End of Oak Street gives her one of her most overtly retro looks. The film follows a suburban family whose lives are thrown into chaos after a mysterious cosmic event transports their neighborhood into a prehistoric world. While dinosaurs are at the center of the film’s story, its 1982 setting also gives the movie a distinctly nostalgic visual style.
The End of Oak Street was released digitally on September 15 following its theatrical run and currently holds an 86% Tomatometer score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
As Louise explained, today’s 80s revival is less about copying the past exactly and more about adapting some of its most recognizable features. “Beauty trends tend to come back differently each time. The 80s revival we’re seeing now isn’t about copying old photographs exactly. It’s taking the fun parts of that decade, particularly bigger hair, stronger colour and more obvious styling, and making them work now.”
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
