Vanessa Hudgens had her work cut out for her at tonight’s Billboard Music Awards. Not only did she put in major stage time as co-host, but she also served up multiple stellar beauty looks. Our favorite? A hairstyle that was at once surprising and totally true to the actress's free spirit persona: classic Hollywood waves, festooned with a crown of butterflies.
The look, created by hairstylist Chad Wood, not only makes Hudgens look like a boho version of Ann Blyth, but is something we want to dupe for ourselves this freewheeling summer. Its inspiration? None other than Zoë Kravitz’s latest shoot for Elle, which featured flowers and butterflies that hovered over Kravitz's locs. “Vanessa sent it to me and we were both inspired,” Wood tells us. “She really loved the original look [of the shoot] and she didn't want to change it up much. She also has a butterfly tattooed on her neck and her energy is so free, so it was all really perfect.”
Nailing such a hairstyle seems like it would require several painstaking steps. But as Wood reveals, it only took a few short to-dos. (The show doesn't have time for fussy costume changes, after all.) First, he added volume to her roots with Toni & Guy Dry Shampoo before curling hair with a T3 Whirl Trio Interchangeable Styling Wand using the 1-inch straight barrel. Then, he affixed butterflies sourced from a craft store to Hudgens' hair with bobby pins. Add in a few dance moves while getting ready (“She doesn't take getting ready too serious and it makes it more fun,” Wood says of the star) and you’ve got the perfect recipe for festival, pool party, or wedding-worthy hair.
Take it from a girl who made flower crowns a thing — butterfly crowns are about to be big.