Derek Ridgers x Dazed Beauty 'Chelsea Girls'

Dazed Beauty writer Alex Peters asks whether the Chelsea haircut to make a comeback during lockdown?

Extreme times call for extreme looks. As we’ve seen across the worldwide lockdown, make-up and hair can act as an outlet, a canvas onto which we can express how we are feeling on the inside, something tangible that we can control when the world around us feels capricious. 

Delving into photographer Derek Ridgers archive, images depict this reverse mullet hair style popular during the 1980’s with female skinheads.

The Chelsea became popular in the late 70s, when the skinhead subculture was experiencing its second wave and taking cues from the punk scene. While the skinhead men stuck to the signature namesake haircut, the women in the scene, also known as ‘skinettes’ or ‘skin birds’, were a little more expressive with their style. Starting off with the same buzzcut as the boys, the girls then made variants on the look. The Chelsea involved shaving or cutting short the crown and back of the head but leaving a fringe and sometimes some hair on the sides of the head around the ear. A similar style, the Feathercut, saw hair buzzed at the crown, with a fringe left, long sides around the ears known as dog ears and a long mullet-shaped piece at the back. 

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Words: Alex Peters / Dazed Beauty.