Sabrina Carpenter’s New Hairstyle Makeover Is the Nostalgic Look We Didn’t Know We Needed

There’s no telling why Sabrina Carpenter brought back her old hair look, but we do know why she got rid of it to begin with. The origin story of her quintessential hairstyle is how many women have ended up with bangs at one point or another: heartbreak. In June 2024, Carpenter revealed to Vanity Fair that her motivation behind the chop came “’cause someone broke my heart and I was just like, ‘I have to do something.'” By that September, when she was heading out on her “Short ‘n Sweet” tour, everyone wanted in on her hair secrets.

While she has let us in on her glam secrets before — Sabrina Carpenter and Renée Rapp’s lipstick hack is a makeup game-changer — the “Juno” singer wasn’t too quick to reveal her hair routine. It became a running rumor that the only way she could get her hair so perfectly voluminous, colored, and curled was by wearing a wig or pounds of extensions. The “Girl Meets World” alum played into the bit perfectly, too. “I will not confirm or deny,” she said to TIME Magazine in October 2024. “Yeah… I don’t even know what a wig is, but I also don’t know what not a wig is.”

While the star prefers the tongue-in-cheek route, we had an expert reveal what to ask for to achieve Sabrina Carpenter’s cut and color last summer. Her hairstylist, Scott King, has also let fans in on his secrets. “Performance hair is totally different because it needs to withstand the elements. … I love how healthy these products make her hair look and feel,” he remarked to Entertainment Tonight in April 2024. He then went into detail about the process of washing her hair, adding detangler and sea salt spray, and brushing through it with volumizing and texturizing finishing sprays. Only then is she ready to hit the stage (that is, if she’s not wearing a wig).