Are hair piercings the new accessory?

Last season on the Spring/Summer 2016 runways, pretty hair accessories like gilded headbands and luxe bows were everywhere. This season, celebs are taking the trend in an edgier direction with hair piercings.

Just this week we were in awe of Shay Mitchell’s hairstyle at the Teen Choice Awards, which featured cool piercing-like rings down the back of her topknot. Suddenly we started spotting rock-chic hair accessories everywhere, from Ariana Grande to Cara Delevingne and Katy Perry.

The latest celeb to get on board is Kim Kardashian West, who showed off her hair piercings on Snapchat this morning. The man putting this trend on the beauty map is hairstylist Chris Appleton, who styled the pierced looks for Kim, Ariana, Katy and Shay. To get the look he simply weaves and loops silver rings, spikes, cuffs or pretty much anything throughout the hair to create the illusion of piercings.

With the rise of the trend, we’ve seen some pretty adventurous takes on this look. London-based braiding salon Keash Braids has incorporated the piercings into their styles, with an Instagram full of hair-hooping creativity. UK jewellery store Regal Rose (who ships to Australia) stocks a collection of piercing rings, bars and spikes to take your braids to the next level, too. Or you can just get creative with what you have at home like Suki Waterhouse did at Glastonbury earlier this year, and improvise with safety pins throughout your ‘do.

Image credits: Getty, @kimksnaps; @chrisappleton1; @regalrose; @keashbraids