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The Soft Jellyfish Haircut Is This Winter's Most Unexpected Trend

 

The edgy chop stole the show at the 2025 Grammys.

When predicting what beauty trends might take over the 2025 Grammy Awards, the jellyfish haircut was not top of mind... or really even on our radar. Jelly nails we could see. Maybe even jelly shoes? But no! These stars like to keep us on our toes, and this time that meant finding style inspiration in the archives of summer 2022.

At the Sunday, February 2 award show, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and Billie Eilish all appeared with brand-new haircuts that called an old-school trend to mind. The newest take on the traditional Japanese Hime or "princess" haircut, each of the musicians' Soft Jellyfish haircuts featured a dramatic (but not as dramatic as Jellyfish cuts of yore!) short layer gracing the front of their famous heads.

With some of the biggest stars in music giving the look their co-sign, it's bound to be one of this season's biggest trends. Ahead, everything to know about the look, and how it showed up on the red carpet.

What is a Jellyfish Haircut?

"The jellyfish haircut is an avant-garde, high-fashion look that is meant to grab your attention," Sarah Cunningham, owner and stylist at Uplift Haus Hair Studio, previously told Byrdie. Raven Hurtado, a stylist at Maxine Salon in Chicago, added that it can be best described as "a half-short, half-long mullet style."

Put simply, the style is a combination of a bob and long haircut. They're not-seamlessly blended, and that's the whole point. Both disconnected layers are supposed to show as separate entities.

Billie Eilish Accessorized Her Soft Jellyfish Cut With a Hat

Among the celebrities who underwent a chop for the event, Eilish's style was less of a surprise—if only because she gave a sneak preview days earlier while performing at the FIREAID Benefit Concert for wildfire relief in California. While she wore her black locks down for that event, this time around she decided to pull the longer layer back and accessorize with a Prada bucket hat (folded up into a sailor's hat) on the red carpet. Later, she switched into a Dodgers cap to perform "Birds of a Feather."

Too short to fit in her ponytail, the bob-adjacent layer fell at the front of her face, further softening the style. And though we don't know the exact stylist behind it, we do know she got it cut at Salon Benjamin if you're looking for an expert recreation.

Miley Cyrus' Rocker-Chic Soft Jellyfish Cut

The next person to appear on the red carpet with the cut was Miley Cyrus. Her long, caramel-brown locks featured a short layer that stopped right at her chin. If the long layer wasn't there, she'd have the very cutest bob—you don't have to squint hard to see it—made even sweeter by the wispy bangs falling across her forehead.

But, thanks to her longtime hairstylist Bob Recine, the long layer was there. That's the whole point here, right? The rest of her highlighted strands were kept long and straight, falling down her leather halter gown and stopping at her ribcage.

The Soft Jellyfish Cut Was Present During Charli XCX's Performance

Though Ms. XCX herself didn't opt for the cut (wouldn't that be a story?) one of her many bratty backup dancers did. During her already-much-discussed and immediately iconic performance of "360" and "Guess (Remix)," she brought out a gaggle of dancers, a couple of whom certainly had a soft jelly situation going on. Please pay close attention to the polka dot bra-clad star to the right of Richie Shazam in the above photo.

The best part about it? You could see the movement of the cut as they danced their heart out and the lingerie cannons went wild.

Lady Gaga's Soft Jellyfish Cut Played Nicely With Her New Dark Hair Color

And then there was Gaga, the master of Mayhem. For her first major appearance after announcing her new album (and the fresh hair color that's tagging along for this musical era), she went medieval-chic on the red carpet in a high-necked black Samuel Lewis gown.

Instead of the long, choppy fringe that she wore to premiere the shade last week, these bangs were micro. Likewise, hairstylist Frederic Aspiras traded her long Dakota Johnson-esque layers for a slick, shiny sheet of black hair that hung to the bottom of her corseted bodice. Up top, the layer that solidified the cut as part of the Jellyfish school accentuated her cheekbones, curving inward in line with them like some expertly applied contour.

We might not have been ready for this jelly, but we can appreciate it. A trend is its best when each participant rocks it in their own way, and these talented divas more than delivered.