In November, we made the bold declaration that Blake Lively had just worn her best hairstyle ever. It was a strong statement to make about the actress who has maintained consistently high levels of hair perfection since we first girl-crushed on her circa Gossip Girl's debut. But oh, that ethereal, nature-inspired braid by stylist Rod Ortega—its levels of intricacy and creativity stirred the very depths of our beauty-loving souls.
Yet here we are mere months later pondering whether we should recant that statement, because Ortega may have just one-upped himself. Again. For last night's amfAR gala in New York City, he invented yet another totally new take on a braid. From one side, the asymmetrical hairstyle involved Lively's go-to soft waves.
But as she turned, you got a glimpse that there was something very cool happening in back: a wind-around French braid (two, actually, but we'll get to that in the next shot). Look closely and you'll see that playing into the braid's undone, edgy texture, Ortega incorporated visible hairpins (a trend that provoked some Instagram backlash when Khloe Kardashian tried it recently). However, these match Lively's hair color so they're not too distracting a statement.
