Weirdest Fashion Trends - The weirdest fashion and beauty trends of 2011. Lady Gaga appeared on stage in a hair made entirely of raw meat last year, you would have been forgiven for thinking the fashion world couldn't get much weirder.
2011 was year that the rule book relating to hair colouring was thrown out the window. "One of the oddest trends for 2011 is the amount of celebrities who dyed their hair using such loud colours," says Darren Fowler, international creative director for the Clipso salon group. "Lady Gaga went green, Nicki Minaj dipped dyed her hair in rainbow shades, and even Jessie J showcased a new purple wig on several occasions. This is a fun look to experiment with on an ad hoc basis, but I would keep it as that!"
We'd hate to think what Peta make of these. 2011 saw Californian manicurist Terri Silacci hit the headlines thanks to her £200 snakeskin pedicures. Terri, who uses discarded snakeskins, cuts the skin to measure before fixing the skin to the nail with a long-lasting gel. Her motto? 'One snake's trash is a toenail's pleasure.
With the recent glut of reality shows, it's no surprise that some have spawned certain trends. 'I'm so over the Scousebrow,' says Chase Aston at the Body Shop. 'This androgynous, bold yet feminine brow dominated the runways, and was perfectly gorgeous and chic when applied tastefully, but too hard, too harsh and too theatrical when overdrawn and teamed with way too much make-up. I think this trend is totally overrated and will not catch on down south!'
If you're not one for high-maintenance lipsticks of super-sticky glosses, you're probably best avoiding this next trend. 2011 saw lip art replace lipstick, with Violent Lips and the less-scarily named Glitzy Lips being just two companies jumping on the bandwagon. Violent Lips created a range of temporary lip tattoos, while Glitzy Lips created the significantly more high-maintenance lip foils.
Brazilians and Hollywoods are so last year: 2011 was all about bringing a bit of bling to your nether regions courtesy of the vajazzle. The craze, unsurprisingly, originated in Essex, with glamour girl Amy Childs offering to jazz up the private parts of those stepping through the door of her spa, whilst Mark Wright also got in on the act by helping to launch the official TOWIE vajazzle kit.
Chase Aston, international make-up artist at the Body Shop, lists unusual eyeliner shapes as his weirdest trend of 2011. 'It's got to be the mad, bad, edgy and conceptual liquid liner shapes that we saw this season: graphic and linear, wiggly and squiggly, messy and smudged, totally fabulous on the runway, perfect for glossy editorial fashion spreads, but totally unwearable and just a little too try-hard for real life!'
While fish pedicures were once the preserve of gap year students who'd stumbled across them in places such as Thailand, most British cities are now home to at least one spa boasting a tank of garra rufa fish just waiting get their teeth into your hard skin. While there were the inevitable concerns about hygiene, pedicure queen Margaret Dabbs set the standard with her stunningly luxurious Sole Spa at Liberty, where her 15-minute Fish Therapy sessions went down a storm.
Milk, bread and teabags are no longer the only things on offer at the nation's supermarkets: 2011 saw Tesco introduce their Your Beauty spas at branches across the UK, and It's not just the supermarkets getting in on the pampering act: Superdrug now offer Botox and IPL treatments, and Boots plan to roll their own spas if their first in-house Champneys spa at the Milton Keynes branch proves to be successful.
A popular treatment among celebrities such as Ashley Tisdale, the Brazilian hair-straightening treatment has continued to sky rocket in 2011, although there were also growing concerns regarding some of the chemicals involved. 'Brazilian straightening has garnered extensive local national and international coverage with the controversy of formaldehyde in the product, and the questions of safety for both the stylist and consumer,' points out trichologist Elizabeth Cunnane Phillips at Philip Kingsley. 'We've seen many people with scalp irritations visiting the salon, along with breakage ranging from minor to severe, as a result of these procedures. While creating manageability and sheen are certainly goals worth aiming for, it often does not require some of these types of procedures.'
Whether it was streaks of colour or feathers, 2011 saw a trend for extensions that went way beyond the norm. 'While adding extensions is not a new phenomenon it's one that's recently been incredibly popular with those wanting to add volume and length,' says Elizabeth Cunnane Phillips. 'My advice is always the same: less is more and where possible have some pieces that match your hair in both colour and texture and have your stylist add them for the big events.'
