There are two days of the year with the utmost importance to the millennials among us.
First: April 25. A day with weather so perfect, all you need is a light jacket.
The second is today. What day is it? It’s October 3.
This, of course, is the unofficial Mean Girls holiday. It’s the day when Aaron Samuels asks Cady Heron for the date during the middle of Calculus. (It was October 3, in case that wasn’t clear).
While the cinematic masterpiece (with a real bad musical remake released earlier this year) offers no shortage of quotable moments—“Get in loser, we’re going shopping!”; “Boo, you whore;” “She doesn’t even go here!;” “You go Glen Coco!;”; “Brutus was just as cute as Caesar;” and, “It’s like I have ESPN or something” to merely name a few—there is one so perfect, it comes to mind each time I see someone with a head of perfectly coiffed hair.
That pivotal line: “Your hair looks sexy pushed back.”
For those who have somehow avoided a cultish adoration of this cinematic masterpiece (but for appreciated and unknown reasons has made it this far into the story), this line comes at the turning point of the film. Cady, our heroine (played by peak Lindsay Lohan), is forced in classic and humiliating mean girl fashion by Queen Bee Regina George (perfectly portrayed in human form by Rachel McAdams) to compliment Aaron Samuels’ hair—the magical tresses of Cady’s crush, who is unfortunately Regina’s boyfriend. In Regina’s defense, Aaron Samuels’ hair does look sexy pushed back.
So, in honor of Tina Fey’s impeccable addition to mid-aught culture, we present a collection of people whose hair, inarguably, looks sexy pushed back.
Congratulations to them and their hair stylists and a sincere thank you from us.
Christian Bale in American Psycho (2000)
Lionsgate
Tilda Swinton on September 3, 2024
Andreas Rentz/Getty
Antonio Banderas in Desperado (1995)
Sony Pictures
Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men (2007)
AMC
Hugh Grant in Notting Hill (1999)
Universal Pictures
Megan Rapinoe at the 2019 Women’s World Cup quarter-final on June 28, 2019
Franck Fife/Getty
John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (1997)
Paramount Pictures
Rodrigo Santoro in Love Actually (2003)
Universal
David Beckham on July 16, 2005
Warren Wimmer/Getty
Zendaya on December 5, 2021
Gareth Cattermole/Getty
Kit Harington in Game of Thrones (2011)
HBO
Michael Douglas in Wall Street (1987)
20th Century Fox
Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic (1997)
Paramount Pictures
Simu Liu on November 9, 2022
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Colin Farrell in October 2010
Jon Kopaloff/Getty
Jack Nicholson in Chinatown (1974)
Paramount Pictures
Joe Keery in Stranger Things (2016)
Netflix
Jake Gyllenhaal on May 24, 2022
Gareth Cattermole/Getty
Neymar on January 18, 2018
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley on December 2, 2013
John Phillips/Getty
Kristen Stewart on March 12, 2024
MediaPunch/Bauer-Griffin/Getty
Odell Beckham Jr on Apr 26, 2016
AP
Elvis Presley on March 24, 1958
Bettmann/Getty
Robert Pattinson in Twilight (2008)
Summit Entertainment
Gaston in Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Disney
Steven Yeun on March 7, 2021
Rich Fury/Getty
Harry Styles on September 5, 2022
Tiziana Fabi/Getty
Heath Ledger on September 11, 2007
Patrick McMullan/Getty
Benjamin Bratt on October 13, 1998
Penske Media/Getty
Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear (1991)
Universal Pictures
Diego Luna on December 10, 2016
Charley Gallay/Getty
Henry Cavill in Man of Steel (2013) and Christopher Reeves in Superman (1978)
Warner Bros.
Dev Patel on September 29, 2018
Ennio Leanza/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Jennifer Lopez on November 23, 2014
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty
Andy Garcia on October 6, 1987
Bonnie Schiffman Photography/Getty
Cindy Crawford on March 29, 2003 at the 65th Academy Awards
William Nation/Getty
Zayn Malik on November 23, 2014
Jason Merritt/Getty
Joan Smalls on March 4, 2018
Jon Kopaloff/Getty
John Travolta in Pulp Fiction (1994)
Miramax
Charlie Hunnam in Sons of Anarchy (2014)
AMC
Tom Hardy in Legend (2015)
Studio Canal
