I vividly remember the horror with which I received the news that the side part was dead. At the beginning of TikTok's popularity in 2020 and 2021, Gen Z near-unanimously announced that side parts were for old people, that they looked "cheugy" (remember that word?), and that the middle part was the way to go. And while I love a middle part—particularly with long hair hanging loose on either side à la Cher in the 1970s—side parts are uniquely glamorous and dramatic, and to do away with them completely is to deprive oneself of a key way of enhancing your down 'do.
When I think of side parts, I don't think of the emo-inspired looks of the early aughts and 2010s, which had countless wearers flicking hair out of their faces or letting it swoop melodramatically in front of one eye. Instead, I think of the Old Hollywood glamour of the side part, which took off in the 1950s and 1960s as a defining characteristic of updos and down 'dos alike.
