By India Espy-Jones ·Updated February 2, 2026 /> Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Last night, Grammy-nominated presenter Teyana Taylor was running fashionably late to the 68th annual Grammy Awards red carpet—but for good reason. For one, her hairstylist Nikki Nelms says she was styling an entirely different hair look than what we saw at the show.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 01: (FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Teyana Taylor attends the 68th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

“We actually started out going in a whole other direction,” she tells ESSENCE. “But [we] redirected and did this look minutes before the carpet.” It’s also detour from some of her most recent looks, like her pixie tails at Schiaparelli Couture and mullet pixie at the Pre-Golden Globes Party. 

Instead of referencing her previous looks, Nelms gave Taylor a slicked, face-framing sculpt with flipped ends. “For a sleek look like this, it’s all about the hold,” she says, using a brush to smooth every strand with OGX’s Touchable Hold Gel and Flexible Hold Spray one layer at a time. “Once we had the smoothness we were looking