As a girl in Albany, Georgia, in the early 2000s, Jessica Cruel liked to while away her Saturdays people-watching, sharing gossip and having her hair styled at her local salon.

“You would go in at 10 and wouldn’t leave until 5,” said Cruel, editor-in-chief of Allure magazine.

Time was no object for the salon’s many regulars who hoped to achieve the undulant “do” known as the Marcel wave, an artfully constructed, high-polish style that has surfaced time and again since Josephine Baker popularized it in the early 1920s.

Widely adopted by Black women, the look was resurrected in the 1990s by a constellation of hip-hop stars, Missy Elliott, Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown notable among them. Now the Marcel has reared its glossy head once more — a look that, while labor intensive, seems on the cusp of mainstreaming.

“I’ve been noticing that there has been a resurgence of that traditional mousse, comb-and-clip style,” Cruel said, ascribing its return in part to an unabated fascination with ’90s trends and its renewed popularity on runways and red carpets. The style, invented in the 1870s by Francois Marcel Grateau, a Parisian who achieved it with hot curling tongs, can be the crowning touch on bias-cut dresses reminiscent of the ’20s and ’30s. It can simultaneously take the edge off some of the more aggressively tailored looks on the runways this year.

Interpretations vary from highly lacquered, head-hugging waves to looser versions that fan out at the chin or tumble toward the shoulders, the wave sometimes accented with kiss curls at the hairline. Marcel waves are generally serpentine and created with a heat iron. But the term is sometimes used interchangeably with finger waves, which usually refers to a softer, looser wave that can be molded by hand and set with a heat lamp or diffuser.

Zendaya, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and Alexa Demie of “Euphoria” have all embraced finger waves, showing them off on the red carpet. Halle Berry wore a softly cascading version at the Oscars, and Demi Lovato worked a short, wet-look Marcel at the pre-Grammy gala.

The Marcel’s elaborate formality can be part of the draw.

“When you see it, you know there is a technique to it,” said hairstylist Guido Palau, who has revisited Marcel waves more than once in recent years. “It’s like when you see a beautiful embroidered dress. You know that this is a craft, that talent and time were put into it.”

When Palau gave the Jazz Age look a Gothic twist on Marc Jacobs’ runway in 2016 — Lady Gaga memorably paraded it — he had to train his team to master its intricacies.

The look can seem subversive, he said, projecting an audacious femininity. It is a rule-breaker, flying in the face of the unfussy bed head and other low-maintenance styles that have dominated beauty culture of late.

The renewed popularity of Marcel waves reflects a notable aesthetic shift.

“We were so DIY for a while,” said Stephanie Bong, editorial director of Behind the Chair, a trade publication for salon professionals. “But we are exiting the fun, beachy-wave era and putting the heating iron back into stylists’ hands. The ‘done’ look is cool again.”

The style is most easily created on short wavy hair, but it can be adapted to varying textures, densities and lengths.

“It can give a relatively lived-in look or project a sleek, old Hollywood glamour,” Bong said.

Adriano Cattide, creative director at the Drawing Room, a popular salon in Manhattan, is more cautious.

“Medium to fine textured hair certainly can work, but short, naturally wavy hair definitely helps,” he said. “When the hair is too thick, the style becomes harder to pull off.”