Hair trends may come and go, but there's one thing that's never coming back - the perm.

At the Sydney Hair Expo on June 9, where thousands of hairdressers and stylists from across Australia gathered to inspect new trends and styles, there was a consensus that   the perm was still a no-go area for most fashionable women.

Instead current hairstyle trends are based on blunt styles from the 1970s and late 1980s.

"It's just going back in time, it's gone full circle," said Suzy Coe, a 34-year-old hairdresser from Singleton. "I see a real shift back to the late 1980s, but no perms - hopefully not anyway."

Rebecca Lathbridge, from Colac in Victoria, was one of many interstate hairdressers who travelled to Sydney for the opening of the expo yesterday. There was also a large contingent from New Zealand and Hong Kong.

"This is about finding inspiration. It's exciting to see the creation of new styles," Miss Lathbridge said.

The popularity of the Sydney Hair Expo has increased over the past few years, with more than 30,000 people expected to visit the event at Darling Harbour over the long weekend. Organisers are hoping the Sydney event will become the second-largest in the world, topped only by Britain. "We'd like to give the Brits a run for their money," said event manager Ann-Maree Mason.

She said people were eager to keep up with new hairstyles, even if they resembled popular styles from the past. "Because of the differences in colouring and cutting techniques, it feels as though you've seen it before, but not quite," she said. Ms Mason said the celebrity hairstyle most copied this year has been Victoria Beckham's blunt cut bob.