If you’re wearing a short hairstyle, or are considering one, this year’s hair color trends give you loads of options to choose from! Go bright and bold, or soft and sexy with dimensional color.

This years hair color trends for short hair deliver everything from edgy to classy sophistication… purely creative coloring!

When choosing a new hair color, you already know your natural coloring and skin tone matter but, the length of your hair changes the color equation too. Short hairstyles open up a huge variety of hair color options that fit “different strokes for different folks.” But, there are also certain hair color techniques that don’t work well at all with short hairstyles (think of the skunk like effect.) Here are few coloring techniques trending with short hairstyles now:

Subtle Blending of Highlights and Lowlights

Subtle, blended highlights or low-lights look classy and sophisticated on short hairstyles. They add a sense of dimension and reflection that really makes a shorter style shine. Find a hair color that is only a few shades lighter or darker than your natural hair color and ask your hair stylist for fine, thin streaks of color for this subtle effect.

Bold, chunky streaks also look great on short hair, but make sure your hair is not too layered or the color can look forced, thick and choppy. If you have a layered hairstyle that’s a bit longer, have thick straps of color applied only on the bottom layers so that they peek out through the upper layers.

Solid block colors look great on short hair.

Since short hairstyles look fresh and should be maintained with routine trims, you can dye your hair a bright red, strawberry blonde, or platinum blonde without having to worry so much about damage. If you keep your style freshly cut, bold blocks of color will look freshly dyed and even. Since many short styles are fun and trendy, you can use bright temporary colors for a drastic change that will eventually fade away.

Short hairstyles that are a little longer and graze the chin can handle two-tone colors just as gracefully as longer hair. You can dip your ends in fun colors or you could try the increasingly popular ombre hair color.

Your “regrowth” area will not be as long as most ombre styles, but the faded effect still looks just as pretty on short hair.

Overall, most short hairstyles will look great with many of the same coloring techniques used on longer to medium-length hair. But, with short hair you can wear more bold colors or try techniques that don’t typically work as well on longer hair styles. Old hair color gets cut off sooner on short hair, so it’s easier to maintain healthy hair.

Short hair styles allow for lots of fun with the new creative color trends showing up this season. Why not take a chance on a fun new look, if you aren’t happy with the results you are not far away from getting your natural color back.

Guest author Barb Quinn has been a professional hair stylist for over 30 years and has established herself as a nationally recognized hair designer, educator, and freelance writer.

Barb has been chosen by her peers to serve on the advisory panel of Cosmos C International the global hair stylist network. Thousands of women each day follow Barb’s hair styling wit and wisdom on her highly successful blogs Hairstyle Blog and Visual Makeover. In 2011 The Hairstyle Blog was selected as Top Beauty Blog by BeautySchool.com.