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Rihanna – The Hair Color Star Of The Decade

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Rihanna with bright red hair color in 2011

When it comes to hair color divas who now how to push the boundaries without ever loosing their cool, look no further than global superstar Rihanna

Rihanna, full name Robyn Rihanna Fenty, moved to the United States at the age of 16 from her home in Barbados to pursue a career in music – and what a career she has! With over 20 million album sales and 60 million single sales under her belt, there’s no doubt that Rihanna has won a place in the public’s heart for both her music and her fabulous sense of style.

From beach babe to global icon

Rihanna’s first single was ‘Pon de Replay’, released in 2005 from her debut album ‘Music of the Sun’. Since then, her music style as well as her personal sense of style has developed along with four more chart-topping albums. She’s received a number of musical awards and accolades, including four Grammy awards and eighteen billboard music awards, as well as a Brit award for Best International Female Solo Artist in 2011.

Music producer Evan Rogers, who was on holiday in Barbados, met Rihanna in December 2003 through a family friend. Rihanna auditioned for Rogers singing the Destiny’s Child song ‘Emotion’ and impressed him to the extent that he worked with her over the next year to record a four song demo album. In 2005, she was signed by Def Jam and relocated from Barbados to the United States.

Rihanna’s hair color history

Ten years ago, long blonde hair was the norm for most female pop stars, but one look at Rihanna and you know that she’s bucked that trend entirely. At the moment, she’s rocking a more natural hair style than we’re used to seeing on her; dark brown waves. As ever, she looks fabulous, but what other hair colors has Rihanna worn in the past?

Rihanna with dark brown long hair
Rihanna with black hair in a bob
Rihanna with short blonde hair
Rihanna with bright red hair

When she first burst onto the music scene six years ago, Rihanna had luscious, chestnut brown, long wavy locks, matched by a preppy teen sense of style. Her hair style stayed much the same until she released her second album, ‘A Girl Like Me’, which boasted a much more urban sound than her first album.

To match her new sound, Rihanna opted for a dark red-brown hair color with a thick, heavy fringe – but Rihanna being Rihanna, didn’t keep that for long.

In the video for the opening single of her third album, ‘Umbrella’, she showed off a new and much edgier hair color and style – a short, asymmetric, dark brown bob with a long side fringe and a much more pronounced sense of personal style. Preppy clothes were out and sexy, edgy clothes were firmly in.

Fast forward a few months and Rihanna’s hair got even shorter – the bob was gone and a short, Halle Berry-esque style was in to match the rocky sound of her new single, ‘Disturbia’.

In 2009, she released a new album with a new sound and a variety of new hair colors and styles to boot, including dark hair, short at the back with a long fringe with platinum blonde highlights, blonde hair with a long fringe, shaved short at the back and a blonde perm.

Her personal sense of style got even edgier and she was regularly seen rocking clothes with shoulder pads, unusual zips and buckles and enormously high heels.

Over the last year, Rihanna has had more hair colors than you can count, but for a large portion of the year she was rocking a bright red hair color in a variety of styles, including a perm, straight and sleek and shoulder length and bouncy.

More recently, it seems like Rihanna wants to give her hair a bit of a rest and so has reverted to what we can only assume to be her natural hair color, a stunning chocolate brown. Worry not though hair color fans, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before this master of reinvention will surprise us with her next hair color choice – and that’s one of the many reasons we love her!

Pink Hair – Go Wild!

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Woman with pink hair color with black bow

Pink is one of those hair colors that has always been associated with a slightly edgier sense of style, but that seems to be changing.

Over the last few years, pink hair has edged its way into the mainstream and has been seen on all sorts of celebrity heads, from music stars Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne and Pink, to actresses Rachel McAdams and Scarlett Johansson.

The trouble is, for celebrities pink hair is easy to work – they have the hairdressers and stylists to ensure that their hair looks perfect at all times. However, us mere mortals don’t have access to round-the-clock stylists, so we need to be a little more careful with our color choices.

Will pink work for my hair?

Woman with bright pink hair

Pink is a really fun color and if you’ve got naturally blonde hair you should find it relatively easy to get your hair to the shade you want, as your hair will naturally take on any color. However, if you have darker hair the pink will not show up without the help of some bleach to lighten your natural color, which is where things can get tricky.

In this case, I would advise talking to your salon Colorist to see the possibilities (and costs) to get your hair professionally lightened. Or, why not lighten just a few areas of your hair, such as around the fringe and face, and then color those lightened areas pink?

This means that you’re not lightening all of your hair so you don’t need to worry too much about your hair becoming dry and frizzy (or worse). However, if you do decide to take the full bleach route, be sure to follow up with a deep-conditioning treatment once a week.

As with any hair color, for pink to work you really need to tailor the shade to your skin tone and lifestyle. For a quick guide to the right pink for you, take a look below.

Katy Perry Pink Hair
Audrey Kitching pink hair
Lady Gaga with bright pink hair
Nicki Minaj with pink hair

Which pink shade will work for me?

Those with pale skin tones tend to have lighter hair, and they can definitely get away with some pink in their hair. However, you should be careful of neon pink if your skin has pink undertones, as you’ll end up looking like a raspberry if your skin gets flushed – instead, stick to a ‘barely there’ rose tint. Think Katy Perry for inspiration.

You might be better off coloring sections in your hair, such as under your fringe and a few panels in the underneath of your hair rather than the full head – simply because it can be a very strong look and difficult to pull it off.

Avril Lavigne worked pink particularly well last year when she had a few neon pink panels through her fringe, but if you’re desperate for a full head of pink hair, consider a wash-in, wash-out shade.

Those with darker skin tones don’t suit a gentler pink shade as much as paler-skinned individuals. That being said, if you’ve got olive or dark skin, you could be lucky enough to get away with a neon pink tone – as long as your hair is dark brown, brown or black.

Unfortunately for you red-headed ladies, pink will not work for you as it will clash with your gorgeous natural color.

Top Pink Hair Color Products

If you are looking for a pink hair dye, here are our pick of the bunch:

1. Manic Panic – Cotton Candy Pink
2. L’Oreal Paris Color Rays Highlights – Fuschia Flash
3. Splat – Pink Fetish
4. Special Effects – Atomic Pink
5. Punky – Flamingo Pink

Ultimately, pink hair can work for you as long as you are confident in your style and your look – so if you want to go for it, give pink a blast!