Ombre hair color is the look of the year, making its way from stylish celebrity circles to become a cutting edge and contemporary mainstream trend.
If you’ve not seen it yet, don’t worry, there is still plenty of time to jump on board with this latest look.
Ombre is basically a fancy term for hair that is graduated in color, most commonly from brown at the roots to blonde at the tips.
The hair world borrowed the term ‘ombre’ from the French word meaning shaded or shading, which is a pretty accurate description of this style.
Some people have described ombre hair as ‘looking like you have massive regrowth’, whereas others prefer to see it as a new way to do sun-kissed hair – it really depends on the difference in color between the brown and blonde, and whether the colors blend together or stand out against each other.
The benefits of ombre hair color
Aside from being massively in trend right now, one of the best things about ombre hair is that it is super low-maintenance.
Think about it – you won’t have to get your roots touched up, or get your color redone – all you might need to do is add more blonde (or whichever color you’re doing this look with) to the ends of your hair as and when you get your hair trimmed.
It’s also super economical as once the ombre tone has been achieved, you can leave it 4-6 months before you color your hair again. Just make sure you use a deep conditioning treatment once a week to keep the ends of your hair in tip-top condition, as the bleach used to achieve the color will dry out hair and could cause damage if you don’t look after your locks properly.
How is the ombre look achieved?
Ombre is sometimes also referred to as ‘balayage’, which is a French freehand coloring technique where the dye is literally painted onto certain strands of the hair.
Some colorists will use a backing board and foils, others will separate layers of the hair using cotton wool and some will pull strands of the hair forward in front of the face before freehand painting the hair to create the ombre look.
What hair colors work with ombre color?
The real appeal in ombre locks is the fact that it can work on almost any cut, from a pixie crop right through to waist-length locks.
Alexa Chung is often credited with kick-starting the whole trend and she only has shoulder-length tresses, although ombre toned hair looks particularly good on long hair styled in curls or waves, as you can see the variations of color throughout the hair.
You can’t really see these variations if the hair is up and so this trend will work best if you style your hair down and loose around your shoulders.
Many, many celebs have been rocking the ombre look – Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig, Whitney Port, Lauren Conrad, Rachel Bilson, Jessica Biel and Ashlee Simpson to name a few. It seems that the A-list can’t get enough of this new trend and as we’ve seen ombre hair all over the catwalks too, it’s a look that is most definitely here to stay.
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