By Allure Editors
Words that at one point or another described our ideal hair color: sun-kissed, rich, buttery. Now? Prismatic, electric, glow-in-the-dark.
Over the past year, the most popular hair trends have shifted from
natural to supernatural. More people on our Instagram feeds have some
variation of rainbow hair than chocolate, blonde, or red. And as 2017
goes on, the technicolor hues are getting more and more vibrant and more
combinations are being created every day. All have more descriptive and
weirder names than the next (Hello, ocean, denim, neon peach, and salmon sushi hair.)
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It's not an exaggeration to say that these riotous, glorious rainbow hair trends we're loving this year would not exist without Bleach London. And not just because many of the images you're about to see are creations of the East London salon. Opened in 2010 by Alex Brownsell and Sam Teasdale, Bleach is the birthplace of wild hair color as we know it today. Their training program is basically MIT for aspiring colorists. The singer (and color chameleon) Halsey is a regular. So is Florence Welch. And Sienna Miller. Thank you, Bleach London, for making our My Little Pony–hair dreams — and every other color fantasy — a reality.
Without further ado, here's four rainbow hair color trends that have been flooding our feeds this year.
Cotton-candy pink, rose gold, dusty lilac. Meet the gateway shades of the new hair-color spectrum. “They’re soft, they’re feminine, and they’ll fade to a nice beige,” says Guy Tang, a colorist at Salon Republic in West Hollywood. Until recently, salon colorists had to custom-create pastel shades. A technique often used at the Bleach London salon in London: mixing a vivid dye with a color-depositing conditioner to create more of a stained effect on the hair. But as demand has grown, so has innovation. New semipermanent dyes from L’Oréal, Redken, and Pravana deliver chalky shades right out of the tube, making the looks more fade-resistant and allowing colorists to get really, really creative with pastels. Case in point: opal balayage, holographic fades, and, well, you name it.
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“Green is huge at the moment. So are neons and orange,” says colorist Alex Brownsell, a cofounder of Bleach London. “It’s a bit like fashion, where the ’80s New Romantic trends are coming back.” But much like the bodysuits and bomber jackets that designer Alessandro Michele is reviving at Gucci, these vibrant hues have a 2017 twist. “Rather than a full head of green or blue, we’ll do an ‘underslice’ of rebellious color,” says Brownsell, describing a technique where only the bottom layers are dyed. “You can go to work or school with your peacock streaks because they’re a secret.”
It's not an exaggeration to say that these riotous, glorious rainbow hair trends we're loving this year would not exist without Bleach London. And not just because many of the images you're about to see are creations of the East London salon. Opened in 2010 by Alex Brownsell and Sam Teasdale, Bleach is the birthplace of wild hair color as we know it today. Their training program is basically MIT for aspiring colorists. The singer (and color chameleon) Halsey is a regular. So is Florence Welch. And Sienna Miller. Thank you, Bleach London, for making our My Little Pony–hair dreams — and every other color fantasy — a reality.
Without further ado, here's four rainbow hair color trends that have been flooding our feeds this year.
Pastels
[post_ads_2]Cotton-candy pink, rose gold, dusty lilac. Meet the gateway shades of the new hair-color spectrum. “They’re soft, they’re feminine, and they’ll fade to a nice beige,” says Guy Tang, a colorist at Salon Republic in West Hollywood. Until recently, salon colorists had to custom-create pastel shades. A technique often used at the Bleach London salon in London: mixing a vivid dye with a color-depositing conditioner to create more of a stained effect on the hair. But as demand has grown, so has innovation. New semipermanent dyes from L’Oréal, Redken, and Pravana deliver chalky shades right out of the tube, making the looks more fade-resistant and allowing colorists to get really, really creative with pastels. Case in point: opal balayage, holographic fades, and, well, you name it.
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Brights
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“Green is huge at the moment. So are neons and orange,” says colorist Alex Brownsell, a cofounder of Bleach London. “It’s a bit like fashion, where the ’80s New Romantic trends are coming back.” But much like the bodysuits and bomber jackets that designer Alessandro Michele is reviving at Gucci, these vibrant hues have a 2017 twist. “Rather than a full head of green or blue, we’ll do an ‘underslice’ of rebellious color,” says Brownsell, describing a technique where only the bottom layers are dyed. “You can go to work or school with your peacock streaks because they’re a secret.”
Stenciling
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For the truly fearless, there’s the option of pairing an edgy cut with artistic color. Consider a camouflage-print buzz cut, a cluster of clouds floating across a shimmering blue lob, a leopard printed pixie, or a checkerboard bob. “It’s quite technical,” Brownsell says (in perhaps the greatest hair-color understatement of the year). To create the looks, you can also use temporary hair makeup and gels (like Fun Sexy Hair Glow Getter Root Glitter Gel) and stencils (from a craft store). “The great thing about these is that there is so little commitment. At the end of the day, you can take the design off with a baby wipe,” says colorist James Corbett of the James Corbett Studio in New York City.
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For the truly fearless, there’s the option of pairing an edgy cut with artistic color. Consider a camouflage-print buzz cut, a cluster of clouds floating across a shimmering blue lob, a leopard printed pixie, or a checkerboard bob. “It’s quite technical,” Brownsell says (in perhaps the greatest hair-color understatement of the year). To create the looks, you can also use temporary hair makeup and gels (like Fun Sexy Hair Glow Getter Root Glitter Gel) and stencils (from a craft store). “The great thing about these is that there is so little commitment. At the end of the day, you can take the design off with a baby wipe,” says colorist James Corbett of the James Corbett Studio in New York City.
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Multicolor highlights
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“I loved the way pink and yellow looked together,” says Bleach stylist Tori Stewart, whose friend’s tropical fish tank inspired her to paint bright ribbons of color side by side. But colorists aren’t simply reimagining the shade spectrum; they’re also reinventing the size, shape, and placement of highlights. Who says streaks have to run top to bottom? Brownsell stacks blocks of color horizontally to create rainbow fades and paints slivers of “prism light-beam” highlights that run from ear to ear. (Imagine your hair meets Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.)
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