Hair Color Trends You Are About to See Everywhere

1. Honey Tones

With a boost of intentional warmth, honey blonde or brunette hues bring in just the right amount of gold and orange tints into the hair. This look on Gigi Hadid shows how these hues manage to veer away from brassy to instead perfect that golden yellow glow. If you have a warm undertone, this shade will help make your skin tone look absolutely radiant. 

2. Cool Biscuit Brunette

With a bit more warmth than ash brown but not quite as much as honey-toned brunette hair, this unique shade offers the perfect middle ground for brown hair. Plus, it works great on just about every skin tone and undertone, and we love how effortless and natural it looks on Dakota Johnson.

3. Strawberry Blonde

As the summer months approach, Grand predicts "we will see red and burgundy hair colors transition into more natural-looking coppers and strawberry colors, which can command either a bohemian or more edgy feel to it, depending on what style and cut you are pairing it with." Here, Amandla Stenberg shows us just how elevated a strawberry blonde color can look with the right haircut. 

4. Copper

If you're looking for a bit more vibrance in your potential new red hair color, go beyond the trending strawberry blonde shade Amandla Stenberg is sporting above, and instead opt for a copper hue. This shade is a great go-to for those with fair skin tones like Sophie Turner, but it will look just as stunning on darker skin tones as well. 

5. Reverse Balayage

Reverse balayage is a great, low-commitment way for blondes to incorporate more depth into their hair color by adding in low lowlights and darker strands via the classic balayage technique—and this style on Lauren Conrad is the perfect example.   

"Reversed balayage is another great way to join the low-maintenance team," says Grand. "So many of us blondes ended up with roots down to our shoulders, so adding lowlights and darker shades to blend in the roots whilst still holding on to the blonde is a great solution."

6. Babylights

According to Grand, babylights (delicate white-blonde highlights), like these seen on Karlie Kloss, are a great way to add dimension and the illusion of HD color. She adds that these cool-toned highlights are a great way to amplify a light brown biscuit base or natural brunette hair. "You can simply add cool slices to create the dimension and mute some of the warmth without going into a high-maintenance routine," Grand says.

7. Rainbow Hues

Grand says that over the past year, she's seen a big uptick in bright, vibrant hues like pinks, violets, and even flashes of green and stark-white platinum blondes. "Shakira, Kim K., Taraji P. Henson, Kaia Gerber, Sarah Hyland, Hilary Duff, and Lady Gaga are some of the few that inspired us to add a dash of fun into the bleak 2020. None of those options are low maintenance though, so be mindful when venturing onto this fun path," she adds. 

8. Buttery Blonde

Reese Witherspoon shows us just how bomb it looks when a buttery blonde shade leans into yellow tones. This warm, natural-looking blonde hair color typically features a medium-toned base with an even mix of both warm and cool blonde highlights throughout. The result is a classic blonde that still feels bright and fresh. 

9. Face-Framing Highlights

OK, OK, we know that everything looks good on Beyoncé—but we promise that you can rock these face-framing highlights too. Sometimes referred to as a "money piece,” this look involves adding two distinct highlights to the front-most strands of the face. Framing the face with highlights like these creates an illuminating effect, similar to that of a ring light. 

10. Natural Ombré

Super stark ombré hairstyles may look a little bit dated at this point, but the ombré concept is still fully alive and well. These days, most are just sporting a more subtle version of the trend. Here, Cara Delevigne shows us a prime example of how most are wearing ombré in 2021: with a super smooth gradient from the roots all the way down to the ends. 

11. Ashy Undertones

Expert stylists say they're expecting cooler shades with ashy undertones to become more popular than warm tones overall, as they tend to grow out gracefully and reflect less light (lucky for us, since we’re obsessed with this look on Lily-Rose Depp!). Ashy undertones are also a top hairstyle contender if you have a cool undertone to your complexion. 

12. Simple Solids

Perhaps it's because box hair dye had a major moment throughout quarantine, but celebrity colorists are stylists are seeing a big move towards simple, solid colors like classic brunette shades and rich black hair. Easy to DIY at home, opting for a solid shade is a great way to sport something dramatically different while still keeping maintenance to a minimum. Here, Shay Mitchell shows us just why a classic is a classic as she looks sleek, polished, and ultra sophisticated with her dark hair. 

13. Rose Gold Balayage

If you feel inspired to try the pastel hair trend, that doesn't necessarily mean it has to totally overpower your overall look. Here on Debby Ryan, rose gold and a brown natural hair color coexist peacefully and beautifully with the pink color acting in some places more as a highlight than a dominant shade. If you're on the fence about jumping into the pastel hair pond, start here to see how you like it.  

14. Lived-in Roots

The truth is, this trend may have emerged simply because most of us opted out of root touch-ups. Instead, we decided to rock our dark hair with pride. No matter how the look started, embracing those "shadow roots" has most definitely emerged into a fully blown trend (which really isn’t a surprise, now that we’ve seen how amazing it looks on Margot Robbie here)—and we can't say we're mad about it.

15. Bronde

While many hair colors incorporate elements of both blonde and brown hair, bronde hair (like this style on Jennifer Lopez) is when the two shades are so evenly matched throughout the hair that it's hard to say whether it falls into one category or the other. If you do opt to try out bronde, it's easy to later decide to go blonder with blonde balayage or to add in reverse balayage highlights to darken it.

16. Skunk Hair

Not for the timid, skunk hair is a bold hair color trend that's created by using two starkly contrasting colors throughout the hair in some way, similar to the coloring of—you guessed it—a skunk. Feel free to be creative about how you use the two shades. You could opt to do a money piece like Dua Lipa has done here, or you might opt to create a super dark bottom section paired with a platinum top half (or vice versa). 

17. Platinum Gray 

Here, Winnie Harlow proves that the gray hair look is still going strong (and for good reason!). To give the color a little bit of edge, try opting for a bright shade of gray, something almost close to platinum. As this ultra-illuminating shade creates a stunningly stark contrast on dark skin tones, it's a great way to make a big statement without sporting a rainbow hue. Just be sure to have a purple conditioner handy to keep the color looking crisp. 

18. Dimensional Colored Braids

For those with natural hair, adding bright colors into a protective hairstyle like braids has been a fun way to switch things up for a long time now. However, the fresh spin we're loving this year (especially on Amandla Stenberg) is using a variety of different tones within the same color to create dimension and highlights as the color hair weaves in and out of each braid. 

19. Golden Curls

Jasmine Sanders = golden goddess goals. Whether you actually have a tropical vacay planned this year or you just want to forever look like you've just returned from one, these lightened, sun-kissed curls create the perfect summer lift for curly hair types. As this does involve processing your naturally fragile hair type, just be sure to take extra good care of your curly hair to ensure that it remains strong against breakage and that your curl pattern doesn't end up with added frizz. 

20. Subdued Brights

Typically, sporting a rainbow hair color involves first bleaching the hair, a process that takes time and can severely dehydrate your natural strands. If you don't want to commit to that or you're looking for a way to add a bright color to your locks at home (bleaching should always be left to the professionals), you might try one of the rainbow hair dyes that are specially formulated to work on dark hair colors. We're particularly fond of the LIME CRIME Unicorn Hair Full Coverage Color. As you can see here on Justine Skye, while the results won't be quite as vibrant as if the hair were bleached, a notable tint will still be left behind.

21. Chunky Highlights

Want to try something different than the subtle highlights that are oh-so-popular right now? Embrace a little 2000s nostalgia by sporting these trending chunky highlights à la Kristen Stewart. Falling in the same vein as skunk hair, but more evenly incorporated throughout, these large pieces of hair don't exactly blend in seamlessly with your natural color—but TBH, that's the whole point!

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