This year, avoid the sales (you know you’ll never wear those sequinned hotpants anyway) and hit the hairdressers instead – 2010 is all about colour.
And finally
What won’t translate from the catwalk to real life? If you try Proenza Schouler’s green- and purple-dipped ends, Zac Posen’s green twists or Vivienne Westwood’s flames, we want to see pictures. And if you attempt Jeremy Scott’s Flinstones-inspired do, you’re a much braver woman than I am.
Red rules
Personally, I think s/s 2010 is going to be the season of the redhead. No, you won’t see them everywhere, but when you do, you’ll be filled with hair envy. The beautiful thick plaits at Nathan Jenden were spectacular executed in auburn, and the redheads at Matthew Williamson were eye-catching, too. Redken Creative Consultant Tracey Cunningham predicts reds will be ‘fierce and playful – a deep strawberry shade with lots of oomph. I coloured actress Ali Larter from a blonde to a redhead, and her shade is perfect for the coming season, a very glamorous, high-shine red.’
Nothing boring about brown
For spring, brunettes can take it one of two ways. Stay natural and just brighten your brown with fine to medium butterscotch-coloured highlights, or take a risk and hit the dye – I know what I’d do.
If you’ve been wary of colour in the past – and I’m with you if that ammonia smell makes you feel as if nothing good can come of that gloop being applied to your head – a new product from L’Oreal may just change your mind. Called INOA – Innovation No Ammonia – it’s the first odourless permanent hair colourant. It’s the biggest step forward in colouring for decades and hairstylist Daniel Galvin is already a fan. ‘We’re testing it in salons at the moment, but I think that by March next year it will be ubiquitous,’ he says. Why so good? Well, apart from the lack of smell, INOA uses an ‘oil delivery system’, which drives the colorant into the hair shaft without using ammonia, so there’s less damage to the scalp and hair. The result is a rich, vibrant colour without the dryness so often associated with colouring. For you and me, that means a lot more freedom to play with new shades without hair becoming dull and breaking off.
Come over to the dark side
When fashion’s most famous bleached blonde went dark, we knew it was the start of something. Agyness Deyn put the bright pixie crop on the style map two years ago, but just before the spring/summer shows she switched to a jet-black shade, ensuring stand-out from all the wannabes. And it was colour like this – bold, saturated – that impressed on the runways and that we’ll see on the streets next season.
Think about it
Going blonde isn’t something you should do on a whim. Josh and I talked a couple of times about what would suit my skin tone and my personality. We decided on ‘dirty blonde’ – darker roots with more bleached-out ends; my skin being just a touch too yellowy-pale to cope with a bright, all-over shade. The aim was something like Alexa’s hair here, but a lighter version.
Josh sectioned my hair and applied varying blonde shades as you would highlights. Then he picked up the remaining strands and, using a technique called ‘baliage’, targeted the ends, to achieve that sun-lightened effect. As the foils crashed into the sink, I felt the first stirrings of panic. In my head, as well as on it, I am a brunette. Could I cope with the change?
What I hadn’t anticipated, was how lightening your hair puts greater emphasis on your features. As the blowdry revealed rich honey shades around my face, my nose suddenly looked bigger, stronger than before. My jaw, my whole face, appeared wider. It was as though I was really looking at myself for the first time. Thankfully, l liked the fact that the blonde warmed up my skin, reducing the dark circles under my eyes. I’m not a blonde blonde, but I’m embracing my lighter side.
A blonde for everyone
Josh tells me there are three blonde options: Impact (all-over bright and clean, think Gwen Stefani or Lady Gaga); Impression (a more multi-tonal approach, this is where Hudson and Paltrow come in, or Sienna Miller) and Infusion (more of a golden highlight or ‘surfkissed’ effect, like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Olivia Palermo).
The issue in the past, was the quality of the product being used to bleach the hair, and whether your colourist was good enough to pinpoint exactly the right time was to wash it all off. Take it off too soon, and those unattractive yellow tones would leave your colour looking cheap. Too long, and you’ve got a bleach-fried mess. Wella’s innovation is in its lightening products. The new bleaches avoid those yellow results by working on the melanin in the hair (the substance which gives hair its colour) at various stages, so it’s easier to get the timing right.
First up, it’s time to lighten up
It’s ELLE’s job to be ahead of the beauty trends, so last week I headed to Real Hair in London’s Kensington to meet colourist Josh Wood. His clients include a few names you may just recognise: Gywneth Paltrow? Kate Hudson? Thought so. Now when ELLE shot Kate in New York for our December cover, the actress was undeniably gorgeous. But just a few weeks later, when the below picture arrived in my inbox, Kate’s hair had undergone a transformation – from a tonal blonde, with honeyed hues, to outright bright blonde bombshell. She looked incredible. What really caught my attention, though, was the fact that Kate’s hair was shiny. Blondes may have more fun, but usually they can’t beat the brunettes when it comes to healthy-looking lustre.
What’s the secret? Well, according to Josh, and the people he works with at Wella Professionals, a lot has changed when it comes to going blonde or even just blonder. In fact, they claim, it’s now possible for anyone to lighten up.
Only two per cent of the world’s population are naturally blonde, which could be why it’s the number one hair colour service requested in salons, but despite its popularity, there are some people who just can’t – or shouldn’t – go there.
I’m a born-and-bred brunette (my sister went a rather unfortunate brassy shade in her mid-teens when she attempted to embrace her inner blonde and thankfully I was able to learn from her mistakes), convinced that there is no shade of blonde on this earth that will suit me. Wella, it seems, disagrees.
Why now?
First, we can look to the collections. Blondes were out in force on the s/s 2010 catwalks. They ruled the runways at shows such as Chloé, Alexander Wang, Tommy Hilfiger and Balmain, with some backstage hairstylists taking the trend a step further, and bleaching models eyebrows (a trick that will alter your face more than a nose job ever could, trust me).
But it wasn’t all beyond the pale. Darker dye jobs were evident elsewhere, most notably at Jason Wu and Behanz Sarafpour. One thing’s for sure, every model needed a supply of intensive hair masks to get them through this season.
So what about off the catwalk? Well, colour is an easy way to make a dramatic change. Most of us are being more frugal when it comes to spending on clothes, so a new hairstyle is a more financially efficient way of staying on trend. And after taking our hair short (every single member of ELLE’s beauty team has gone for the chop this year) and adding fringes we’re now all trying to grow out, colour is the best option left to us.
Of course, the haircare companies are behind this, too. I’ve spent the past couple of months attending workshops and presentations where companies such as Wella, L’Oreal and Redken have been revealing details of exciting innovations in colouring – and caring for – hair, which inevitably mean that colour is being talked about across the industry.
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