... I give to you...
... eight lockdown locks...
... seven irregular choices...
... six movie dresses...
... five gold rings!..
... four sassy cats...
... three ballpoint pens...
... two in/appropriate characters...
... a little souvenir.
Throughout lockdown one of things a lot of people missed was the ability to go and get their hair cut. It's a silly thing given what we've all been going through, but it's been something which has made people feel like they can't even control their own appearance.
Personally I've been cutting my own hair for a good few years now. I never enjoyed sitting in the hairdressers, no matter how much I liked my stylist, no matter how nicely my hair was cut, I just didn't enjoy the experience. My last trip to a hairdressers just sealed the deal, as I was left sitting with sopping wet hair, which was running down my back as the stylist went to consult on another patron's hair colouring needs. I left the salon with a haircut I really liked, but with not only my top soaked, but with my trousers and underwear also. I was cold, wet and miffed to say the least.
So now I cut my own hair, and my mums, and big sisters too. The little one won't allow me to touch her after childhood hair cutting trauma from one sister and teenage fringe cutting trauma via the other (me). Which is fine by me, she does a good job on her own and always volunteers to straighten up the back of mine.
Quarantine has made everyone feel a little more free to do certain things themselves, including their hair cuts and colours. And it's probably the only time I could walk into salon and not feel judged for my at home haircutting, because everyone's doing it!
But people also took to going to extremes. Some giving themselves the big chop, others gave themselves the fringe they'd always wondered about, mullet/shag styles made a come back, a shaven head was also popular, and lots of people started reaching for the hair bleach to embrace the money piece, split dye or full head of crazy colours...
Fortunately the box of bleach I have in my room, and the crazy colours I dyed my hair in uni, are so old I'd probably just burn all my hair off if I tried to use them. It was tempting and finding myself watching Tik Tok compilations of quarantine hair transformations didn't help. Nor did certain YouTubers and Instagrammers.
Therefore on what is - should have been - New Years Day's post, I'm going to look at some of the hair trends from 2020, but mostly it's just an excuse to post some pretty, somewhat doable hair colours, and seeing it's now a new year, start taunting myself with possibilities for 2021.
I'm going to start with what is probably one of the easiest way to get started with crazy colours and that's the money piece.
A money piece is a technique where lighter, brighter highlights are placed in the front face framing portion of the hair, primarily while using the balayage technique. Balayage meaning "to sweep" or "to paint" in French, it is a method of highlighting the hair to give a more natural sun-kissed look compared to an ombré which is more uniform. The money piece was given the name because it's supposed to make the hair and dye job look expensive.
However as with most things in 2020, the money piece isn't quite what it appears to be. Instead of a natural, beautifully highlighted and expensive look, we've gone right back to the 1990's and chunky highlights ala Ginger Spice.
All fashion trends resurface, it's inevitable, and hopefully when they do they're improved upon. Personally, I really like the modern take on the chunky 90's highlights, and adding the bright colours or split dying the pieces, as above by Carlie Roe Hairstylist, can look really interesting and, when you're scared of it, will reduce the amount of bleaching and potential damage you can do.
I originally saw this colour combo on Alanna Durkovich, which was created by Chris Weber Hair, and appears to have chunkier streaks:
Durkovich's was the inspiration for Roe, and both are a combination of mustardy yellow and rosy pink, which is one I wouldn't have thought of, but is actually very pretty, and it just shows that during lockdown people were taking inspiration from other creators whether that was done in a salon or at home.
Another options that has become popular is incorporating the under layer of the hair like Brad Mondo did on Charli D'Amelio...
... this one really brings back the '90's for me.
willow.grace.hair
Another for those of us who aren't blessed with blonde hair, are scared of bleach, are too timid to dye all their hair, or don't want/aren't allowed too (for work as an example), might like the trend for hidden hair colours.
Now the image may look like a bad example, but I chose this beautiful dye job by willow.grace.hair
on makeup artist Jessica McKenzie because I think it's absolutely gorgeous and I have always been a sucker for peach hair (my favourite point in my pink hair phase was when it had washed out and turned peachy). However if you suspend disbelief for a second, and you take the peach colour to be Jessica's natural hair colour, what she has is a hidden rainbow.
This is where a section of hair is dyed, in this case in rainbow colours, but the layer is sandwiched between two of the natural hair colour (peach), thus the hidden colour will always be covered by the top layer. This means when the hair is down it's barely visible, but depending on how you part or move it, you'll either get just a glimpse of your chosen colour, or be able to show your wild side to the world.
Again, because you don't have to dye your whole head, and the section can be relatively small, hidden colours might be a good way to experiment without committing to an in your face colour straight away. Caitlin Ford's video probably has the best explanation of the sectioning I've seen if you're looking to try.
Caitlin Ford
Speaking of Caitlin Ford, she and her rainbow fringe are...
... I've been obsessed with Ford's signature look for over a year now and while I don't think I could pull it off, over lockdown it's certainly been tempting to try. Plus Ford is really willing and actively teaching her followers some of her techniques when it comes to rainbow hair, in fact sharing her technique for her rainbow bangs was one of the first videos she uploaded to YouTube. Which given it is her signature look, and a lot of people would be proprietary about it, I love that she's so willing to share.
I just, I love the way it looks and that she makes a point of bleaching out as minimal an amount of hair as she can, because why potentially damage more than you need too, especially when you can still gets a beautifully intense amount of colour without it?
That said, the reason I'm including it in todays list, other than my obsession, is that back in April 2020, not long into lockdown, Ford was included in a viral Tik Tok video created by Brad Mondo and featuring many other stylists and creators, for Mondo's hair centric take on the Pass the Brush Challenge. This challenge in its original state has a makeup brush passed from one creator to another, starting in their natural state with no makeup, covering the camera briefly, then reappearing fully made up before passing the brush to the next person, then the next, however in Mondo's incarnation this was done with hair tools.
Ford's hair in her section of the video makes me what three things, a fringe, rainbow bangs and to know how she styles her hair in the messy bun and flicky fringe because given I spend 90% of my time with my hair in a bun, I need to know how to make it look better!
Genuinely obsessed.
Really the perfect time to potentially ruin my hair with bleach would be before I give myself a hair cut. It would be sensible, if I ruined everything I just go a little shorter and if it worked I keep it a little longer. See, I can be logical.
Ironically this choice of hair colour comes from aka_Aislinn posting before and after images of her bleaching her roots in preparation for her next foray into rainbow colour:
But I really, really loved the pastel rainbow roots on Aislinn's hair as it had faded out. I don't even know how you could purposefully do a faded pastel rainbow root, and it would involve biting the bullet and going fully blonde... though you could go for a tradition or dark rainbow on dark hair, which would be cool.
Anyway, I thought her hair faded out really beautifully, so I looked for rainbow roots and pastel tips and of all the ones I found, I loved this one by Valerie Supczak the most because even though it was the tips of her models hair that were dyed and not the roots, it reminded me of Aislinn.
It would also be an easier open, would look gorgeous and for me, I've been talking about dying the tips of my hair since I was in high school!
Link || Valerie Supczak || Instagram
In terms of commitment, split dying your hair has to be high up on the list. You need to decide if you're going to bleach half your head, or your whole head, then you have to pick your colours and of course the most important part, sectioning your hair neatly and confidently.
Maybe ask a friend for help with that last part. No one wants an uneven split dye.
,
Split dying has become incredibly popular and I think that's because of how graphic two tone hair looks. The chrome and coral split by Miriam Ortega from Art on Hair being a really good example of how to use pastels, but black and blonde is a classic (iconic Cruella de Vil) and I'm loving black and red, black and pink, black and most colours, but some combinations keep coming through stronger:
I'm a sucker for pinks, purples and yellows, but you've got to agree, this has to be a great option if you're indecisive!
Link || Kayla Hadlington aka Greebogirl || Website || Instagram || Instagram 2 || Twitter || Big Cartel || Pinterest || YouTube
Link || Shuri || Instagram
The last split dye ties in conveniently with the next and that's pink, purple, borderline golden in place, ombrés.
In 2014 singer Lily Allen turned up to Glastonbury with pink and purple hair, which I will freely admit I was obsessed with. Then a few weeks later she was photographed with a faded out version:
Left: Lily Allen's Sunset Hair Is All The Beautiful Things by Maria Del Russo via Refinery29
Right: Lily Allen and the Softer Side of the Pastel Ombré Hair Equation by Sophie Schulte-Hillen via Vogue
This is just what dyes do and I don't know which I prefer. But what I do know is that some series hair envy was created.
Cut to 2020 and the every changing hair of Stella Cini, who I'm not sure has had a hair colour longer than a month since I started following her.
This purple, pink, orange, coral ombré moment, was inspired by the work of Guy Tang, another YouTube hairstylist, but is incredibly similar to Lily Allen's and hasn't helped to stop me obsessing over this particular colour combination.
While pink and purple is a relatively common pairing for hair dying, I think it's the orange sunset overtone within both that I find really different and attractive, as well as how they fade so kindly.
This is probably one of my favourite hair colour combinations ever.
Link || Lily Allen's Sunset Hair Is All The Beautiful Things by Maria Del Russo via Refinery29
Link || Lily Allen and the Softer Side of the Pastel Ombré Hair Equation by Sophie Schulte-Hillen via Vogue
Stella Cini
More Stella Cini, who is probably the main culprit for making me have itchy fingers for fancy hair colours.
Dying over faded out red - one of the hardest colours keep looking bright in the hair, but also one of the hardest to remove - followed by pink, Cini chose to dye over her faded ends with a bright blue rather than risk further damage by using colour removers or likely multiple rounds of bleaching. This left her with an ombré going from dark red down to blue, but needing to subsequently work to try and recondition her hair before attempting any kind of colour removal.
Cini, like many other channels, creates content around her frequent changes in hair colour, however this often leads to unintended content, primarily revolving around rescuing their damaged hair or the inevitable hair cuts that they giving themselves to remove it. And while she only had this colour for a month or so, I loved this colour combo, I think it was unique and one I wouldn't have thought of putting together, or looking this good.
Then again, Stella Cini is one of those girls who it doesn't matter what colour she applies to her hair, they inevitably look really good on her.
Stella Cini
This chameleon like quality is why Stella gets the last spot too, with her stupidly beautiful emerald green hair.
The green has become one Cini's most recognisable looks and has not only become heavily used within her on merchandising, but just prior to the New Year, she announced her first ever collaboration. Together with the brand, Silk or Lace, they creation of two hand dyed wigs, one in bubblegum pink, and the other in emerald green (though it is based on the first incarnation created by Cini, which was longer and has a bluer undertone), which is an incredible opportunity for the creator, but also another superb option for the bleach shy among us to try something new.
Link || Silk or Lace X Stella Cini || Emerald Wig || Bubblegum Wig
Over 2020 I've really enjoyed seeing how brave and adventurous people have been with their hair. A trend I dare say will continue, seeing numbers have gone up again and we're all back in lockdown at least until the end of January. If there was any time to experiment with your hair and not be scared about the consequences then it's now.
I am by no means saying go grab the scissors, or order in bleach, snip away and dye the hell out of your hair, but if you do, do your research, be careful and don't blame me for giving you ideas.
And if over the last ten months you've been able to embrace your greys, or your curls, learnt to cut and dye your own hair, or just enjoyed not having to wash and style it everyday because you're working from home, then maybe by this time next year you'll have bright green hair with a rainbow fringe.
Or maybe I will.
Happy New Year & Merry Christmas! Day nine tomorrow...
(Are we taking bets when I'll finish this year? Will I make it before the end of the month?)
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Listening: Devils Haircut - Beck
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