The last year has been a particularly strong one for hair color experimentation. Pink was the hue of 2020, as evidenced by the various rosy shades that popped up on celebrities like Demi Lovato, Ciara, and Kate Hudson. With 2021 came an update to the '80s mullet, this one reimagined in dueling hues and sometimes with rainbow bangs. Now, the latest hair-color trend on our social media feeds comes from wig lovers who put their games down, flip it, and reverse it with inverted ombré dye jobs.
Reverse ombrés are exactly what they sound like: They start out at the root with a light color that transitions into a darker hue as you travel the length of the hair. While reverse ombrés aren't exactly new, we have seen quite a few stylists customizing wigs with this technique as of late. Bobs and super-long units alike are getting the treatment.
These wigs often have a platinum blonde or light pastel color at the roots and a bright shade at the ends. In April, Cardi B debuted her take on the trend with a lace unit that fades beautifully from a light gray to a turquoise hue and then a deeper cobalt blue.
If the Candyland colors aren't your thing, a reverse ombré also looks cute in neutral hues. Atlanta-based hairstylist Tevin Washington constructed this sleek, middle part wig below, which starts with a light-but-not-quite-platinum blonde at the roots then fades to black at the ends. His nickname for the trend is "sunset ombré," because just like the natural phenomena, "the colors below are normally darker than the ones above," he explains to Allure.
He also created and colored a gorgeous rosy reverse ombré on SZA in March, one of his favorite looks to date. He shares that the singer was one of his first celebrity clients to try the trend. "For this look, we were going for something bright and fun," he tells Allure, noting that he drew inspiration for the hue from an actual fuchsia plant. "We wanted something ethereal — almost futuristic."
To dye the frontal wig, he started with the watercolor method, which hairstylist Tamika Gibson says is the "fastest coloring technique using boiling water and hair color." It has gained a lot of popularity because it lets you dye a wig in minutes, and the process is fairly simple.
First, you add boiling hot water to a sizable bucket, which should be large enough to move and swirl the wig in the water. Then, you mix in your dyes. Finally, "soak the wig in [the solution], which results in saturating the wig throughout with its new color," she explains. This trick works best for lighter-colored (typically blonde) wigs, though it does fade faster. Gibson shares that adding a pinch of sea salt to the water seems to help the color last longer.
Since Washington was creating an ombré, he used the watercolor method more than once. To create the gorgeous baby pink at the base, he mixed the Manic Panic Semi-Permanent Dye in Cotton Candy Pink into his bucket filled with hot water. He submerged the wig until it was the light pink shade he was looking for.
Then, in a separate bucket, he prepared his second colored water mixture with the Manic Panic dye in Hot Hot Pink. For that stunning fuchsia shade, he only dipped the tips of the wig into the bucket. If you want to create something similar using this method at home, "do not submerge the entire wig," he emphasizes. Make sure to focus on the part of the hair you want to color. He finished off the dye job by hand-painting the wig using a coloring brush and the Hot Hot Pink shade to make the ombré look seamless.
Another take on the trend we love comes from wigologist Paradise Green, who took inspiration from one of the greatest holiday movies of all time (and her personal favorite), The Grinch, to create the green fantasy unit you see below. Similar to Washington, she employed the watercolor method after toning a blonde wig with the Clairol Professional Shimmer Lights Shampoo. It took her 20 minutes to dye her unit using Kiss Titanium Semi-Permanent dyes. First, she added a neon shade called Lime Light in her bucket about halfway down the length of the hair, leaving the roots the existing bright platinum. For the rest of the ombré, she mixed Hunter Green with Jet Black to darken it up.
As for styling, it's clear she was feeling pretty nostalgic, tying two small ponytails with at least three shades of green bubbles.
Sophie Onabanjo of Rawrrr Colours, which sells custom-colored bundles and wigs, got inspiration from hairstylist Dionte Gray, known as arrogant_tae123, for this yellow wig that's brighter than Tweety Bird. Onabanjo used her hands rather than the watercolor method to make these yellow and orange colors blend into each other. She used more concentrated dyes at the end, leaving them on for longer, before traveling up the hair with a watered-down version of the dye to get the lighter shades.
Onabanjo also created the creamsicle-colored wig below. The seamless way the blonde flows into the light orange and the bright pumpkin hue is absolutely beautiful. The perfectly-styled waves add the right amount of bounce and character to this tangerine ombré hair.
These wigologists are really showing off their artistry with these colorful remixes to the classic ombré that make playing with multiple hair dyes even more exciting. As the warmer days roll in, hair-color trends, like the reverse ombré, are perfect for those looking for a daring hair-color moment this spring and beyond.
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