INDstyle

Color Graduates

by Amanda Bedgood

Low maintenance hair color that's on trend

Low maintenance hair color that's on trend
By Amanda Bedgood

November 2012

In the world of hair color, there are few trends that are truly low maintenance. But a surge in the popularity of ombré hair is proof that versatile can be fashionable.

"Anyone can have an ombré hair color," says Nicole David of Salon NV.

The stylist, herself an ombré-colored blonde, started seeing a rise in requests for the grades of color about two years ago with clients asking for hair like Whitney Port. The fashion forward blonde of MTV fame has gone ombré as of late along with stars like Rachel Bilson and Jessica Biel.

"The thing about ombré hair that's so great, once you have it, if the darker color on top is close to your natural color it's very low maintenance," David says.

The key to perfectly done ombré hair is, strangely enough, in the comb.

"There's a technique of backcombing the hair to make the ends light," David says.

For ombré hair that's chic, the color should melt from one color to another from root to tip. And for color, it's anything goes.

"There's a lot of different variations on color. You have blondes and some more natural and some dramatic and then redheads. You can go with any color as long as you go from dark to medium to light color," David says.

Six months ago David started the ombré technique on client Ashley Arnold, who modeled her do for IND, and has been keeping it up ever since.

"It's very versatile," David says. "It's very low maintenance but also fashionable and that's rare."