For Allure, by Devon Abelman.
Feeling rainbow hair fatigue? We have the perfect antidote. The latest hair color trend blowing up Instagram will ease your unicorn-trampled heart and speak to your inner dark goddess. Colorists on Instagram have been dying their clients’s hair a deep gray shade, calling it charcoal hair. The result is everything pastel hair is not. It’s smoky, sultry and isn’t inspired by a Starbucks drink.
Celebrities have been embracing the gray hair trend for years now. Earlier this week, Blac Chyna even slipped on a lilac gray wig and totally slayed us. However, this is the first time we’ve spotted this ashy shade. It’s not quite black, and it’s not quite silver, but it also has a hint of blue. Maryland-based colorist Maayan Birnstein tells Allure, “The balance between blue and grey is really key.” And to make the color look its best, “The hair needs to have no orange remaining in it,” she adds. To make sure this happens, Birnstein recommends asking your colorist for a bleach and tone.
Birnstein uses Schwarzkopf Igora Royal Absolutes Silverwhite for charcoal hair, but many of the colorists on Instagram credit L.A.-based colorist Guy Tang's #mydentity hair dye for helping them achieve the smoldering hue. He literally makes a direct dye called charcoal. Sometimes colorists mix it with the metallic silver dye. We recommend locating a salon near you that stocks the dye if you want to get the look. Also, be sure to show your colorist some of these Instagram posts as reference. You can also scroll through #charcoalhair on Instagram for more inspiration. One thing is for sure, though, you can't get this color out of a box.
And if you can't resist having a bit of rainbow in your life, you can add a hidden ray of color underneath your hair, like Birnstein did in a collab with colorist Kasey O'Hara. O'Hara says she "was inspired by the opalescence of rainbow pastels with charcoal tones." If you do end up going for this look, she suggests washing your hair as little as possible. And when you do, be sure to use a cleansing conditioner or sulfate-free shampoo and cold water "for longevity."