The 5 Hair Colors You'll See Everywhere This Fall

Going darker for fall is the equivalent of wearing florals during spring: not groundbreaking. That being said, there's no better time to try a deeper shade because there's less risk of fading. To keep the single-process color rich and shiny, use a heat-protectant primer like Bumble and bumble's Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Primer ($28; sephora.com) before reaching for the hot tools, which can lighten and dry out inky black hair. 

The supermodel's multi-tonal hair color falls directly in the middle of blonde and brunette. It's her dye job's in-betweenness that makes it a flattering shade for a number of skin tones, not to mention it mirror's the season's transitional weather. “Bronde hair is in-between brown and blonde. It fuses the two colors creating a sun-kissed end result,” Matrix SoColor Celebrity Colorist George Papanikolas previously told InStyle. “What makes this [bronde] universally flattering, is that you can adjust the tone to warm or cool depending on your skin tone, and still get the bronde effect." 

If you want a similar look, Papanikolas recommewnds asking your colorist for more delicate highlights at root that are spaced apart so that you can stretch your salon visits to every three to five months. He also says that a bronde shade works best on natural base colors that fall in the medium to light brown range, but can be made to work on dark blonde or black hair—it will just skew slightly lighter or darker. 

If you aren't ready to make a total color change, may we present to you a way of upgrading your base shade: ribbon highlights. "The goal with ribbon highlights is to brighten the face with the most beautifully flattering light," says LA-based celebrity colorist and Olaplex ambassador Chad Kenyon. "They're soft, ribbon-like, slightly-lighter locks of hair that I like to paint so that they appear almost out of nowhere." 

The pro says that to achieve the look ask for highlights that are balayaged, or non-brushed balayaged where the colorist's hands are used to paint on the color. When it comes to placement, a fresh cut is ideal, and your facial structure and features are considered when applying the lighter color to the hair. While the look is flattering for any base color, Kenyon says to keep the highlights one to two shades lighter than your all-over color for a natural finish. 

Usually, when your dark roots are one-inch or longer, it's a sign that you've been neglecting hitting up the salon for a root touch-up. However, this season letting your regrowth show is an intentional, on-trend look. "The difference between ‘grown out’ roots and an intentional ‘shadow’ is all in the color melt," says Kenyon. "A color melt placed directly at the root and melted just barely into the lighter area makes 'grown-out' look polished and sophisticated. It’s a shade of color between your root color and your highlights that marries dark with light." 

Although the difference between roots and your lighter shade is all about preference, Kenyon says that without some softening between the light and dark, anything that's more than three levels different can create a "tired" or "hard" look. He recommends preserving your color by regularly using an oil and nourishing mask, along with asking your colorist to treat strands with bond protector like Olaplex's when you're at the salon for a color melt touch-up. 

Following a running list of celebrities that went platinum this summer, Kim Kardashian's colorist Color Wow Ambassador Chris Appleton took her even lighter by giving the star a new silver white hair color at the beginning of September—and no, it's not a wig. If the her new shade is any indication, platinum is still going to be going strong throughout the season.  

If you're brave enough to go platinum this fall, Appleton recommends treating your strands with a daily leave-in treatment like Color Wow's Coconut Tonic Cocktail Bionic ($24; ulta.com) which targets common side-effects of color-processing such as dehydration, and rough, raised hair cuticles.