'Expensive brunette' is the must-have hair trend this winter

Hair trends really do come and go faster than fashion these days. We’ve seen so many celebs jumping on the blonde bandwagon, including Kristen Stewart and Billie Eilish who went platinum blonde—but now a new trend is emerging called ‘Expensive Brunette’ and it’s seriously perfect for winter.

The name was likely coined because we’re seeing the trend emerge on true A-listers and the internet’s IT girls and refers to how ‘expensive’ and chic the color looks. 

The roots of this trend (pun intended) are being attributed to Hailey Bieber who recently went back to brunette, ditching her iconic blonde look. 

As TikTok hair guru and celebrity hairstylist Tom Smith says, the color is really her going back to her natural look, but with the hint of face-framing, caramel highlights toward the bottom—it makes the hair look more interesting and, you guessed it, expensive. 

Expensive brunette is the short of brown shade that natural brunettes will likely already have—but one you could not get from an at-home box dye because it’s all about rich, multi-tones, and dimension.

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♬ original sound - Tom Smith

Replying to one TikTok user, Tom said to achieve the look you need: “Subtle high and lowlights that don’t go all the way to the roots.”

Sarah McKenna, Founder of Vixen & Blush says: “The best way to achieve this look is to agree with your stylist what the lightest and darkest shades you want to have in your hair are and use the different tones to enhance your hair color. 

"We have seen a rise in multi-dimensional brunette tones in the salon this autumn and we love to enhance our client’s natural color with extensions."

Despite seeing a lot of celebs going platinum blonde in recent months, we’ve also seen the reverse happen—where stars known for their light hair are going dark. Including Gigi Hadid and Florence Pugh.

In fact, this change is leading many to start speculating that blonde, highlighted or bleached hair—for the first time in maybe forever—is actually going out of style. 

Now for natural brunettes (hey there!), this is probably the best news we’ve heard all year. Keeping your blonde up if you’re not in fact naturally blonde is no walk in the park. It’s time-consuming, expensive, and damaging to your hair. Plus you only have about a month of no roots—but brunette is way more carefree and low-maintenance so you spend less time wondering how to repair damaged hair.

It may be time to either try out brunette or go back to your natural brown shade—if it's good enough for Gigi and Hailey, who are we to disagree?