Woman getting a haircut

Maybe Ombré Just Isn’t for You, And That’s OK

If you walked down the street in the West Village or perused the feeds of style bloggers on Instagram Pinterest or Tumblr, you would notice one, inarguable thing: the ombré hair color trend. It’s everywhere. Your best friend is sporting this look, your sister is about to sport this look and your coworkers are deciding if they want to take the plunge. This is one of the “it” hair color trends of the year.

Young girl with ombre hair

For the more daring lady, the lavender gray color trend has been gracing the boxes of instagram. Every other selfie displays long billows of silvery purple hair with a caption like “yay or nay?” Well it’s clear that the answer is a resounding “Yaaaas!” from the throngs of other IGers sporting the exact same hair color.  So, you ask yourself, am I next? Do I like these looks? Are they me? And the answer is, strangely, unclear, simply because you’ve seen the look on so many women that even if you originally believed it to be the ugliest trend you’d ever laid eyes upon, the mere frequency of it has allowed it to grow on you.

Kelly Osbourne Hair

Now, rather than professing your opinions about how downright ugly this trend is, you begin to hear yourself saying, “it’s not so bad,” and then “it’s pretty fashion-forward, actually,” and then there you are sitting in the salon requesting, “One ombré hairstyle, please!” Somehow the most intelligent of us, gets pulled into letting trends make style decisions for us. These “everybody’s doing it” moments conjure up the age-old question that a parent used to put to you when you had already made a terrible decision that had been influenced by a friend’s: “if she jumps off a bridge would you do it too?”

Unfortunately (or fortunately), their wisdom has followed you into adulthood and how appropriate this universal question still is.

So how do you stay true to what you truly love and get rid of all the trend-crazy noise?

Listen to your gut, ladies and gentlemen.

Get in tune with yourself and ask yourself some soul-seeking hair trend questions:

1. Would I feel proud with this haircut/hair color?
2. Do I feel “un-chic” if I am not sporting this hair color trend?
3. Do I enjoy having the same hairstyle as everyone and their mothers?
4. Would I make this decision if I hadn’t seen thousands of pictures of the same look on thousands of other women?
5. Is this look even a possibility for my hair?

Sometimes checking in with yourself is a great way to learn what works for you and what truly doesn’t. And don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with following a trend. Trends can provide structure and ease for the person that loves style, but doesn’t know where to begin. A trend can act as a much needed starting point in a world where there are an absurdly large number of style choices.

So what will it be? Ombré? Or a jet black pixie cut? The beauty of it all is that nothing is forever in the word of hair. You can choose emerald green today, and don an auburn bowl-cut tomorrow.