The Origins of Ombre!

images: L'Oreal

Article by BR Natalie

Ombre, Ombre, Ombre.  It's safe to say last year's hottest hair trend isn't going anywhere, but where did it all start?  If you're like a certain Beauty Crew member, the only thing you know about ombre is it sounds like something you heard in a Friends episode ("Hombre for men?  Hombre for men?"). It's time to go to school.

Ombre comes from the French ombrer, which means 'to shade'.  Specifically, ombre is a type of colouring (think tie-dye) where the colour scheme graduates from light to dark.  Of course more commonly in hair, the colours actually graduate from dark to light.

You can expect to see a gradual change to the shade of hair, starting at around the mouth level.  The colour will graduate to lighter and more saturated strands, ending in fully lightened ends.

There's no shortage of celebrity inspiration for ombre hair looks, and we must give Jared Leto a shout out for doing what Johnny Depp failed to do - making ombre for men sexy! ("Hombre for men?"... yeap, I might be the Friends addict of the crew).

So where did the ombre hair trend start?  Remember 90s grunge?  Grown out bleached hair and smudged black eyeliner?  We can see the origins of ombre there, but grunge met beauty a few years ago when the gorgeous Erin Wasson, a Texan model began rocking the look.  BR HQ considers her to be the original celebrity ombre-r.

Then last year came the ombre explosion.  Before she went punk, Miley's mid length ombre was shown to many a hair dresser.  Drew Barrymore, Olivia Wilde and Lea Michele are stunning examples of a gorgoues ombre.

Now you may have heard another term Balayage.  Like ombre, balayage is a lightening your hair and it's often confused with ombre.  Here's the difference - Balayage comes from the French meaning "to sweep".   In balayage, the colorist "sweeps" vertically with the tip of the brush and only to the front of the hair.  Thus creating natural, sun kissed highlights.

So if you're wondering if ombre is the look for you, here's some things to consider:

1.  Length.  Ombre works well on mid length to long hair.  On shorter hair you run the risk of either having a thin stripe of base colour, or a thin stripe of lightened hair.  Racing stripes is not a good look!

2.  Style.  Ombre is amazing on curled hair, as this blends in the beginning of the line.  If you have poker straight hair and never curl or wave it, you might want to consider if the blunt line ombre is for you.  Of course there are ways around this - ask your hairdresser to graduate the beginnings of the ombre.

3.  Condition.  Typically ombre is going to use some form of bleach.  If your hair is over coloured, damaged and porous you're not going to end up with healthy ombre'd locks.  On the other hand, if you have virgin hair ombre is a great way to dip you toe in the colouring pool, without have to worry about maintenance!

Ombre isn't limited to brunette-blonde either! A quick search on Pinterest will bring you oodles of inspiration for gorgoues multi colour ombre looks.

And remember - the greatest thing about Ombre is it means when you decide to grow out your hair colour, your regrowth is now the height of fashion!

So tell us your thoughts on the ombre look - do you rock it, or have you never tried it?  Who's your favourite ombre'd celebrity?  Get chatting below!