I Got Hailey Bieber's “Smoky Blonde” Hair Colour – and I'm Never Looking Back

As you can see, my natural brunette colour was the starting point. In my journey to smoky blonde, I wanted to weave in the bright, ashy blonde with my natural colour, and not get too close to the roots. I also wanted to steer clear of the more icy blonde tones, which I know tend to wash out my skin tone. I was going for a blended, California-cool vibe.

According to Ramirez, smoky blonde can mean different things to different people, and the colour lives kind of on a spectrum. When choosing the tone of your smoky blonde, “It’s important to take into account your base hair colour and your skin tone,” he said. “If you have a darker base color, like almost black, the more ashy, icy blonde hues will work well. If your natural colour is warmer to begin with, then a more buttery blonde will look better.”

Since my hair is on the lighter brunette side and already quite warm, we went with the butter end of the blonde spectrum – not to be confused with honey. Ramirez made sure to stick to those cooler tones to achieve the smoky blonde look. He said that it’s important to bring reference photos to your appointment and have an honest conversation with your colourist to make sure you’re on the same page. “Don’t ask for it just because it’s a trend,” he said. “Make sure it’s going to complement you, or else you won’t be happy.”

There are several methods your colourist can use to get your hair to smoky blonde, like foil highlights, balayage, or some combination of techniques. Ramirez prefers to do a combo of foil techniques, starting with more traditional foils around the base of the head to break up the natural colour, which helps the overall effect look more natural. He then goes back through and back-combs certain sections. “I back-comb the pieces I don’t want to lighten, and then lighten the piece that’s left out,” Ramirez said. “When the hair comes back down it’s stronger and makes the colour blend nicely.”

With that in mind, Ramirez emphasised that there shouldn’t be a stark difference between the base colour and the blonde – the top priority for your colourist should be blending the colour to make the final look seem as natural as possible. Ramirez also does several rounds of toning and glossing to make sure the colour is just right from the base of the head all the way to the ends.

No matter what technique your colourist uses, prepare to be in their chair for several hours – when getting highlights of any kind I usually allocate four to five hours to being at the salon.

While, yes, I’m totally in love with the colour, I have to say my favorite thing about this style is how low-maintenance it is. Since the highlights and base colour are so nicely blended, I don’t need to worry about having stark, dark roots when my hair starts growing out. Depending on how ashy you went, the only thing you may want to consider is using a purple shampoo to keep the warm tones at bay.

Overall, smoky blonde was a great way for me to brighten up my natural colour without feeling like I need to keep going to the salon for touchups – I still feel like myself, just enhanced. So if you’re looking for a more low-key way to go blonde, I’d say go for it.