Highlights and balayage are the usual go-tos for brightening up brown hair, but blonde isn't the only pick-me-up for a brunette shade you're feeling blah about. For her spring hair transformation, Refinery29's Director of Film Marketing Fiona opted instead for a different kind of overhaul, taking her dark hair to a soft, cool-toned mushroom brown complete with lavender-toned lowlights.
"I've never dyed my hair like this before," Fiona tells us in the video above, as the camera pans over her glossy chocolate-brown waves. "I've always been pretty au naturel in my approach to hair colour, but now, it's making me feel kind of blah," she says. "I don't hate it, but I definitely don't love it." And since there's really no time like the present, Fiona heads to Brooklyn's CutLoose salon for a subtle — but seriously refreshing — change.
For her inspiration, Fiona explains that she's envisioning Olivia Wilde's colour, but with a touch of whimsy. "Olivia Wilde has always been my hair inspiration," she says. "I think she carries multi-dimensional brown really well. And I've actually been inspired by fellow R29er Mi-Anne Chan, who has this cool lilac hair. So I'm hoping for colour that makes me feel more vibrant and playful."
After a trim for freshness and some soothing hair-painting ASMR — all compressed into a bite-sized five-minute video — Fiona walks out of the Brooklyn salon transformed into a whole new version of herself, thanks to a dimensional brunette hair colour that's so much more fun than any blonde babylights.