Would You Wear… Lavender Hair?
From left: Lady Gaga in London, Proenza Schouler runway, Kelly Osbourne at the Academy Awards
Dying one’s hair is not a particularly novel concept, nor is dying it a color not found in nature, particularly for the fashion savvy. However, lavender hair has been popping up on the red carpet and runways more and more these days, providing a new take on dyed hair. This take is significantly softer, more feminine and less bold than one may usually expect, but when it comes down to it, it is still purple hair.
As usual with fashion, the key to pulling off lavender hair is confidence. However, the color does particularly flatter pale skin tones, and if you have light hair to begin with, you are good to go. Bleaching your hair first is unfortunately necessary if you aren’t naturally light-haired, making it more difficult to rock this look if your hair is dark. However, with heavy conditioning and attentive hair care, bleaching first may just be worth it to pull off such an unusual but pretty look.
Check out a couple of outfits I would wear (if I had the courage to rock lavender hair) below.
Outfit #1: A Soft, Ladylike Take
Product Information: Hair Dye: Manic Panic in ‘Mystic Heather’, Pearl Necklace: Target, Pink Shift Dress: Topshop, Black Kitten Heels: Target, Lace Tights: Jonathon Aston
Outfit #2: A Little Punk Inspiration
Product Information: Gold Hoop Earrings: Fantasy Jewelry Box, T-Shirt Dress: Markus Lupfer, Hair Dye: Manic Panic in ‘Mystic Heather’, Black Tights: Aristoc, Gold Bracelet: Juicy Couture, Work Boots: Topshop
What do you think?
Would you dye your hair lavender? What about another unnatural color? Do you like the look better on Gaga or Kelly Osbourne? What other colors have peaked your interest? Let me know in the comments!
Posted on on March 23, 2010 / Filed Under: Would You Wear? / Tags: Featured, Hair, hair color, Hair Products, Hairstyles, Kelly Osbourne, Lady GaGa, lavender hair, Proenza Schouler, Trends
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Zephyr - CF Editor
I have to say: I’m a huge fan of this look. While I’m too paranoid about ruining my own bleached hair to try it, I’m obsessed with the lavender hair trend right now! I think unnatural hair color can look SO right, depending on the person rocking it.
Serena
LOVE it! I especially love the colored-hair look with otherwise uncolored, natural hair: it’s so cool! And Zephyr I’m totally on the same boat as you… I’d love to try it, but just got a pricey bleach job :( I think I’ll be sticking with lavender nail polish for now :)
x.S
mily
If you’re worried about ruining your bleach job, I’ve used manic panic before to die my hair and my blonde highlighted hair rinsed it out FULLY within 6 weeks. And, since it’s all vegetable based, you don’t have to worry about harsh chemicals ruining your hair. I really needed the faded pink colour out sometime in week 5 for a job interview and washing with dish soap did the job, i just made sure to condition REALLLLLLYYYYY well after, it worked fine.
On the whole though, I just lurve the look
Steph
Love!! I rocked some red pieces this winter, and some cotton candy pink is going on in my blonde locks right now. I’m more of a pink lady then purple, but I LOVE the trend towards non-traditional colors!
Amy
I’m not a big fan of purple. I do however have Atomic Pink (http://www.hairdyegallery.co.uk/sfx-atomicpink.html) hair. SFX has by far the best dyes, but you better be committed to unnatural hair before you use them. All the hottest ladies (Gwen, Pink, Lily Allen, Tarina Tarantino) have/have had neon pink hair!
Hannah
Tavi (Style Rookie) is currently rocking pale blue hair that looks fantastic, and I love the lavender on Gaga and Kelly, but I’m too nervous to try it myself!
moon
I’ve done this before, I used gentian violet instead of dye.
It’s lovely, and it rinses out to white hair.
I kind of want to do this again…
Sabrina
I’d wear a streak of bright purple (not lavender) by my neck.
Jojo
I absolutely LOVE this trend … I’m totally thinking of giving up my NATURAL hair color that took soooooo long to grow out because of this trend!
Michelle Jeannine
I love it. I love crazy hair colors.
Although I really do not like when people dye their whole head one unnatural color. The three ladies in the photos are doing it right.
If you’ve ever been near a hot topic store though you’ll know what I’m talking about. Nobody needs their entire head electric blue. ;) Just sayin’.
Milana
I am in love with this hair, however if I walked into a business meeting at my job at a newspaper (NOT a fashion magazine ;) ) people would think I was crazy!
But I really love it on the celebrities!
Jenny
I’ve had blue/aqua hair since October, and I love it. It is very bright, but it suits me well, since my style is generally bold and colorful.
I’m very lucky to be in an art-related field (graphic design) because strange-colored hair is more readily accepted in my field. :) I don’t plan on going back to dark brown anytime soon!
Kath
If I had light hair I’d probably try a temporary version of the color in a heartbeat, but I have very dark hair and don’t want to make the mistake of bleaching again. Besides, I don’t think it would go over very well on job interviews :)
Calli - LSU
I love this look, but like Kath, my hair is also very dark. Maybe I’ll just have to buy a lavender wig or hair extensions! Great post, Anna!
Jess
I LOVE this trend. I would totally rock it once my hair gets a bit more healthy…I will get hair extensions though:)
TheBunnyGeek
Haha, before I dyed my natural blonde hair bright pink, I was going to go lavendar/lilac! Then, I just felt that it kind of lacked a little wow-factor. It looks a little like someone forgot to take their toner out of their bleach white hair.
Emily the Panda
I have never dyed my hair, but the lavender hair fad is pretty cool.
Goldengirl
LOL! this looks like old lady purple hair. Not a good look, downgrade…
Dul
I love how kelly Osbourne looks with this look, lady-like, but sooo her style AWESOME!!!
Leia
I’d love to, but I don’t think it would work with my almost-black hair and olive skintone!
Kiera
Actually this last fall I died part of my hair violet which softly faded into lavender, I really love it!
For those of you girls who want to try it but don’t want to bleach your hair I’d like to recommend Elumen by Goldwell, its a range of FASHION COLORS which means they have crazy colors such as yellow, green, blue and violet. The are awesome because you can mix them (like paint!) in order to create the color you want and to add to they awesomeness is the fact that you don’t need to bleach your hair, they are designed to work on both light or dark hair alike. However, be aware that they are permanent dyes and not temporary ones like Manic Panic
Peyton
I dyed my hair blue earlier this year with a bunch of my classmates to honor our friend’s mother who died of colon cancer last October. All the money that was raised went to the foundation for colon cancer and my blue streak was a conversation starter and awareness spreader for a month. So if the lavender were for a good cause, then absolutely I wouldn’t hesitate to dye it. But if it’s just for the sake of “being different”- no thanks. I’d rather stick out in other ways than have purple hair.
Alana
aww i heart this sooo much! i wish my hair was still blonde i really don’t want to go through a bleaching process again just to dye it lavender.
Ty
Your hair doesn’t need to be blonde to pull this off. My hair is jet black with blue and purple highlights in the back half and I love it. The bleach is harsh, but conditioner can fix that right up. :)
Lex
I loooooveeee pastel coloured hair
I may try this in the summer after I’ve gotten another set of highlights put in.
Mae
Closest I’ve gotten to lavender hair was when I had the underside of my hair dyed deep purple. Temp. dye, only lasted a couple weeks. I miss it.
Christine
My hair is too dark for that lovely lavender color :(
But for a whole year I had this dark reddish pink toned hair over my naturally black hair. In direct sunlight it was clearly a cherry pink. It was pretty sweet since it wasnt overpowering but still edgy :3
Tara
I’ve yet to try lavender but had various other shades of purple, currently rocking dark purple/blue/pink combo. No one has seen my natural hair colour since highschool XD
Maybe I’ll try pale violet and turquoise next time my hair is pale enough.
Karen
I’ve have turquoise streaks in my hair since last June and I absolutely love them. I rather like the soft look of the lavender.
Audrey - Ohio State University
I love love love Kelly Osbourne’s hair! Especially with that gorgeous gown.
kenzie
I have a neon blue chunk right behind my ear. Its pretty awesome–and guys seem to like it!!
Melanie
I love it! Kelly’s look look superb, as strange as it might be, it looks very elegant…but I think this is another case of girl pretty. I’m not sure guys would dig this so much as they would secretly be going “wtf?!” in their heads.
Angelica
I love this look! Unfortunately I can’t do it because I have dark hair. But are you SURE that first picture is Lady Gaga, the outfit/makeup/hair looks like her obviously, but it really doesn’t look like her. I know that’s besides the point, but thought I would mention it.
Breanna
I’m a bit indifferent about this one. Old ladies sport this look where I live very often, so it obviously looks granish to me.
Tahtyanah
Gross… It looks tacky! Given, it looks a little less tacky on these starletts (but only because I know their famous and they purposely did this to themselves). But I def. dont want to see this look on the street.
lisa
heh… finaly a trend that i am forward on… my frieds hairdresser, employer, and friend came home from england a few year ago and was really hyped about lavender hair… i thought it was one of her crazy ideas, but it really grew on me, can recomend it for blond hair
lisa
is that kelly osborn she looks amazing… a great change from grumpy teen look
Gwendolyn Guillotine
I like it, but I have blue hair at the moment. Sticking to blue/ cyan until my coloring bottle gets empty.
Nessa N.
Pink highlights are cool, lavender is just gross >< It makes hair look dull, grey & old.
Fiona
I have to be a killjoy here, but the dye you posted won’t really make your hair lavender. It just wipes out yellow tones. If you over apply it, it might int a tiny bit but it’ll come right out.
I’ve worn lavender hair and it wasn’t quite my thing. I’ve got an affinity for reds.
Tayba
I dont mind any hair dye as long as it suits my tanned skin
Jennifer
I had lavender hair last time I went blonde, and i loved it. If I were to bleach my hair again I would have lavender hair in a heartbeat.
Dayna
omg,,,loven it, but lavender pretty much gos with any thing…..that why i love it
Nikki
I did some subtle lavender streaks a few summers ago and got so many compliments on it! I’m a dark brunette and it was placed throughout the hair like lowlights. Loved loved loved it!
Lindy
I was going to say something along those same lines, Fiona. Manic Panic Virgin Snow was made to be a toner. Anyway, I have bright red/pink hair at the moment. I love unnatural colored hair, but lavender just isn’t doing it for me. It looks too muddy.
designer.finds.addict
I absolutly would. I think it will be a trend to leave soon but I actually think it looks chic…IF its pulled off correctly
Erin
I just got my short blonde crop hair bleached today and had a few lavender pieces put in the front. It looks great with the super light blonde… I love it and will definitely get some more next time I am due for color.
Amanda
First of all, Manic Panic Virgin Snow is used to make bleached hair snow-white. I am currently rocking lavender hair streaks with my bleach blonde hair, and it looks awesome. I used Special Effects Wildflower and diluted it with white conditioner to get the color I wanted. It will last you forever this way. Wildflower is the best because it has blue tones. If you try to use a purple with red tones, it will fade to pink and not purple.
Pretty Shiny Sparkly
I would, and I do! I used Manic Panic in Mystic Heather and Cotton Candy on my blonde hair:
http://prettyshinysparkly.com/float-like-a-butterfly-sting-like-a-bee/
I looooove it! It’ll fade though!
Marcell
i have really dark brown hair [almost black] and im thinking of getting some lavender thrown in there [just scattered throughout i guess]…they should have shown some pictures of how it looks when someone has dark hair with lavender streaks, i think the contrast between the pastel and the darkness would look really nice [well i hope so anyways]
Anna - University of Toronto
I used the photo of Virgin Snow for aesthetic purposes – the photo looked a lot closer to lavender than the others. However, in my link I posted one that is actually a lavender colour. I hope that there was no confusion (with tragic results)! Best of luck.
Maddie
I am planning on doing this because its almost natural, but not, if you get that.