Rosé, rose gold, dusty rose — you’d think by now we’d have had enough of the rose-inspired hair colors flooding our Instagram feeds. But is there really such a thing as "too many hair color trends"? I think not, and Caitlin Ford, a colorist based in St. Louis, clearly agrees, considering her latest viral creation is none other than desert rose hair.
Before you go thinking that this is just another ever-so-slightly different name for an otherwise gold-tinted, peachy-pink color option, hear Ford out: “Where rose gold is rich in golden-orange hues, this one has a softer orange tone matched with a blue-green tone to help mute and cancel out those warmer colors for a mauvey-magenta take on the look,” she says.
The result? A Southwestern-inspired dusty effect that starts with what she refers to as “a deep, smoky, cooled-down magenta” with grey, all painted in horizontal bands over a pale, near-platinum, beige base. Ford explains that her inclusion of horizontal lines is a nod to eagle feathers and coon tails, two things close to her youth, and reminiscent of her creation’s namesake: the desert.
“While the stripes appear horizontal, I actually always paint the custom colors on vertically to help diffuse the color a little bit, which helps to avoid creating something too heavy-looking,” she says. To achieve the look, she works through a series of sectioning, similar to what’s used to crest a shag cut. She pulls the hair out 90 degrees from her client’s head and applies color down the shaft, which allows her to create the multi-colored end look that’s garnered more double-taps, heart-eyes and fire emojis than we can count.
Since Instagram trends have a way of inspiring real life, we wouldn’t be surprised if you're already fixing to ring your colorist. Just know that there a few key things you’ll want to keep in mind before heading to your hair appointment.
First, be sure to have this pic saved on the ‘gram for reference. Second, be prepared to lighten your hair. You’ll need to be at a level 7 or higher, somewhere between platinum and pale yellow blonde. Once your hair is light enough, it will need to be toned to create a cooler beige base. From there, it comes down to your undertones to make this look all your own.
“My hair color creation, as it looks in the picture, definitely looks best on cool skin tones, but it’s customizable for warm skin tones by changing the undertones,” says Ford. “If you have warmer skin and that’s the route you need to take, then be sure your colorist creates a slightly more golden take on the look. To achieve it, I’d recommend adding gold to all of the colors and swapping a rich brown in for the smoky grey.”
As always, if you want your social media-approved dye job to reel in as many likes as possible, you’ll need to wash it with color-safe products and cold water to keep the colors from fading into each other.