Dyeing your hair from your natural blonde or brown to red can sound intimidating. But red doesn't have to translate to a vibrant, Little Mermaid-esque fire-engine shade. When you think about red on the color spectrum, there's a shade that lives right next to blonde — think strawberry — that's really more like a warm golden tone with a kiss of red.
In this week's episode of Refinery29's YouTube series Hair Me Out, we see Emmie take her hair from a light brown to a dimensional (and believable) strawberry blonde. Inspired by enviable faux-redhead celebs like Julianne Hough and Gigi Hadid, Emmie is looking for a soft color change, but one that feels "a tiny bit spicy."
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For the transformation, Emmie visits L.A.'s trendy Mèche Salon, where she meets with colorist Adriana Pinto, who loves working with strawberry-blonde color. "Strawberry blonde is that alluring kind of sexy," she explains. "Like, 'Oh, what's she about?'"
Pinto begins by applying a demi-permanent red gloss over Emmie's hair to create a warm base. She then adds highlights, creating a dimensional blend of red that's a bit deeper at the roots and a shade and half lighter through the ends. After the highlights are rinsed, Emmie gets a golden copper gloss to lock in the strawberry tone. Pinto then tints Emmie's eyebrows using the same shade of dye — which is a step that many people forget, but as Pinto explains, "It's crucial to bring the whole look together."
In the end, Emmie is elated with her fresh strawberry-blonde hair. "It looks so good," she exclaims, adding that the shade is perfectly suited to her coloring and complexion. "It's such a big change, but it's perfectly 'me.' I'm glad I did my brows, too; I got exactly what I wanted, but better."