If You Can’t Choose a Hair Color This Spring, Try “Marbled Hair”

Trends are a great guide when it comes to inspo for your personal style—but with so many contrasting trends popping up, it can become difficult to pin down one definitive look, especially for something as (kind of) permanent as hair color. If you’ve been see-sawing between wanting to add a fiery copper to your strands or liven it up with a buttery blonde shade, now you can have it all with the “marbled hair” trend.

The Trend

“Using two contrasting shades, this trend has the best of both worlds,” says Creative Director of Evoand celebrity colorist, Tom Smith. “Desire for contrast in one’s hair color has been growing for the last few years, and this is our boldest offering to date.” The trend calls on hairstyles from the mid-aughts, where indie sleaze icons like Kesha and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen went for what celebrity hairstylist Dominick Pucciarello recently told Byrdie was the more “rock and roll chic” route with undone waves, which paired perfectly with their overgrown roots.

Emo and "scene" hair was also present, featuring two tones of color, whether that was a stark black from the crown to the hairline paired with a neon green or pink stripe, or a less colorful (but still bold) platinum blonde at the top and dark black underlayer. Says Smith, “Evoking childhood memories of Cruella de Ville, [marbled hair] has had an update and ties into a newer, updated, more polished interpretation of the indie sleaze trend.”

Before you say that marbled hair looks a lot like chunky Y2K highlights, the main difference between the two trends is that chunky highlights add wide strands of contrasting color all throughout the hair, whereas marbled hair features larger panels of color layered on top of each other. Look to stars like Miley Cyrus, BlackPink's Jisoo, Billie Piper, and Avril Lavigne for inspiration.

How to Get Marbled Hair

If you’re married to the idea of natural-looking color, you may want to stay away from this trend. Smith notes, “not for the shy or subtle, this color needs professional execution, and can be a great way of trying a new shade mixed in with your existing base.”

If you’re starting off with a lighter base, you can incorporate brunette or black panels for an edgy vibe. On the other hand, “[those with] naturally darker bases can enhance the movement in [the] hair with bright, reflective panels of blonde,” says Smith. And if you want to spice it up even more, bright pinks, blues, or reds are great for adding a sleazy edge.

You’ll need to visit a professional colorist for this look, but you won't have to worry too much about frequent touch-ups, as a little imperfection like grown-out roots is part of the look.. Still, if you like to wear your hair up, you can visit your colorist every six to eight weeks for a refresh.

For at-home care, any color-safe shampoo and moisture mask like Evo's The Great Hydrator ($37) will keep the hair bright and nourished, and Smith recommends washing your hair with cool water as this “will help keep these high contrast shades fresh and crisp when the color is new and minimize the risk of the colors transferring onto each other.”