Every couple of years a new hairstyle takes the hair industry by storm. Remember the early days of the ombre? Followed by its subtle variation, balayage and sombre?
People continue to sport these gorgeous hair color trends. Despite their age, they’re not going away anytime soon! They’ve also set the foundation for a new hair color trend.
The latest hair color trend to take center stage is color melting. This new hair color style is the perfect blend of your hair’s natural beauty and its hair trend predecessors.
Yet, many people don’t know much about this new hair trend. Here’s everything you should know about color melting and why we love it!
What Is Color Melting?
Let’s jump back to the early days of ombre. This stunning style featured two colors. One color started at the root and rapidly faded into the second color at the bottom.
The most popular colors featured your natural hair color on top and a lighter color on the bottom. It wasn’t uncommon to see people with lighter hair choose a reverse ombre where their ends went darker.
Following ombre came the balayage style. This featured a more sweeping color fade which offers a natural look.
Today, we have color melting. Color melting also uses this base two-color formula to fade one color into the other. What sets it apart is most hair stylists with use three or more colors to create the melt.
Unlike the former styles, color melting completely blends or melts, the colors to soften the transition. This melt prevents the appearance of any hard lines.
The final result? Smooth seamless transition from one color to the next.
Color Melting Has a Natural Look
Color melting offers the most natural appearance out of all three hair coloring styles. If you don’t dye your hair, you will notice your hair will lighten as it grows. The darkest areas are at the roots and the lightest at the ends.
This natural lightning occurs from oxidation. The sun, elements, and daily life will oxidize your hair causing it to lighten. The longer your hair, the more oxidation it will receive and the lighter it will be.
The longer the transition is between the two colors, the more natural it will appear. Professional color melting will offer the best look. Professional hair stylists have the proper accessories for hairstyling to make your color melting look natural and stunning.
Color Melting vs Ombre
The main difference between color melting vs ombre is how the colors transition from one to the other. Ombre features a more noticeable transition between the light and dark colors. Ombre also only uses two colors: light color and a dark color.
Color melting has a subtle transition from light to dark. The color melt features two main colors along with a third color. This third color optimizes the blend.
Ombre can feature different colors other than traditional light and dark hair colors. With color melting, you’ll find more people prefer to use one or more fun colors. By fun, we mean a bright non-traditional hair color such as pink, blue, orange, or something more unique!
Color Melting vs Balayage
Balayage features a subtle transition that offers a more natural appearance compared to an ombre. The outer layer of hair has a dark to light color transition that appears like someone painted the color onto the hair.
The lighter color has highlights that travel near the root of the hair. The darker color features low lights that travel closer to the ends. This slight difference gives balayage a three-dimensional look while creating a subtle color transition.
Color melting doesn’t consist of any highlights or low lights to blend the color transition. Instead, the colors slowly melt into each other. All of your hair will slowly transition color at the same time giving the colors a flawless appearance.
How Color Melting Works
A hair professional will typically use two to three colors of the same color palette for the transition. The hair professional will apply the colors in an overlapping fashion and “smudge” them together with their fingers. This “smudging” process helps the melt appear more natural and flawless.
The transition from one color to the next doesn’t have to only be vertical. Many hairstylists are experimenting and creating stunning diagonal color melts that are sure to turn heads.
A couple more terms you should know about color melting are shadow root and root smudge.
A shadow root is a color melting process where the hairstylist applies a darker color to the root. This darker color will melt into the rest of the color without causing a drastic line.
A root smudge uses the natural color of your roots. This technique will blend your natural root color into a lighter area.
The Pros and Cons of Color Melting
Color melting offers a few pros and cons you should be aware of. The pros include:
- Using any color palette you desire
- Enjoy a natural blending look
- Low maintenance
- Less hair damage
- Enjoy a seamless melt of colors
The drawbacks include:
- Little dimension
- More costly
- Challenging to find stylists with the proper skills
You’ll have to determine if color melting is right for you. Overall, it’s easy to maintain and can last for months without needing a touchup.
Color Melting Hair Ideas
The color options are limitless with color melting. You can pick anything from natural hair colors or give your hair a bold twist with an unexpected color palette.
Those looking for a subtle and natural hair color palette should consider sticking with their natural root color. From there, they can fade into a deep brown, gold, strawberry blonde, or light blonde.
Those looking for something more drastic can add pinks, blues, purples, and fiery reds. Don’t limit these colors only to your ends. Blend a depo pink at the roots and fade it into a light blonde at the ends.
Give Color Melting a Try
Are you looking for a new way to style your hair? Color melting is a unique hair color style with a limitless number of color options. With the right style, you can enjoy beautifully colored hair without the maintenance.
The latest trends are constantly changing. Don’t want to get left behind? Check out our latest Fashion articles to stay up-to-date on today’s new trends!
