Why Celebrities Are All Picking This Warm Brown Hair Color Over Blonde Right Now

Virtually every colorist or salon can corroborate: When temperatures heat up, hair lightens up. Every spring and summer, there’s a deluge of requests for softer palettes and illuminating highlights, but the past few years haven’t held the same extreme shifts as before. Rather than going for full-fledged blonde, many stars are instead choosing cozy, gold-toned shades of brunette — often a much more natural-looking change that still provides that same sunny glint. Celebrity honey-brown hair colors aren’t a one-type-fits-all kind of deal, though. While the base and undertones are similar, it can be dressed up with streaky highlights, bold ombré, and experimental shade placements to make the color trend surprisingly customizable and versatile enough for nearly everyone’s tastes.

Like most things in life, these hair colors are on the spectrum. There are lighter versions that have so much warmth that they veer closer to the blonde end, and some with a brilliant blend of red undertones that give the hair a sweet honey-cinnamon look that’s good enough to eat. And if a 180-style hair color change isn’t in your immediate future, there are plenty of hint-of-gold iterations that likely require only a few minor tweaks in the salon chair.

Ahead, get inspired by these celebrity-approved takes on the honey-brown hair color trend.

Hailey Bieber

Bieber’s hard pivot away from bright blonde to a golden brunette happened simultaneously with her “quiet luxury” aesthetic shift. After studying old photos, her natural hair color seems to have a varity of ash tones — meaning she just needed some all-over warmth to unlock this lush honey.

Lizzo

Is there a hair color under the sun that can’t benefit from some cool, stylized highlights? For a glamour-steeped trip to Europe that included a little vacation stop in Ibiza, Lizzo unveiled a new, honey-brown hair color streaked with bold blonde highlights. The effect is more than a little Y2K and extremely on-trend.

Zendaya

More often than not, Zendaya has a little red in her hair. Sometimes, it’s natural and simply the way the light catches it, sometimes it’s with the assistance of some expert-applied color. But for a big For Your Consideration event with the rest of the Euphoria cast, she struck the most gorgeous balance of gold, brown, and red with her honey-toned bob.

Jessica Alba

Alba perfectly demonstrates a more subdued take on honey-colored highlights, and you can really see the brilliant blend of brunette tones closer to her scalp. Her colorist built off of a medium-brown base, weaving golden streaks throughout for a dimensional, hand-crafted look.

Kaia Gerber

For a hint of honey rather than the whole hive, consider Gerber’s signature hair color. Light enough to flatter her skin tone but deep enough to really define her features, the her-hair-but-better color looks completely natural — but is likely enhanced by some strategic salon toning or even a gloss.

Ashley Park

Great news: ombré hair color techniques are back, and they’re much better than the last time they trended. Park’s gorgeous gradient features a neutral shade of dark brown toward her roots, fading into a sunny, honey-tinted gold through her ends. It’s stunning in any environment, but especially beautiful in the direct sunlight.

Eva Mendes

Mendes’ bouncy, full curls show off the half-dozen (at least) hand-picked shades in her golden honey color, but the real brilliance here lies beneath. The underside of her hair is just a touch darker, which offsets all the lighter highlights and base color up top — it’s all done with the finesse of an artist.

Beyoncé

Of course the Queen Bey has tried honey-colored hair — how could she not? Though Beyoncé is showing off a new “crème brûlée blonde” color on the American leg of her Renaissance Tour, she was on board with the honey-brown hair trend as recently as last year.

Kylie Jenner

Perhaps the most aesthetically experimental member of her family (sorry, Kim), Jenner’s tried every possible hair color under the sun — including several neon shades not found in nature. However, all of her most shocking switch-ups have involved her trying realistic-looking brunettes. This warm, red-toned honey is among her all-time best.

Sarah Jessica Parker

The thousands of photos taken over Parker’s career double as the world’s best blonde and brunette color lookbook. She’s incorporated every degree of brightness, highlights, and undertones over the years, but it’s her hybrid hair colors that really stand out. Here, she has the most low-key ombré imaginable, with some carefully-woven honey pieces layered around her face and through her ends for just a bit of lift.