Sometimes it pays to break the rules. Just ask Katlin Aas, whose instincts led her to ditch her natural ash blond hair color. "When I first started modeling at 15, I went against what my agents said and went dark—I told them that the hairstylist fucked up," she remembered. In true rebel form, she doesn't always go to a salon for her touch-ups, either. "Sometimes I let my friends do it. Or if I don't have a lot of roots showing, I buy a $5 box and do them myself. Box colors are fine for a tiny bit of regrowth," she said.
Photo: Adam Katz Sinding / Le 21ème
Model Janice Alida is yet another blond who has noticed increased success as a brunette. During a break backstage at Anna Sui (where her newly shorn shag inspired the beauty look), Alida gave us a simple explanation for the switch: "I dyed it black for a job and I loved it, so I kept it. It usually gets trimmed at work, but I always go to André Viveiros at Garren New York for the color."
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / Indigitalimages.com
No longer the pretty platinum Princess Aurora (a role she played alongside Angelina Jolie in Disney's Maleficent), Elle Fanning found her dark side last month. The 16-year-old actress told E! that she made the change for a job (she's currently filming Trumbo), but the more "serious" chestnut hue is perhaps reflective of her character in this month's Young Ones—a film that features her first sex scene.
Photo: Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / Getty Images
Dakota Johnson, the star of next year's Fifty Shades of Grey, is back to brunette after a brief stint as a blond. We like to think Anastasia Steele would approve of this sultry beauty move.
Photo: Pacific Coast News
We're used to seeing Suki Waterhouse strut down the runway with sun-kissed highlights, but we think the new "French brown" shade, as described by her colorist Jack Howard of the Neville Hair & Beauty salon in London, really suits her. The pro used the balayage technique to achieve a multidimensional finish with "less noticeable regrowth."
Photo: David M. Benett / Getty Images
Beauty trends come and go faster than H&M fashion collaborations. It seems like just yesterday that catwalkers were going platinum. Now they’re experimenting with a range of deep, dramatic dye jobs. In some cases it’s only for a day, like the eyebrow-grazing black wigs worn by flaxen-haired supes such as Karlie Kloss and Caroline Trentini at Marc Jacobs. Other models, like Ireland Baldwin, are thinking about making the change permanent. Baldwin recently tweeted: “Do I want to be a brunette?” While we don’t recommend crowdsourcing a major hair color decision, we do approve of shifting shades for the cooler season ahead—a tactic taken of late by Elle Fanning, Dakota Johnson, and Suki Waterhouse. If this batch of brown-haired girls is any indication, blonds won’t be having all the fun this fall.
