In French, Ombre means shadow/shade, in the mid 2000s the Ombre effect took hold of the fashion industry, and celebrities all over the globe.

To achieve the shadow/shade technique with your hair your goal is to graduate the color from either dark to light or vice versa light to dark.

There are many different types of the ombre highlighting technique. The usual and most popular is starting off dark at the roots and fading to either red/orange then finally to blonde at the tips or ends of the hair. Lots of instructions call for using the dip-dry method. But this shading method is easiest on natural/virgin hair, meaning hair that has never been chemically processed either by coloring, perming, or relaxing.

You can follow through with the dip-dry technique by using bleach on the ends or high lift color. But in easy steps, you want to divide the sections, and determine what type of fade intensity is your preference. Then apply bleach to the ends while trying as hard as possible to make this dip-dry technique to look natural and authentic. It is extremely recommended to not apply the bleach in an exact line or level.

After applying, wrap foil around the bleached ends. Be sure to check periodically, to see how the color progress in coming along. After, you have achieved the preferred shadowing, rinse and air dry or blow dry the ends on low heat. Then, if desired reapply while doing some shading around the face, and again after achieving the desired results rinse out and then wash with cold water while using a Color Conserving shampoo and conditioner. Leave the conditioner on the hair for 5 -10 minutes, and rinse again with cold water, and you should have achieved the desired Ombre highlights.

Blog post by Aveda Institute Tallahassee Cosmetology student: Collette Newburgh