As a tween who came of age in the ‘00s, there was nothing I wanted more than to dye my hair every color of the rainbow. With their flame-red streaks, pop-punk princesses Avril Lavigne and Hayley Williams were my beauty icons — but my parents didn’t entertain the thought for even a millisecond. Now that I’m 30, I tend to think they were probably right — boring, sure, but right; I can count on one hand the number of times my brunette — almost black — hair has been touched by bleach. (I was well into my 20s the first time I colored my hair, and it is strong, thick, and healthy as can be.) However, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want to experiment with my color, and as Refinery29’s senior writer with a penchant for all things beauty, I’ve had a front-row seat to virtually every hair color trend to grace our FYPs: That being said, only one shade has caught my eye in recent years: “Expensive” brunette.
