I realised hair trends must be changing during my last appointment for highlights. I was sat in front of Harriet Muldoon at Larry King, begging her for a blast of icy hues to frame my face. As a brunette, this involves quite a lot of lightening, and I’m used to seeing my hair transform entirely over the course of a few hours.
But not this time. In a couple of sentences, Harriet changed the trajectory of my appointment: “I think we should actually tone it down just a bit. It would look a lot more modern, and bronde is really going to look a lot richer and less damaged.”
I took her advice and instead of my usual buttery blonde highlights, I left with a shiny head of warm, deeper-than-blonde-lighter-than-brunette hair which, as Muldoon told me, is known as bronde, the colour forecast by experts to be one of the biggest hair colour trends of 2025.
Nina Brown, Senior Colourist at Neil Moodie Studio, tells me that this is a colour she’s increasingly being asked for, and considers it part of the wave of people wanting “lower maintenance looks and colours that look more natural with less obvious regrowth.”
Another factor in its popularity? It being more budget-friendly than traditional highlights, with Brown saying that the joy of bronde is that while it demands much less from the wearer than lighter hair, it “doesn’t grow out with any harsh lines, and doesn’t compromise on quality.”
I’m told it’s more common to see those, who like me, have coloured their hair lighter and want to ease off a bit to adop a bronde look. Yet the shade can come from both sides of the spectrum, and Michela Bazzoli, International Artistic Director at TONI&GUY and current British Colour Technician of the Year, says that darker brunettes can opt for it as it can help “transition deeper richer hues into more versatile softer shades.”
Celebrities who’ve adopted bronde lately include Taylor Swift, whose hair throughout her Eras tour was right smack bang between blonde and brunette, Margot Robbie, who’s dialled down the highlights massively of late, and J Lo, who is the ultimate poster girl for the shade, pairing it with her bronzed skin and softly-smoky eyes for that very moneyed, very classic finish.
While bronde may be the colour for right now, Sara Cassidy, Senior Colourist at HARI’S King’s Road, believes it has its roots in 2020: “When people couldn’t do their hair at a salon during covid, many left theirs alone more until they could get to an expert colourist and were during that time acquainted with their natural hair colour, which is actually what suits most people best, with a few tweaks to add dimension.”
I’ve now been bronde for a couple of months and can testify to it being eminently flattering – and far less demanding than blonde. There’s only one bit of extra homework to do if going bronde and that is to take measures to maintain its quality: this colour only shines when it, well, shines, so I’ve taken to using hair masks with great gusto. Cassidy reminded me of how brilliant Philip Kingsley’s Elasticizer is on hair in need of extra health, and advised me to pop into the salon between colour appointments for gloss, which adds a transparent sort of glaze to hair.
Other than that: it’s easy, freeing and feels fresh, like all the best hair trends.
