While black, brown, blonde, and red hair colors are the most popular in a world of natural-beauty lovers, we can’t help but swoon over the latest shade to take the hair color world by storm: lavender.
While rocking purple hair might seem like a major leap, once you see how well the people below rock the hair color trend—wearing it straight, wavy, curly, up, down, and braided—you might just change your mind. (Hint: We bet you will.) Just remember: When it comes to unnatural hair colors—especially pastel ones—it’s important to keep maintenance in mind when choosing your new look.
Lavender Waves
Lavender is a mermaid-inspired hue as it is, but when you add the color to cascading waves, you have an even more magical hair look. Plus, with slightly darker roots, it has a nice contrast, too.
Double-Dutch Lavender
If you opt for a lavender ombré, you can really show off your purple ends by braiding them into Dutch braids wrapped around the back of your head. After you finish weaving each braid, gently pancake the plait to make it look extra voluminous when you pin it into the chignon.
Lavender Coils
Excuse us while we swoon over these shiny natural curls. With bright pops of lavender extending all the way to the ends and dark roots up top, it’s trendy and gorgeous all at once. Since naturally curly hair is known to be drier and hair color treatments exacerbate that dryness, be sure to use a curl cream—like Briogeo’s Curl Charismarice Amino + Avocado Leave-In Defining Crème ($20)—to keep your coils shiny and hydrated.
Lavender Undercut
Not ready to go full lav? This purple and black undercut offers a nice in-between. The bold curls pair beautifully with the bright hue, for a hair look that can’t be ignored.
Lavender Fade
From bright purple to a pale shade that’s nearly white, this wavy hair look is nothing short of stunning. We don’t know about you, but it gives us fairy-unicorn vibes that look straight out of a storybook.
Faded Lavender Ombré
If you prefer to only dip your ends into the purple hair color trend, consider this pale lavender look. If you bleach your ends, you can use temporary hair dyes so you can switch between colors as you please.
Lavender Blonde
If full lavender feels like too much too soon, why not mix lavender in with blonde? This long look features cool blonde strands blended with pastel lavender for a dusty look that pairs especially well with cool skin tones.
Braided Accents
The periwinkle take on the lavender hair color trend is somewhat electric. Add a few accent braids to the mix and you have a style that looks as stunning headed to the grocery store as it does to Coachella.
Lavender-Gray Curls
When lavender meets silver, you have a dusty purple hair color that looks like a superhero should be wearing it. Pair it with tight coils and even better.
Metallic Purple Candy
Any time you add a high-shine finish to colored hair, you have yourself a mane that looks positively magical. This one, while dubbed purple candy by the colorist, makes us think of a glowing fortune ball.
Lavender Micro Bob
This light lavender bob looks more gray than purple. However, the faded take on the color creates an edgy appeal to the typically bright hue.
White Lavender
This dreamy lavender look gives us major mermaid vibes (and even a little bit of Ursula, if we’re being honest). If you don’t have naturally curly hair but want to experiment with the look, try using a half-inch curling iron to get the look. And, whatever you do, don’t forget a heat protectant—we love Living Proof’s Perfect Hair Day Heat Styling Spray ($28).
Lavender Tie-Dye
Who knew lavender, blue, teal, and white stripes could be such an alluring hair color idea? While not spun into spirals, this multicolored mane brings images of tie-dye to mind.
Two-Tone Lavender Bob
This dimensional hair color is thanks to the perfect blend of pale pink and bright lavender. While it might look like light hitting the strands in just the right way, when you look closely, you’ll notice that there are two shades mixed into one.
Lavender Fairy
Pale pink and vivid lavender combine for a hair color that looks straight out of Candyland. In other words, it’s delicious.
Lavender Highlights
Remember: You don’t have to go full lavender to hop on the trend. Here, you can see how stunning a head full of tight coils can shine even brighter with perfectly placed purple highlights.
Old Hollywood Lavender Bob
This is what we call pastel lavender perfection. And with a deep side part and curled-under ends, it looks like the prettiest pin-up ‘do.
Lavender Confetti
Instead of black or brown roots, consider dark purple cascading into pale lavender. That way you can go all purple while still getting in on the rooted hair trend.
Lavender Rose
We love a rose gold hair color—mix it with lavender and you have yet another stunning shade.
Purple-Peach Hair
You know what other colors look great together? Peach and lavender. The ripple effect of this style and color brings old Hollywood charm to the modern day.
Short Lilac-Blue Hair
This cotton candy-inspired hair color looks even better when fluffily styled as it is here. To recreate the style, be sure to have a texturizing spray on hand—we love Davines’ This Is A Dry Texturizer ($34).
Lavender Braids
Lavender braids? Yes, please.
Pastel Purple Perfection
This lavender bombshell is giving us major hair envy—both for the color and the volume. To maintain the height to adequately show off the dusty purple hue, be sure to spritz your strands with a light-hold volumizing spray, like Drybar’s Triple Sec 3-in-1 Finishing Spray ($26).
Lavender Buzz Cut
Yup, you can rock the lavender hair color trend even if you have very little hair. Just look at this beautiful buzz cut if you don’t believe us.
Lavender Unicorn
Last but not least, this multicolored lavender-based beauty is one for the books. With stripes of some of the prettiest colors in the book, it’s a pastel statement that looks sweet as can be.
