Long Hair Tips: How to Update Your Cut and Color for Fall
It can be difficult to gauge what the next step for long hair should be: a few inches will keep it looking healthy, but style-wise brings you back to square one. (Plus, with long strands, you're more likely to take on the overgrown-hedge look.) And with hair color, it's about a major shade change, as opposed to working and enhancing what you already have. Here are a few transformations that the stylists at Salon AKS in New York City worked on as part of our
Fall Beauty Guide. Watch the Videos Here
Keep it Current
With a mane like Mollie's, (before pictured left, after pictured right), you have to make sure there's balance. "You don't want your hair to be wearing you," said Salon AKS partner and stylist Susanna Romano. "The key is accentuating your eyes and your face." Related: Find the Best Haircut for Your Face Shape
Don't Be Monotonous
"Her brunette color was already beautiful," said senior colorist Kathleen Flynn Hui, "and I loved the natural toffee colors at the ends of her hair. We added a bunch of the same-colored highlights at the top, too, to make the color less solid."
Add Layers
"Sarah, (before pictured left, after pictured right) has gorgeous hair," said Susanna, "which is great when you're talking about the potential for change. We gave her some layers to create a lot more movement and interest around her face." Related: What Makes a Perfect Haircut
Punch Up the Blonde
"Her natural color is radiant," said Kathleen, "and because her skin tone has some yellow in it, we incorporated some auburn in with the blonde to give it a nice warm contrast, and to give the blonde something to reflect off of."
A Sharper Shape
If you have a cut like Julie's, (before pictured left, after pictured right), "going shorter can actually help you grow your hair out," said Susanna. "With long hair, it's all about proportion and height and body type, and if it doesn't move, then it doesn't work." Related: 17 Secrets to Getting Your Best Haircut Ever
Make Your Color Work for You
"Her highlights blended in with her skin and took away from the great blue-green color of her eyes," said Kathleen. "So we stayed with auburn highlights, and made them more about gold and copper tones to bring color into her face." Kathleen also put some of the auburn color on Julie's eyebrows. "This only slightly changed their tone," she said, "but it really brought out her eye color."
Related: See the makeup tips that the women above were given to accompany their new looks.
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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.
