Forget about basic ombre hair. Checkerboard hair is the latest cool, temporary way to get a rainbow dye job. See the photos.
If you’re a fan of rainbow hair, you’ve probably done a pink dye job, some version of rainbow ombre, and maybe even half-and-half hair color. If you’re looking to make a statement, your average pastel dye job isn’t going to turn heads as much as you would like in the sea of other unicorn manes, even if it’s really pretty. The solution? A checkerboard hair color look.
Checkerboard hair is the latest rainbow hair trend making people want to switch up their rainbow hair again. The look was created by Alex Brownsell from UK-based salon Bleach London, aka the coolest salon for anything and everything involving rainbow hair. They were also the ones who gave us rainbow roots.
As you probably deduced from the name, the look involves creating a checkerboard-like pattern in your hair from the roots all the way to the ends using two different colors. If you’re the type of person who’s always nervous about committing to hair color, you’ll like this look because it’s temporary. Alex created it using Bleach Temporary Hair Color Crayons, (approximately $3.56). The crayons don’t contain peroxide, and they wash out in one to four washes. You’re probably wishing you had a festival to go to this weekend just so you could try the look, right?
You can think of checkerboard hair as the less complicated, non-permanent version of the pixelated hair dye trend. Once you have the right tools, it’s easy to DIY. Plus, the look can be adapted for any hair length. You can also play around with infinite color combinations. You could stick with the classic two colors, or try adding in more. You could even try using one color and keeping your natural hair color for the other “square.”
You could also try switching up the size of the squares. You could try thinner ones instead of the classic checkerboard pattern, you could scale it down so it almost looks like dots, or you could supersize it. You could even go ~*crazy*~ and try rectangles instead of squares.
And why should we stop at just a checkerboard look? Spots would be just as easy to do. Ditto triangles. For a Valentine’s Day theme, you could experiment with hearts in shades of pink and red. Or you could let your inner kindergartner out and just draw scribbles on your head in different rainbow crayons. The possibilities are endless. One thing is for sure, the festival season cannot come fast enough to try out all the new looks.
Iskra Banović is our seasoned Editor-in-Chief at BlueFashion. She has been steering the website's content and editorial direction since 2013. With a rich background in fashion design, Iskra's expertise spans across fashion, interior design, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and culture.
