Succulents are the ultimate easy to own plant – requiring little water and not much attention, as they continue to thrive and grow in their little corner of neglect. Often over-looked for more garnish flowers, desert succulents have been sitting there quietly bidding their time until world domination (or Instagram take-over, same thing) – and their time is now, penetrating the world of fashion, beauty, and hair. Of course, we’re only interested in the succulent hair trend and, if you follow Instagram, you’ll see that that it’s also most fashionistas’ preoccupation too. #succulenthair is a thing – are you ready?
OK, the first thing to know is – just because the muse is a succulent, don’t assume the upkeep is as easy. We won’t lie, the upkeep of the succulent hair colour is seriously laborious (much more epic than keeping a plant alive for a week) but if the beauty gods want to set us a challenge, then we are game.
What is the succulent hair trend?
To break it down, it’s hair trend totally based on the Sandi-type succulents you can buy in Ikea. The little rubber, waxy type plants that come in green, teals, red, pinks, oranges, purples are the latest muse for hair colourists but, before you judge, take a look at the results as they are simply outstanding.
If you look really hard, you can kind of see how a succulent could provide inspiration – not many plants have green roots and magenta ends, or swirls of deep purples and reds. Given the amount of upticks in pastels at the moment, think of the Rose Gold trend and even the upsurge in Unicorn Hair (true story). This trend isn’t totally surprising but the ombré colour cuts a bolder statement than most.
Getting the look
The most common succulent take is to go green on the roots and length, transitioning to pink on the ends. We’d like to say it’s simple to get the look, but very often nature provides us with colour palettes that can’t be recreated – so it’s best to have a good chat with your colourist about the colours that can be captured. The first step is to bleach the hair (unless you are exceptionally light) so that the vibrant colours have something to grip to. Of course, in order to undertake a total bleach stripping process, it’s ideal that your hair is in optimum condition – the plan, after all, is to go succulent and not cactus.
As we said above, the upkeep is pretty epic. It’s recommended to only wash your hair twice a week with ice-cold water as heat will dilute the colouring, sadly the whole water once a month upkeep that works with real succulents doen’t cut it here.
#succulenthair
If you want the look, DO check out Instagram for inspiration, DON’T bring a potted plant along to your salon.