Imagine a scenario where you are always in the spotlight. Imagine a beam of light dancing through your hair, creating a halo around your head, leaving you lighting up every room you enter. Actually, you don’t need to imagine it anymore: you can just run to your hair colorist and have her create the look for you.
Summer 2014’s hot style trend is the splashlight, where one’s hair is highlifted in a horizontal band that stretches from ear to ear, giving the wearer the look of a ‘haloed’ angel.
The technique was invented by New York-based hair colorist Aura Friedman, who was also the creator of last year’s hot hair trend, the ‘Ombre’–which involved darkening one’s hair tones at the roots and then gradually lightening the colour toward the ends.
Friedman first used the splashlights technique on indie band Chairlift’s vocalist Caroline Polachek for her music video I believe in your arms. “She told me that she wanted a laser beam type look going near her eyes, and this is what I came up with. The idea is for the colour to look like a ray of light, like a natural shine mark,” says the stylist. Ask her how she does it, and she says: “It’s an effect that involves bleaching a small horizontal section of hair, starting with the undermost layers, then covering all the hair above and below the stripe with a colour close to your natural shade.”
Friedman says she also created a similiar look for singer Santigold over a year ago but it’s only now that splashlights are becoming much sought after. “I’ve had a lot of people contacting me to create this look for them. The first [colour] placement took me nine hours to do, so of course I wouldn’t do the exact same look for someone else, just something similar,” Friedman explains, adding “if the band of colour is placed lower in the hair, it is easier to do and takes less time.
Hair colourists say they are receiving many requests for the look, with the more fashion-forward incorporating their own creative touch and making the look their own. Sumit Israni of the capital’s Geetanjali chain of salons, says he’s started getting requests for the look. The initial version of the look, at least in the west, had a bright blond streak cutting through the centre of dark strands; that was a rather bok look and definitely not for the faint-hearted. But now the technique has evolved and we’ve started seeing softer versions of the trendy placement that blends dark shades at the roots and ends, with lighter areas toward the centre.
The softer version is a fresh, wearable twist on the Ombre that feels and looks much more approachable. John Denver told us ‘sunshine on our shoulders’ could make us happy.
How to Get the Look
Splashlights are best suited to medium to long hair, but the technique can easily be adapted to suit different hairstyles. here’s how to get the look:
■ Those already happy with their overall hair colour need only choose a shade for the highlights. Those who want a radically new look need to pick a medium or dark shade for the base colour and get the stylsist to get them a good even hue.
■ Ask your stylist to create the splash-lights, focusing the brighter areas around a point of emphasis. A highlight around the cheekbones will balance a long face, a lower splash of brightness will flatter a wide face. Make sure to ask what’s right for you.
■ After the bright section is evenly lightened apply a light colored glaze to help unify the look. Chose a color that complements the base shade.