Blonde is back in a big way for 2023, but this time around, it’s high-maintenance, polished and expensive-looking. “When you think of glamour, you think Hollywood blonde,” says Zoë Irwin, creative director at John Frieda Salons. “We’ve grown up with Hollywood blonde, but now, the association of glamour has shifted. It’s now the ’90s yellow blonde,” she says, explaining that creamy yellow blondes are in big demand right now. “It’s uptown because it is a high-maintenance look, so after a couple of months, a root will appear, so it becomes an entire new type of colour look. To maintain this, you’ll need to be in the salon every three to four weeks,” she adds.
Giuseppe Stelitano, creative director at Trevor Sorbie for L’Oréal Professionnel, has also noticed this ’90s blonde trend and how it can also be less high-maintenance if you can’t make it to the salon every couple of weeks for root touch-ups. “The highlights can be way more personalised, working more to frame a guests face or keeping some of the depth in the roots as guests still want low-maintenance colour,” he says. “It can be bespoke— just a touch-up or lots more blonde applied but a bigger amount of colour contrast between shades.”