From toasty melt to peach cobbler, the food-inspired hair colour names keep on coming. The next trend being served up? Mushroom blonde hair, which according to Pinterest is quickly outpacing other popular shades like cold brew and toasted coconut, with searches on the site for it up by 308 percent. While it sounds a little boring (mushrooms may be delicious, but they aren’t exactly the most exciting to look at), the final result is anything but.
The shade mirrors the multitone, ashy look of mushrooms and isn’t really blonde in the traditional sense. Mushroom blonde is an in-between colour—not quite blonde, not quite brunette, making it the perfect transitional shade. “It’s right in between light brown and dark blonde, like an ashier version of brond,” says Stephanie Brown, master colourist at New York City’s IGK Salon Soho. Because it doesn’t really fall into either blonde or brunette, it’s a great shade for blondes looking to dip their toes into the dark side, or for brunettes wanting to go a little lighter.
“I love the idea of using mushrooms to describe the tone of the hair colour,” says Joel Warren, celebrity colourist and founder of the Salon Project. “They have so many different tones of beige and gray that are hard to describe. These tones evolved from the gray and silver trend to a slightly more natural look. The combinations with highlights and low lights gives a beautiful modern look.”
While your instinct may be to go warmer with your hair for the summer, that’s the perfect reason not to: Doing something on the cooler side is a more unexpected look than summery baby blonde or sandy brunette. According to Brown, mushroom blonde is also super low-maintenance, making it a great choice for summer. Because it’s a more grown-out look, it needs to be touched up only every three to six months (even up to a year) depending on the length of your hair.
To get the colour, Brown recommends asking your colourist for a light brown or dark blonde subtle ombré, with a variation of both light brown and dark blonde pieces. It’s important to ask for something ashy, or else you’ll be left with a more traditional bronde. And as always, bringing in photos as reference always helps.
If you need some inspo for your hairdresser (or a little more convincing for yourself), scroll on for some more examples of the colour.
