Sure, Lovato isn’t a stranger to hair changes—she’s tried virtually every shade and style in the beauty world, even chopping off her waves into a bob back in March—but it’s been a few years since she’s made such a drastic color change.
The singer teased her new hair on Instagram stories last night, posting a photo a cropped photo of just the lower-half of her face with definitely lighter, blonder waves. The new color comes from hairstylist Amber Maynard Bolt of Nine Zero One salon in Los Angeles, who told Peoplethat Lovato “had not done a change in a while and wanted something new.”
(Image credit: Instagram/@ddlovato)
The shade was, of course, a drastic transition, considering her recent hair color was nearly black. “Usually, she is open and willing to do big changes,” said Maynard Bolt, adding, “She had her short black hair for a while and was growing it out, and when it got longer to play with, she decided to do this change.”
The Process
And if you thought your recent two-hour salon visit was rough, consider this: The entire dyeing process took two days. TWO FREAKING DAYS. “We always make sure clients know that the process can take several hours and/or multiple visits,” said Maynard Bolt to Allure.
“In this case, we were able to co-color Demi’s hair—I worked on the front and top, while my assistant Anthony Holguin focused on the back. This makes the process go much faster and allows us to work more efficiently and cover more ground in less time.”
But, unlike your last dye job, which was probably spent sitting uncomfortably in a chair for an hour, Lovato’s process was a bit, uh, cushier. “We are there for a while, so at times we have a Netflix binge, and we watch some shows,” said Maynard Bolt to People. “Her chef will make her very healthy food and bring it to her…She also scrolls [through] Instagram and makes phone calls, hangs out, and chats with us most of the time.”
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Pays to be a celebrity, eh? If you're officially in the mood to dye or highlight your own hair, get inspired by celebrity trends, below.
7 Best Celebrity-Inspired Highlights to Copy ASAP
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(Image credit: Getty Images)
THE LOOK: Foil Highlights
Foil highlights, like Gisele Bündchen's, are the traditional O.G. highlights you're probably most familiar with. Foils give your hair an all-over brighter, fresher look, as if you just spent a week vacationing in Hawaii. They typically require touch-ups every eight weeks.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
THE LOOK: Balayage Highlights
Balayage, a.k.a. hair-painting, is a technique in which the colorist places color only where the sun would hit your hair for a natural, slightly-grown-out effect, like Halle Berry's. The benefit of balayage over traditional highlights is that the brightness is concentrated on the ends, more than on the roots, so it doesn’t require consistent touch-ups as your hair grows out.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
THE LOOK: Babylights
Babylights are soft, super-fine highlights that are placed around the hairline and the edges of your face—like Jessica Alba's, here—to mimic the unprocessed highlights you had as a kid who spent time running around outside (some colorists even ask you to bring in a childhood photo). Think of them like tiny strips of bright tinsel, glinting throughout your hair, resulting in a subtle-yet-fresh update.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
THE LOOK: Ombré highlights
Ombré hair is the trend that will never die, and for good reason: It’s a drastic hair change that requires no maintenance. Because the look requires only lightening the lower half of your hair while keeping your darker roots intact (see: Joan Smalls), you never need to touch it up. Just grow it out and chop it off when you’re over it.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
THE LOOK: Ribbon Highlights
Unlike babylights, which are placed around your roots and face-framing layers, ribbon highlights are thin strips of contrasting color woven throughout the hair, giving waves and curls subtle-looking depth and brightness. Peep Olivia Munn's itty-bitty caramel highlights for proof.
(Image credit: Archives)
THE LOOK: Lowlights
If your hair color is feeling blah and monotone, go for some lowlights, like Julianne Hough's. Essentially the opposite of highlights, lowlights add depth to one-note hair shades with strategically placed strips of dye a few shades darker than your natural color. The effect: Incredibly pretty dimension that doesn't feel drastic.
(Image credit: Archives)
THE LOOK: Sombré highlights
Sombré, which is short for subtle ombré (I know, I know), is exactly what it sounds like: an even softer, less drastic take on the trend. It's especially wearable on darker hair colors, like Beyoncé's, thanks to its ultra-blended effect that obscures any harshness.
Chloe Metzger is the deputy beauty director at Cosmopolitan, overseeing the editorial content and growth strategy of the hair, makeup, and skin space on digital, while also obsessively writing about the best hair products for every hair type (curly girl here; whattup), and the skincare routines that really, truly work (follow her on Instagram to see behind-the-scenes pics of that magazine life). She brings nearly a decade of writing and editing expertise, and her work has appeared in Allure, Health, Fitness, Marie Claire, StyleCaster, and Parents. She also has an unhealthy adoration for Tom Hanks and would like to please meet him one day, if you could arrange that. Thanks.
