Colour
Over the past decade, we’ve seen a huge trend for colourful hair, with heavy focus on pastel colours such as baby pink, blue or purple. The trend was propelled by influencers and became a staple in runway shows. Almost immediately, salons improved their colour offerings to incorporate these new hues and, soon after, drugstore brands made the shades available for home dyeing.
Now, however, we may be seeing a shift towards natural hair colours. The colour #blonde is the most hashtagged hair shade on Instagram, with 60,543,261 tags; whether this means bleached, honey, dirty, natural or strawberry, blonde is hot and – thanks to the plex formulas developed over the past few years – achievable.
Trends
Colour techniques have developed and become more experimental, from Schwarzkopf’s rain drop method to Aura Friedman’s opal style colouring – and we’re lapping it up, with one in four women in the UK spending £18,370 over the average adult lifetime, or the equivalent of £291.60 annually, altering the natural colour of their hair according to a survey by Living Proof.
The staples of hair colouring haven’t faded, however, with #balayage being the most hashtagged hair trend on Instagram, garnering over 19,527,639 tags on images. #highlights follows with over 10m tags, followed by #ombrehair and #hairpainting.
Styles
There’s no doubt that the way we style our hair says a lot about our personalities, whether we prefer it long, in a pixie crop, blended with extensions or paired with a fringe. It seems, however, that a lot of us are loving long tresses, according to Instagram. #longhair has been used 33,955,456 times, while #shorthair istrailing behind with just over 12m tags and #bob with 5.4m.
Texture
We’ve come a long way with Afro hair equality, although there’s still a long way to go. Instagram and social media has helped in spreading the word of the Natural Hair Movement, encouraging women to make the transition from relaxed hair to their beautiful, natural ‘Fros. Because of this, we’ve seen a rise in hashtags relating to textured hair. #curlyhair comes in first with 24,669,779 tags, while #naturalhair wins big with over 23m and #dreads comes in fourth with 5m tags.
Hairdos
Whether we’ve had our hair styled at a salon for a big event, or we’ve experimented with a new ‘do ourselves, according to Instagram we love styling our hair. We’re sure many of you have a few hairstyles bookmarked to try out when you have the chance – we know we do!
With that in mind, it’s no wonder why #braids has the most hashtags of any hairstyle, 12,268,985 to be exact. Their versatility means that we never have to wear the same hairstyle twice, perfect for those who don’t like routine!
#updo comes in second with 4.6m, #weave with 4.1m, #boxbraids with 3.6m and the humble #ponytail with 2.8m.
