The celebrity trend for natural-look hair has inspired a fabulous new haircolouring technique.

Colour cascading is the most exciting hair news for spring/summer 2008. The new Wella technique has just been launched to salons so expect to start hearing about it very soon. Marie Uva from Rokk Ebony was one of the first to try it; “I’ve been playing around with techniques for years but no colour company has ever brought out one such as this,” she says.

Inspired by fashion’s tie-dye and ombré looks (think Angelina at the SAGs), colour cascading is a technique where colourists work in panels (larger sections than with regular highlighting) and fuse together three different colours on that section of hair, starting with the darkest shade at the roots, down to the lightest at the tips. The effect can be as subtle as that seen here on Rachel Bilson, where chocolate melts into toffee and caramel – although Uva has worked with more out-there spectrums such as cherry-red through to pink through to white.

The advantages of colour cascading over regular highlighting include less time – “because we work in larger sections, we can do a partial panel technique in only fifteen minutes,” says Uva. And also more natural-looking results – “traditional foiling, where we just paint one section of hair with one colour, can give a stripy look.” Unless, of course, you’re after purples and pinks. “The great thing is, it can be as individualised as you want,” says Uva.

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Also Need-to-Know: Balayage

This French technique for freehand-painting colour onto hair is not new, but it’s becoming much more common in Australia. And it’s the perfect way to get the grown-out looks of stars such as Sarah Jessica Parker and the Olsens. Colourists leave the roots au naturel (or even darken them for greater contrast) and brush blonde through the ends of hair, to give that cool can’t-be-bothered look. Of course you have to be bothered: you still need to visit your salon every six to eight weeks. There’s a fine line between a little regrowth and a two-tone look.

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