Caramel Macchiato Brunette Is The Perfect Winter Hair Shade
Each year, winter brings darker days and even darker beauty and fashion trends. Stored away are summer's bright clothes, and dyed for the season are everyone's locks. Okay, not everyone, but the fact remains that many people go brunette for the winter to complement not only their winter attire but also their colder makeup routines and more. However, many people rock classic, one-toned brunette shades, which can be a bit boring when the color's expected to last throughout the season. This is why we're here to discuss the perfect hair color switch-up for winter: Enter, caramel macchiato hair.
The caramel macchiato trend is a fall makeup staple at this point, bringing rich brown and burnt orange tones to the face. But with caramel macchiato hair, you can extend this trend — and these colors — into winter with ease. Naturally, this color's name is derived from the layered espresso drink popular at countless coffee shops, including Starbucks, which is why it has brown and black tones as its focal points. The key to this hair color, then, is giving your locks a dynamic punch of color through highlights, balayage, and more to keep them from falling flat — just as a Starbies macchiato always displays dynamic movement when its caramel, espresso, and milk swirl together.
This hair color trend is shaken, not stirred
The beauty of a caramel macchiato 'do is that you can recreate it in many ways, including having your brown and black tones evenly dispersed. This resembles a macchiato that's been shaken enough to combine all of the ingredients (rather than one drinking them separately). This level of depth can be rather tricky to achieve at home, so we recommend heading to the salon for this take on the trend.
Extra cream, please
The beauty of caramel macchiatos is that the espresso sits on top of the drink, so it slowly seeps down and swirls into the milk. You can recreate this in your hair by asking your hairstylist for light brunette or dark blond highlights going all the way from your root down to your hair's ends. These strands will catch the light well and keep you glistening during the dry and cold months.
When in doubt, ombré it out
If you'd rather avoid full highlights or an equal dispersion of color throughout your hair, then try an ombré look that resembles a macchiato with most of its espresso mixed down into the milk. In this case, your milk will have turned brown, but you'll still have a little bit of espresso at the top. The same applies to this color strategy: Keep some dark brown or black hair at the top, and then transition into brown as you go down, ending with a slightly lighter brown than what you started with.
Half-and-half hair is beautiful (& a built-in coffee pun)
Your options for hair coloring are endless, and this includes taking a perhaps more unconventional route and doing a two-toned hair look that's pretty perfectly split in half. There can be some bleeding on either side for a more ombré effect, but this style typically keeps the two tones distinct. This keeps the "espresso" and "milk" portions of your hair more distinct, like a true Starbucks drink as it's handed to you. Plus, this will look stunning with countless 'fits with both colors so prominent.
Sometimes darker is better
By this point, you likely understand why caramel macchiato is a hair color trend that is everywhere this winter, but we're here to show you one final breathtaking way to wear it: caramel macchiato hair (dark roast version). This might even be more akin to a Dunkin' drink, as the coffee chain's caramel sauce is called Caramel Swirl, but it hits every vibe. This take on the trend is for the edgier among us, but it's perhaps the most authentic coffee look.