Copper Coloured Hair

Growing up in the 80’s as a child with red hair, didn’t seem that cool. I luckily escaped (or now as a 40-year-old I fail to recollect) experiencing any name calling such as ‘carrot top’ or ‘ginge’ but others weren’t so lucky. As a shy child, having copper coloured hair made me stand out from the crowd- the very one thing I didn’t want to do, so I grew up not loving my hair.

As a tween in the early 90’s my best friends and I were obsessed with ‘Sun In’ a hair lightener product. This magical hair spray promised to lighten hair to give it a sun kissed blonde look. In my 11-year-old brain, I don’t quite know how I thought I go from orphan ‘Annie’ to looking like one of the blonde twins from ‘Fun House’ overnight- but hey- that’s what I thought! Alas, one life lesson later, after my mum refusing to let me use it- I still snuck some onto my hair- and guess what?! funnily enough, it didn’t transform me into the golden-haired princess I so wished.

But fast forward almost 30 years later, and thankfully times have changed.

Being copper coloured is cool- just ask Vogue. (Insert link to Vogue article) With salons having being shut for the best part of 2020, and only just beginning to open now in 2021 it is predicted what women especially are wanting a new image over haul. Sick of dodgy home haircuts and box dyes- it is thought that the colour of this year will be… you guessed it- copper.

Spear heading the current copper coloured hair trend is model sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid, who have both been spotted rocking gorgeous long copper tresses. Always ones to inspire it is not hard to imagine that the masses will follow.

Long before the beautiful Hadid sisters however, there have been a multitude of sassy, cool and beautiful red heads that have changed my mind that having red hair wasn’t cool. Growing up who could forget Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when she took off her blonde bob to reveal her long curly copper locks.

Then as a teen I was obsessed with My So-Called Life (who wasn’t!) and Claire Danes character Angela who had a coloured long red bob.

When Britpop stole my mid-teens, Donna Matthews from Elastica, and Shirley Manson from Garbage were two of the many icons from that era who I looked up to, both rocking the copper look.

When the Sex and The City cast stole my heart later in life, Mirandas short copper coloured pixie cut going though to layered bob that inspired my own hairstyles.

More recently the incredible Netflix series that helped me through yet another of 2020’s lockdowns was The Queens Gambit. This saw its main character Chess champion Beth Harmon sport a bright orange incredibly short fringe and bob, as she emerged as a new style icon.

Disney and Pixar have also created some of the finest characters out there sporting red or copper coloured hair- think Ariel, from the Little Mermaid, Jessie from Toy Story, Giselle from Enchanted, Merida from Brave, and Anna from Frozen to name but a few!

I am now well and truly sold on my original copper roots, however years and years of experimenting with different hair dyes have left me unsure of what that even looked like or what it could look like if I left it to grow out. Impatience and grey hairs will always get the better of me waiting to see my actual hair grow through, but luckily there are some amazing colours available on the market to try now to achieve something similar.