Liquid brunette is the glossy hair colour that’s about to headline 2023

Expensive brunette has headlined for the past year, but heading into 2023 hair colourists are predicting another smash-hit. Liquid brunette will be taking luxurious brown hair colour to the next level. The jist? It combines that famous (aforementioned) expensive brunette with the liquid hair trend that’s taking TikTok by storm.

The blend of the two means carefully dimensional and detailed, natural-looking brunettes are set to be given a glow-up with ultra shiny, silky strands.

“Liquid brunette is all about how brunette has been upgraded with a super high gloss,” explains Zoe Irwin, creative director at John Frieda. “There’s a lot of conversation around super, super, uber-shiny hair,” she says. “Hair has gone ‘90s. Everything’s been super glossed.”

And while, any brunette shades can be given a shiny top coat, the experts agree it intensifies the deeper you go. “Darker tones can add more shine,” explains Nicola Clarke, creative colour director at John Frieda, as light bounces off it more easily, but “lighter tones can add a glow from underneath,” she explains. “Depending on the time of year I switch between adding a few lights in – not to make it look lighter, but just to give it dimension – or adding some darker pieces in to give it a richer look,” says Nicola. 

Recently, there’s been a natural movement toward darker strands, according to Nicola. “People are steering away from that Californian, tousled, beachy hair and going back to more of a brunette,” she confirms. “That’s not to say that they’re completely solid or they don’t have different tones in there, but the tones are a lot darker and closer to the natural colour, rather than being this soft, hippy, bleachy colour, and the shine is really important,” she says. “When you look at a brunette, they’re not just one colour. If you look close, sometimes there’s tiny bits of blonde, or tiny bits of red.”

For that delicate dimension, a box dye won’t cut it, firstly because it will create chunks on the dry, dead sections.  “If you try and do a box dye job, all of the fine hairs around your face, grab the dye and just go dense,” says Zoe. Ditto, the ends. “If you put a darker shade over the whole thing, it grabs the ends first, because it’s so porous on the ends,” says Nicola. But also, because the luxe look requires a blend of tones. “This is not an all-over same-colour tint, because when you do that, it’s incredibly jarring to the skin tone,” says Zoe. “It doesn’t work. This has multiple tones within the brunette. We create these micro slices which might be one shade up or one shade down, or slightly more ash than your natural colour,” she adds. Throughout the hair, “we do these tiny strands with very low peroxide bleach. As colourists we’ve learnt to take the tiniest strands so it looks natural, then the gloss goes on top and gives it this really beautiful finish,” says Nicola. As for framing complexions, “we make the first half-inch of the hairline a shade lighter,” says Nicola, to create a natural-looking glow.