Use a Balayage Hair Technique to Amp Up Your Color

Before balayage was a hair trend it was just a technique — freehanded dye-painting that allowed a colorist to create soft, natural-looking highlights. But the look can be anything but natural if you are into shockingly amped-up colors like purple, blue, turquoise, red, aqua or any other color of the rainbow that strikes you. It’s a dramatic departure from natural-looking, sun-kissed shades, for sure. Balayage meets ombre. So, how do you know if balayage is for you? Do these 23 balayage hairstyles inspire you? Do you like the way each strand varies? If you do, ask for the balayage technique next time you go for color.

You could DIY this, using a similar color melt technique. but you may not want to. Balayage this vivid can benefit from the hand of an artist, free-forming color onto your hair in downward sweeping patterns. A professional colorist is going to be able to look at your hair at various angles, observe where it catches the light and how it frames your face and apply color to just certain strands. There’s no right or wrong way to go with a vibrant color balayage.

Maintenance is always a consideration. While natural-color balayage is well-loved for being low-maintenance, vibrant colors like blue and teal are going to fade and grow out, leaving you needing some kind of touch-up. To keep your new vibrant color looking good longer, delay washing your hair after having it colored and thereafter wash it as little as possible or use a dry shampoo. As the color fades, you will want to refresh it. You can accentuate the vibrant color by using a semi-permanent color wash. Or if you are seeing your colorist for a root touch up, she can also refresh the balayage.

Though balayage has become so popular that it’s now commonplace in salons on both coasts and in big cities, it’s synonymous with natural, so you if you want a vibrant color, you may want to ask generically for “hair painting”. If you see your stylist reach for foils, stop everything and have a discussion about the technique, which is a departure from the traditional way of applying color in blocks. Foils will not be needed. An exception to this would be if you have very dark brown or black hair. Dark hair may require the heat from foils to get a vibrant color take. If this is the case, your stylist may want to combine both techniques, and we like the way she thinks!

Got a vibrant-hued balayage pic to share? Tag us on Instagram @britandco. Come on — share the love!

Drew Barrymore recently chatted up actress (and mom to Kinds of Kindness actress Margaret Qualley) Andie Macdowell on her talk show, and I couldn't help but swoon over her gorgeous gray locks. I spotted my first gray hair at age 25 in a GAP dressing room, and it felt like an attack on my youth at the time. But there's been a growing cultural shift toward accepting and celebrating gray hair. If men can salt-and-pepper it, why can't we? Embracing gray hair can be such a positive and empowering choice. Here are 7 compelling reasons why.

1. You'll Save So Much Time And Money

Alexandra Tran

Coloring your grays can turn into a lifetime commitment of keeping up with the color. You’ll save time and so much money by not going to the salon every other month — and eventually every month — by letting your hair go gray. It’s freeing!

2. You'll Feel More Natural

Natasha Brazil

In an interview, Macdowell said she felt "more real and honest" going gray. Gray hair is just a natural part of aging and can look stunning when cared for with regular cuts and gentle styling, giving you a unique look that actually makes a positive statement.

3. You'll Look More Confident

Alexandra Tran

Embracing your gray hair can boost your confidence, showing the world that you're comfortable in your own skin.

4. You'll Reduce Your Exposure To Chemicals

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According to the American Cancer Society and a study by Harvard Medical School, there is a possible link between hair dye use and cancer, especially skin and breast cancer. Avoiding hair dyes means less exposure to potentially harmful chemicals, which can be better for your overall health.

5. You'll Enjoy Healthier Hair

Alexandra Tran

Frequent dyeing can cause damage to your hair. Embracing gray hair allows your tresses to stay healthy and strong.

6. You'll Be A Positive Role Model

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By embracing your gray hair, you can be a positive role model for other women and girls, encouraging them to normalize the aging process and be grateful for it.

7. You'll Embrace Change

Khaki Bedford

New chapter in your life? Going gray can signify a new milestone and embracing change. Here's B+C editor Haley Sprankle (right) with her mom, whom she convinced to go fully silver. "She looks so cool with silver hair," says Haley. I couldn't agree more!

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Lead image by Natasha Brazil on Unsplash

Margot Robbie has a son! The Barbieactress and her husband Tom Ackerley welcomed their first baby in early November after a very busy year (after all, she announced she'd star opposite Ryan Gosling again in an Ocean's Eleven prequeland boarded a Sims & Monopoly adaptation as producer).

The Sirens producer proved she has impeccable pregnancy style at Wimbledon and a red carpet, and I just know she's going to have amazing mom style too. Here's everything you need to know about this new family of three.

How many kids does Margot Robbie have?

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Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley have one child, a son! A source confirmed to People that the couple had welcomed their baby boy on November 2.

People also confirmed Margot Robbie is expecting a baby in July, the same day images of the actress showing off her growing baby bump went viral on X (formerly Twitter). In the images, Margot's standing with Tom on a dock, wearing black trousers, a black blazer, and a white tee rolled up to rest above her stomach. Leave it to Margot Robbie to make chic pregnancy wear look effortless!

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Margot Robbie later attended the L.A. premiere of My Old Ass — produced by Robbie and starring Aubrey Plaza — on September 9, 2024. The ever-elegant star rocked a muted, off-the-shoulder bodycon dress (hello, fall style inspo!) and some adorable strappy heels! Her simple hair, makeup, and jewelry allowed her most major accessory to shine here — her bump! This is the first time we've really seen Robbie since her Wimbledon appearance, and it's no surprise that her look absolutely did not disappoint.

Who is Margot Robbie's husband Tom Ackerley?

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Margot Robbie married Tom Ackerley in 2016 after they met on the set of Suite Française in 2013. Tom is an actor (he appeared as an extra on the first three Harry Potter movies), and a film producer. The two also co-founded their production company LuckyChap Entertainment in 2014 and have worked on movies like I, Tonya,Promising Young Woman,Maid, and Saltburn.

What have Tom Ackerley and Margot Robbie said about their relationship?

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Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley love spending time together, and Tom told The Sunday Times they spend "24 hours a day together."

"It’s seamless," he continues. "We don’t have a toggle on, toggle off. It’s all become one thing.”

“Being married is actually the most fun ever, life got way more fun somehow," Margot told Porter in 2018. "I have a responsibility being someone’s wife, I want to be better."

Margot has also been vocal about how frustrating it is to constantly be asked about children, telling Radio Times in 2019 that, "I'm so angry that there's this social contract," she says. "You're married, now have a baby. Don't presume. I'll do what I'm going to do."

What is Margot Robbie's baby name?

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Margot and Tom haven't officially shared their baby's name yet, but we're all ears should they choose to do so.

How old is Margot Robbie?

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Margot Robbie just celebrated her 34th birthday on July 2. Tom Ackerley turned 34 on June 13, so there's only a one-month age gap between this celeb couple.

We're sending all the best wishes to Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley! Check out Hilary Duff Officially Gave Birth To Baby #4! for more adorable baby news.

This post has been updated.

Keeping up with your hair color or concealing grays can get expensive at the salon, and who really has the time to book a salon visit every 4-6-8 weeks anyway? Thankfully, there are at-home root touch-up products that can save you time and money while still giving you a salon-like look. From root dye kits to concealers, here are the best products to freshen up your roots right at home.

Root Dye Kits

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Want to skip the salon for up to three weeks? Try these root touch-up kits for a hair refresh.

dP hue Root Touch-Up Kit

To permanently cover grays, this Leaping Bunny-certified at-home root touch-up kit will cover up to 1 inch of root growth and comes in six shades. It's paraben- and sulfate-free too. Get two-applications in one box for those in-between times.

Madison Reed Root Perfection Permanent Root Touch Up

Another Leaping Bunny-certified dye kit that gets results is Madison Reed's ammonia-free permanent root touch up. It takes just 10 minutes to cover gray with no harsh ingredients like pthalates or parabens, and should hold for three weeks until your next appt.

Clairol Root Touch-Up by Natural Instincts Permanent Hair Dye

This drugstore option is affordable and ammonia-free, with a large palette of hair colors. Permanently cover grey roots in just 20 minutes!

Root Concealers

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For when you have a salon visit coming up, these one-day concealers are perfect for a quick touch-up.

Color Wow Root Cover Up

This root cover up works great at covering grey and dark roots, adding highlights in between salon visits, and filling in thinning hairlines. Perfect for those last-minute touch ups, Color Wow is water-resistant and sweat-resistant and will last until your next wash.

Tarte Big Ego Dab & Go Hair Concealer

Look totally natural with this waterproof cream-to-powder hair concealer in a mess-free container. This vegan product is perfect for touching up roots and filling in thin spots on the go. Just toss in your bag!

Bumble & Bumble Color Stick Root Coverup

Refresh your roots with these hair color sticks from a cruelty-free brand. Apply like lipstick, and blend! It will wash out with your next shampoo.

R+Co BRIGHT SHADOWS Root Touch-Up Spray

This touch-up spray covers your roots until your next shampoo sesh and between salon visits. Paraben, sulfate-free, and vegan, the product also moisturizes and helps thicken hair with pearl extract and biotin.

Rita Hazan Root Concealer Spray

This award-winning concealer spray is water-proof, ammonia-free, and covers grays exactly where you need it.

Clairol Root Touch-Up Temporary Concealing Powder

Great for touching up roots and brows, this affordable concealer powder is perfect for keeping in your tote or car.

L'Oreal Paris Magic Root Hair Color Concealer Brush

Twist and brush on your root color with this brush applicator that dries quickly. It's great for hair that is less than 25 percent gray, and it's also ammonia-free, peroxide free with no harsh or synthetic dyes.

Preventive Serums

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Want to prevent more gray hair growth? Try these daily serums.

Vegamour Gro Ageless Anti-Grey Hair Serum

For those with 30 percent or fewer grays, this serum helps reduce the appearance of grays on new hair growth. Made with clean, vegan ingredients, Vegamour Gro was a 2023 NewBeauty Award Winner.

Arey To The Root Serum

Made with clean ingredients and cruelty-free, To The Root also helps slow and re-pigment grey hair while making your hair look thicker and more voluminous.

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Main Photo by Thaís Sarmento

Don't get me wrong, tacky holiday decorations can be a lot of fun, from ugly sweater parties to Griswold-style outdoor lights. I love strolling the neighborhood for the most OTT holiday houses and thinking creatively what I'll wear to my friend Marie's annual corny Christmas party. I'm here for all the intentional tacky decor.... just not in my home. Tacky can also mean plastic and wasteful and just well hard to look at if you're going for any sort of non-tacky decor aesthetic. If you want to invest in more natural holiday decor this year (fresh pine wreaths, linen tree skirts, beeswax candles), steer clear of these tacky holiday decorations!

Super-Sized Yard Decor

Wayfair

Fionnula Bumble Lighted Display

As much as my kiddo loves these over-the-top inflatables and animated light-up figures, I have to say no to the super-sized lawn ornaments, like Santa riding a motorcycle, enormous snowmen, or this Bumble Lighted Display from the movie classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." They can be pricey and take up a ton of storage, but for those who love them the more the merrier!

Christmas Light Explosions

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Covering every square inch of your house, trees, and yard with twinkling, multicolored lights or flashing LEDs can look chaotic and well crazy. It's an art form to get it right, but when done well it can bring holiday cheer to the block. When done wrong, well, it's sort of a waste of time and money.

Tinsel Snot

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Amazon Christmas Icicle Tinsel

Is tinsel making a comeback? Please say it isn't so. It not only looks tacky IMHO, but it makes it harder to recycle your natural tree. (Our Girl Scout chapter picks up our trees the day after Christmas for recycling - but not if there's tinsel on it!). Anyway, if you have nostalgia feels for tinsel, go for it sparingly and avoid this drippy snot look. We want to see that pretty tree!

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

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Tipsy Elves Women's Ugly Christmas Sweater

Ugly Christmas sweaters are intentionally tacky, but what's with all the stores capitalizing on them? I liked it back when you could get creative and DIY your holiday sweater, but now you can find racks full of garish colors, clashing patterns, and glittery appliqués. Maybe we can rein it in this year?

Overly Trad Decor

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Faux Lighted Wreath

The angels, the harps, the bells, the Merry Christmas sign, oh my! Overly trad Christmas decor can make a home feel dated. Sure, if you have some childhood favorites, toss them into the mix of modern-day neutral holiday decor, like natural linens, fresh garland, and naturally scented candles.

Metallic Garland

Amazon

Amazon Metallic Garland

Can we just skip the metallic garland this year? It's wasteful, it's hard to wrap and unwrap around your tree (so much so you just want to toss it in the trash after), and it just makes your tree look like a blast from the past.

According to Stanford University's Waste Reduction, Recycling, Composting and Solid Waste Program, household waste increases by more than 25 percent during the holidays with additional waste like packaging, wrapping paper, and one-use decorations contributing an additional 1 million tons of landfill trash each week from Thanksgiving to New Year's. Better alternatives? Satin ribbons, dried orange slices, cranberry garlands, and felt garlands that you won't throw away. Even the classic construction paper chain link would be an upgrade!

Corny Theme Pillows

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Christmas Theme Pillows

I'm on the fence about the Buffalo plaid too, but it's a classic pattern (we just see it everywhere now). The pillows on the other hand are a little much, no?

Chair Covers

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Christmas Chair Covers

Why do we need these? Maybe just tie a velvet ribbon with mistletoe or add Scandi-style sheepskin to your chairs and call it a holiday.

Christmas Character Themes

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Grinch's Christmas Tree Decorations

The Grinch's green isn't quite Christmas green, putting it even higher on the tacky spectrum. Anything with characters says tacky to me and sort of distorts the meaning of the holidays.

Bathroom Decorations

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Christmas Theme Bathroom Decorations

If you want to make your guests giggle, this tacky set will do the trick.

Porch Banners

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Christmas Porch Banners

Loud and proud!

Kitschy Tea Towels

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Amazon Christmas Towels

The jokes just don't quite hit the way they should. Also, the traditional red and green are killing me! But of course, there's a time and place for tacky Christmas decorations and bringing a little joy to the season. Happy holidays!

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How many times am I going to mention Nobody Wants Thisbefore this year ends? The world may never know — but I'm doing my best to move on from it...at least until we finally get season 2! Instead, I'm here to talk about all the shows you can watch right now that feel similar to Kristin Bell and Adam Brodyin the best rom-com I've ever seen. I'm not pretending that they're going to give you everything Nobody Wants This did, but they hold their own weight as standalone shows worth watching.

Amazon Studios

Fleabag

Looking for the much spicier version of Nobody Wants This? Well, Fleabag has just what the doctor ordered. As Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) haphazardly grapples with grief, she boldly speaks her mind and refuses the support of others. She's known for her, uh, colorful language and is seen juggling an awkward love life.

Both seasons are available to watch on Amazon Prime!

John Medland/Hulu

How To Die Alone

How To Die Aloneis the one of the closest TV series that feels like Nobody Wants This because it follows a similar formula. But instead of centering around two people whose lives intersect, viewers are introduced to Melissa (Natasha Rothwell). She's taken a laissez-faire approach to life because she's basically given up on it and doesn't see the point in try to hope for more. It isn't until a rude awakening knocks her off her feet that she decides to start making more intentional choices. The more Melissa truly starts living, the more she's able to find a spark of magic in everyday living.

Stream it on Hulu today!

Apple TV+

Platonic

I , for one, love when pop culture champions genuine platonic friendships between men and women. So often we hear that it's impossible for the opposite sex to keep things friendly, but Platonic exists as the best counterargument. Viewers get to watch two former best friends — Sylvia (Rose Byrne) and Will (Seth Rogen) reconnect after something soured in their friendship. They quickly find themselves in hilarious scenarios that make their everyday lives a little more stressful than they'd like and it doesn't take long for the cracks in their foundation to start showing again. Overall, there is love in this show but it normalizes the way it shows up in friendships.

Be sure to watch it on Apple TV+!

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Sullivan's Crossing

If you haven't watched Sullivan's Crossing yet, what are you waiting for? Before I watched Nobody Wants This, this TV series was #1 on my list — and I hardly ever binge watch new shows anymore. It could have something to do with the fact Chad Michael Murray makes us wish he were Cal Jones in real life.

Anyway, the series is all about neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan) and her return to her hometown. She slowly starts reconnecting with the people she left behind — including her dad (Scott Patterson) — and a potential romantic interest that adds color to her life.

Barbara Nitke/Netflix

Based on a True Story

Although there are elements of love in Based on a True Story, it's something true crime fans will thoroughly enjoy because it revolves around everyday people who set out to make money based on the popularity of the genre. Ironically, Ava Bartlett (Kaley Cuoco) has the same obsession as other people who can't stop listening to podcasts or watching documentaries about serial killers or unsolved mysteries. Not only does it put a strain on her personal relationships, but she and her husband Nathan realize there's a serial killer in their inner circle that has to be stopped before they hurt more people.

Binge watch the first and second seasons on Netflix this weekend.

Trust me — these are the TV shows that will keep your group chat buzzing until Thanksgiving. Follow us on Facebook for more recs!