Two-Tone Hair Color Ideas

This woman has highly delineated dark and light color stripes.

An alternative to the more conservative, all-over hair coloring styles is the two-toned hair color look, which is two contrasting, distinct colors playing off each other in the same hair style, such as black and platinum blond. Depending on the colors that you choose and your placement of them, particularly how natural the colors and placement are, two-tone hair color can seem edgy and contemporary or more mainstream.

Under Layer Color

This two-tone hair color has two distinct colors occupying two distinct sections of hair. One color is underneath the other color and peeks out through the upper strands. This style works well with two more dramatically contrasting colors, such as black and peroxide blond or a brown shade and a bright red. In order to achieve this style, tie off two sections of hair along the ridge on the back of your head and die those two sections separately.

Unusual Colors

Make your two-tone hair color bold by choosing an unnatural, vibrant color for one of the two tones, such as hot pink, electric blue, neon green or purple. In order to achieve the most vibrant tones, you will want to use peroxide first on the sections that you wish to color in the unnatural shades in order to give yourself a fresh palette. The other color--the more natural color--can be any shade you wish although black creates the highest contrast.

Streaks and Patches

If you want your two different tones to be obvious, then dying either a streak or a patch of hair in a highly contrasting color is the way to go. This is also a good alternative if there is a color that you would like to dye your hair, but that color does not work well with your particular skin tone. For a streak, simply section off the part of the hair that you want to dye. The same goes for a patch. If you are interested in creating horizontal streaks or stripes, tie off horizontal stripes of hair to keep them from getting dyed, as if you were tie dying a shirt.

References

• Hairfinder: Two-tone Haircolor Look
• Cosmopolitan: High-Impact Hair
• Your Hairstyles: Two Tone Hair Color Tips