One summer vacation, I got so bored that I took a pair of pink scissors and cut my very long hair into an extremely asymmetrical bob. But this story isn’t about that attention-seeking and slightly feral child’s summer hair look. It’s about all of yours. Whether you’re painstakingly planning your next hair change or already in the stylist’s chair—the grown-up version of grabbing scissors and just going to town—this season offers more than a dozen exciting new trends.
For summer 2025, “Clients are gravitating toward colors that feel intentional, effortlessly polished, and naturally flattering,” says New York City-based stylist Jerome Lordet of the shades we’ll examine in detail below. The haircut and style trends of summer feel that way, too. They’re looks are based on taking what’s already working and leaning in. They’re about letting your red dye job fade, your bob grow out, and your hair part on its favorite side. They’re about relaxing and enjoying—the way summer should be.
Summer 2025 Hair Color Trends
Golden Apricot
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Getty Images
We’ve seen shades of red spike all year long, so it’s no surprise that multiple iterations of the trend ended up on this season’s bingo card. First up is golden apricot, a color that evokes sun-warmed fruit trees in an Italian orchard (an image I hope we all get to experience). Lordet describes it as a “radiant mix of soft peach, honey gold, and tangerine, which creates a sunlit, glowing effect that flatters a variety of skin tones.” Its depth and complexity add what he calls “a sophisticated edge” to what would otherwise be a more straightforward gold or red.
Leighton Meester swapped her world-famous Blair Waldorf brown for a golden apricot makeover this March, and Rosé’s take on the color from 2016 is one of her most memorable hair transformations. Golden apricot is “luminous,” Lordet says, “like a golden hour in hair form.” Expect to see more folks embracing its naturally flattering and naturally mood-lifting (what’s more pleasant to contemplate than golden hour?) tones this summer.
Sunset Balayage
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Getty Images
If golden apricot is golden hour, our next trending shade evokes the similarly lovely glow that happens when the sun actually starts to set. Boston-based colorist Christine Bellemare paints a picture that will have you heading to airbnb.com to book a shore house: Sunset balayage is reminiscent of the light that drenches the beach during sundown, with soft hints of peach throughout. The shade is more understated than golden apricot, perfect for folks like me who typically brighten up for summer but want to get a little more playful by adding in some gentle red tones. “It’s perfect for clients who want to experiment with creative color without going too bold,” Bellemare says.
Plus, asking your colorist to use the hair-painting technique means that when your roots grow out come fall, the transition will be less noticeable than what you’d get with an all-over dye job. Take the color on Emily in Paris’s Camille Razat: She’s got an ombré going on, with her natural color at the top, peachy tones in the middle, and golden at the ends. It’s casual but intentional, and frankly, it would look gorgeous when you’re walking down a beach boardwalk.
Strawberry
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Getty Images
Getty Images
This next rising shade is one we know you’ve seen because pretty much everyone on Earth spent the last six months inundated with images from the Wicked press tour. Strawberry, Ariana Grande’s current signature color, is our final trending red for this summer. Where golden apricot is built around shades of orange, strawberry takes the ripe red of the classic summer berry and tamps it down a few notches until you’ve got a juicy shade at the nexus of red and blonde.
