Flora Gill tries this year's hottest hair colour - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Beauty Flora Gill tries this year’ s hottest hair colour By Flora Gill - June 5, 2022 Writer Flora Gill reveals what it’s like to embrace the year’s to-dye-for hair shade: red. PHOTOGRAPHS: NATASHA PSZENICKI It was a TikTok filter that finally made me do it. For years I’d been thinking about going red but it was only after I ‘tried it on’ virtually and saw my blonde locks turned a rich rust that I decided to act. I know filters can be misleading but TikTok was not the only pull towards gingerdom. Until it lightened to blonde, the first tufts of hair I grew as a baby were orange (I’m part Scottish) and every time I get a wax the beautician comments that my hair acts like that of a redhead (read: thick, stubborn and VERY painful to remove). Plus, I have the skin tone to match – so pale I could use Tipp-Ex as concealer. Flora before with her blonde hair colour But I can’t claim that my decision was simply a homage to my heritage; red is very much the hue of 2022. Kendall Jenner went copper for Paris Fashion Week in March this year. Originally intended to be just for the Prada show, she decided to keep the look a bit longer. Other models and actresses such as Gigi Hadid and Zendaya have recently dabbled in the shade. Then, last month, The Wall Street Journal asked: ‘Why are there suddenly so many redheads?’ I am obsessed with self-makeover videos and never shy of trying beauty DIY. Turning red, however, was something that even I thought should be left to the professionals. I put myself in the very capable hands of Jason Hogan at Josh Wood Colour. Jason is the colourist of choice for civilian and celebrity alike, having recently been behind Bridgerton and Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan’s stunning Met Gala look. When deciding on a shade, I very much hoped that Jason was going to do the heavy lifting. I’m not good with choice – too much of it and I’m paralysed by indecision. I don’t want to look over a long menu of dishes in a restaurant, flavours at an ice-cream parlour or dress styles in a shop; I just want someone knowledgeable to give me the best one. He didn’t disappoint– neither did he use the words ‘orange’, ‘ginger’ or ‘red’ once. Instead, we discussed the copper-gold tones in my roots and the hint of rose that would pull out the youthful pink in my cheeks. To begin with, Jason added highlights to my hair, working with the ones I already had and adding more to frame my face. Flora undergoing her transformation After I’d sat with my head half covered in foils for the highlights to process, he removed them to add the colour all over my hair. Then Jason suggested doing my eyebrows, to bring a sense of harmony to my face and make my eyes ‘pop’. Eyebrow overhauls need to be treated with extreme caution. There is a very fine line between facial harmony and total disaster. However, I trusted Jason so implicitly that if he’d suggested I drop my trousers and let him auburn-tint my bikini line, I’d have agreed. Finally, he applied a glossing treatment to bring out the brighter notes and add shine. At last, it was time for the new me. It’s hard to talk about the results without sounding arrogant– but, my God, I look amazing. My boyfriend should be seriously worried because I am now far out of his league. That jolt of confidence a new look can give you is impressive. The biggest change is that my eyes suddenly appear piercingly blue where, previously, I would have had them as blue-grey. The other difference is that with my pale skin I now look celestial as opposed to sick. Jason was right about my eyebrows, too. They’re the perfect accent of colour on my face but also mean I need new make-up. Luckily I have make-up artist Alice Theobald on speed dial. She recommends Benefit’s warm auburn eyebrow pencil and points me toward reddish earth tones in my eye palette or, if I want to make an impact, a splash of green or purple on my eyes and berry-toned reds on my lips. I decide not to tell any of my friends about my metamorphosis and hold off posting on social media so I can see their reactions in person. Such is their shock that I feel as though I’ve turned up for lunch with a large pregnant belly I’ve been hiding for months. One close friend, however, fails to notice anything at all and is so convinced that I’ve always been a redhead that we have an argument about it. Maybe that’s the sign of a really good hair job – it looks as though you could have been born that way. I have always thought being blonde makes every average-looking woman more desirable, especially to men. But there’s something magical about being a redhead. Now I’ve done it, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long. I’ve let other people put me off – redheads in particular. One of them told me she could always tell when someone wasn’t a true-born red. (She’s completely wrong because the ‘naturals’ she cites – Christina Hendricks, Sophie Turner and Amy Adams – are, in fact, all natural blondes). Now, I’m wondering if my redheaded friends weren’t warning me off the colour but actually keeping it a closely guarded secret. Annoyingly, dyed red hair fades quickly and needs constant upkeep to stay vibrant, but I’d happily sell my soul to keep this going. Now I’ve unleashed my inner fiery redhead, there is no going back. How to choose the right red for you The secret is to assess your skin tone, says expert colourist Jason Hogan Light complexions suit pale hues of copper from strawberry blonde and golden apricot to palest auburn. For medium complexions think deeper, richer, warm butterscotch, and more intense copper golds and cinnamon. For darker complexions warm red, rich caramels and maple all look wonderful. With all of the above, your colour will need to be tweaked according to whether your skin has cool or warm undertones (if your veins are blue/ purplish your skin is cool, if they are green your skin is warm). PICTURE EDITOR: STEPHANIE BELINGARD. HAIR AND MAKE-UP: ALICE THEOBALD USING GUERLAIN SKINCARE, CHARLOTTE TILBURY COSMETICS AND L’ANZA . FASHION EDITOR: SOPHIE DEARDEN. 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