One of the hottest celebrity hairstyles is easily reproduced at home

One of the hottest celebrity hairstyles this year among brunettes calls for longer locks with a focus on a darker root base. The look incorporates blonde or red highlights beginning roughly between eye and chin level and cascading down to the ends for a warm, golden look.

Just check out Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Odette Annable, or Eva Longoria for examples. This style works well with a soft curl or a gentle tousled look, and you can easily get it at home without the cost of a celebrity hairstylist.

Working with what you’ve got

If your ends are already lightened by summer’s sunshine, concentrate on darkening your roots, being careful to blend in the color as you work down with a slight feathering effect for a more natural look. If your ends need a bit more lightening, highlighting them one or two shades lighter than your current color will go a long way toward recreating one of our favorite celebrity hairstyles.

Working your way down

For the midsection, you can grasp small sections of hair or larger ones -depending on how light you want to go- by the ends and loosely twist them until you’ve created a coil as far up as you want your highlighting to begin.

Still holding the hair tautly by the ends, use a hair color brush to apply highlighter to the coil from top to bottom, brushing in the same downward spiraling angle as the direction of the coil and being careful to follow all the way around, going with the grain, so to speak, to the tips. Whatever you do, don’t just brush it up and down.

Seal and shine

Once you release the coil, you’ll be able to see all the sections along the length of hair that will be affected. After you’re finished with color, seal in shine and help blend away contrast with a clear gloss treatment for a healthy, lustrous look. One of the great benefits from this particular style of coloring is that the more your natural, darker hair color grows out, the more natural your coloring looks.

Finishing the look

Finish the look by taking a heat wand or flat iron and flipping your wrist upside down with your palm facing up and your thumb pointing toward you, clamp the hair where the root color ends and highlighting begins, and then flip your wrist back over and gently pull hair out and away from your head in a slight downward twisting motion until the hair glides loose at the ends from the wand.

The result is a large, round curl that creates a lot of wave and body for a look to rival the best celebrity hairstyles anywhere. For added volume and texture, start by putting a small amount of styling product like mousse or gel in your hands and rub them together.

Now, gently run your fingers loosely through your hair, running your fingertips up toward the top of your head and paying special attention to the roots. Then, lift and scrunch your hair from the ends back up to the top. You can also use a wax or putty at the base of the roots to really make them stand up for a fuller look.

Photo source: Flickr