45 Great Brown Hair Color Looks That Freshen Things Up

Brunettes, this year is your year! After nearly a decade of blonde balayage trends dominating the hair color world, it’s time for brown hair colors to truly shine. So many celebrities from Gabrielle Union to Emily Ratajkowski have returned to their natural brunette color after experimenting with some others in the past few years. You might be ready for a new change this season and we wanted to explore the brown hair color trends that are currently hot on social media.

We discovered so many wonderful styles with names like Ginger Beer and Tortoiseshell Balayage to share with you and inspire your hair color journey. You might want to try a trend that young celebrities like Bella Thorne and Kylie Jenner played with or find more-tried-and-true styles like Jennifer Lopez‘s iconic bronde hair. Whatever the case might be, we found so many styles for you to, hopefully, try and fall in love with! Take a look!

Sweet, Sweet Caramel

Go with caramel highlights that are just a shade or two lighter than your own brown hair color to get an effortlessly cool look that adds dimension. Ask for balayage for the most organic and natural-looking outcome.

Moody Dark Chocolate

Moody and mysterious, dark chocolate highlights will let you live your vampy fantasy this fall. Go for a warm chocolate color like this and you will not be disappointed.

The Dirty Brunette

No, we’re not encouraging you to go blonde! But, you can add some blondish highlights to the lower ends to accentuate your skin and face. Some stylists now call this coloring style “dirty brunette.” However, you do not want to. go too light so as it make your brown hair color look black.

The Bronde

Here’s another take on the lower part of your hair getting the blonde treatment while your roots stay dark. Nicole Richie has been doing it for the last several years and we think her hair is always at 100.

Mahogany & Amber

Go with amber and mahogany highlights for a sort of ale-brown hair color. It will keep you from having those mousy undertones found in many heads of brunette hair.

Brownie Babylights

Sure, all the kids today are after those chunky highlights, but we think there’s a case to be made for babylights and brown hair color. Just a few strands are highlighted to elevate the look without overdoing it or taking away from the overall look.

Just a Little Warmth

Priyanka Chopra‘s brown hair color is always on point. She sports a look that’s similar to the previous one where tiny stands get warmed up with amber to help frame her face better. Do as Ms. Chopra does!

Midnight Cool

Here the darkness is the point! We find a subtle blayage throughout to give these tremendous locks texture and visual appeal. We liken this to a black cold brew coffee. Delicious!

The Almost Ombre

No one does cool like Zendaya. The superstar tends to keep her roots dark while letting the rest of her hair warm her face up. The contrast really does make her hair look dynamic.

Vanilla Swirls

To add warmth that does not scream RED!, consider adding some light and dark tones that are still warm but don’t give off that mauve undertone.

Ombre to Chocolate

Just like everyone else, we love a chocolate ombre effect. Depending on your skin tone and desire, you can lighten to varying degrees but we love when it’s taken to a milk chocolate color. Yum!

Medium Brown + Ash

Chrissy Teigen is not afraid to experiment with color but she often returns to medium brown with ash blonde highlights that looks so exceptional on her. It’s a winner for her and likely for you as well!

Soft Brown & Barely There

Soft brown highlights to your brown hair color will add some depth and a touch of warmth without reading red or blonde. It’s just that little something extra that puts your style over the top!

Mahogany Mama

It’s okay. We’ll wait for you to catch your breath after seeing the effervescent Gemma Chan. She often goes a dark coffee color to mahogany and we love the warmth of the latter that you can see in the photo above.

Streak as the E-Girls Do

Yes, those celebrity TikTok stars have started a bonafide trend in what’s called “e-girl streaks.” If you’d like to relive your days of listening to Avril Lavigne and shopping for vaguely punk clothing at Hot Topic, it’s now in style with the return of these blonde streaks in the front.

Espresso Brown Hair Color

If you’ve spent years with balayage or blonde highlights it might be time to return to the basics with just your brown hair color. Show off that espresso brown hair and skip the added highlights for a deep, rich look.

Warm Chestnut

Skip those highlights and go for an all-over brown hair color with some warmth for that approachable brown look you’re after.

8.

Bronze is back, baby! If you’re into those warm locks but want a light brown hair color, bronze could be the perfect option for you. Leave your roots dark for a cool effect if you want some contrast!

Sandlewood & Streaks

Go with a warm, light brown with hair that has a lot of texture to literally highlight all the texture in your hair. Your curls will look excellent with something similar.

Ribbons of Sumptuous Caramel

Want some warmth that doesn’t read red? Consider a mellow caramel color to warm up that brown hair color. Ribbons of color or balayage also works well for the application.

Dark Amber

Emily Ratajkowski went back to warm brown after going blonde last year and we are still not over it. Her warm, deep amber color is going to be the perfect brown hair color for fall.

Sweet Caramel Balayage

If you have resisted the caramel brown hair color balayage thus far, you might want to give it a shot. It gives an effortlessly cool look that appears to be kissed by the sun.

Reverse Ombre

Instead of dark roots, lighten those up and deepen the color of the rest of your hair for an unrecognizable new look that you’ll fall in love with.

Rich, Deep, & Dark

Emma Roberts has since returned to blonde but for a brief period, we beheld her glorious brunette locks that look fantastic in a slick bob. Just brown hair color is fine. After years of blonde highlights dominating dye jobs, it’ll be refreshing to just go brown.

Warm Cinnamon

Add some red to your brown hair color with a warm cinnamon color like this one. If you’ve already got a brunette base some subtle highlights can be all it takes to warm your look to this color.

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Bronde & Sandy

Jennifer Lopez is the queen of sandy bronde hair. Keep your brunette base and roots but add a good deal of blonde throughout to go not-quite-blonde but blonde.

Copper Top

Skip the red altogether with an ashy blonde and copper balayage like this one that reads more silver than anything else.

Like Ginger

A lot of folks on Instagram are now calling this color “ginger beer” meaning that it is a deep reddish-brown that leans more brown than auburn. Call it what you want but wear it this fall for a winning look.

Wooden Brown

Shay Mitchell has the most beautiful, wooden brown hair ever. She has minimal highlights and lets her brown hair color do most of the talking.

One Cool Customer

Not enough good things can be said about the merits of having a cool brunette color. For certain skin tones, reds are not the best fit. That means that a cool brunette like this one will be your friend.

Warm Waves

Can we just take a moment to talk about how AMAZING Issa Rae looked in the photos from her wedding in the South of France? We mean… Come on! Okay, let’s talk about those luscious warm brown waves. It’s the look we only want to see all fall.

A Pop of Color in the Box Braids

Warm up your braids with some copper-colored braids in the mix. We love the movement you see with this added layer of color.

Sweet Iced Tea

We’re not entirely sure why people on Insta are obsessed with naming hair colors after various beverages but it’s completely accurate here with “iced tea” brown color hair. The goal is to highlight a brunette lighter by just a couple of shades to lighten things up without going bronde.

All Hail the Chestnut

For subtle warmth and moody dark brown color go with chestnut. Stay darker at the roots and lighten elsewhere for a similar look.

Honey, Hunny!

Honey is the perfect compromise between bronde and brunette. Again, you can keep your roots darker if you’d like but by lightening your brown hair color a few shades you can get a much-needed lift that doesn’t read too red if you don’t want it to.

Cool, Cool Summer

A sunny balayage of ash blonde will give you the vacation hair of your dreams that will make you look like you’ve been kissed by the sun. You want the lighter color only through some of your ends and not all of them to achieve this summery, fun look.

Do as Queen Bey Commands

Beyoncé currently has the warm, light brunette that the whole world’s going to want for fall. We liken the color to a caramel mocha. There’s still plenty of dark at the roots and at the back but those warm bright locks of brown hair color frame the face well.

The Kids Say ‘Caramel Swirl’

This brown hair color has been dubbed caramel swirl on Insta and we think it’s rather appropriate. Warm honey and caramel highlights add dimension without sacrificing the lushness of your dark brunette hair.

Get Chunky

The youth have brought back super chunky highlights that we thought we left back in the late nineties and early aughts. Everyone from Kylie Jenner to Bella Thorne has rocked the chunks in recent years.

Speaking of Kylie

Kylie has since ditched her chunky highlights and gone back to Kardashian-world basics with a truly unbeatable cool brunette with little else. Want to give your hair a rest from the dye? Go for it!

Ever-So-Slightly-Warm

Serena Williams has gone just a shade lighter and touch warmer to lighten up her gorgeous, natural hair ever-so-slightly. It gives a sort of warm glow to her amazing locks.

The Warm Streaks

Selena Gomez added some warm, amber streaks through her brown hair color this summer and we lived. With just a few chunky streaks that aren’t too off from your own brown hair color, you can add so much dimension.

Hazelnut Balayage

Get a subtle ombre effect with a hazelnut balayage that has wisps of honey for lighter ends. You can choose to go cooler than about for a more silver glow.

Cocoa Brown

Dark brown hair color with just a tiny touch of warmth can do wonders if you want to keep your hair wonderfully dark but would like some added texture and visual appeal.

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Tortoiseshell Balayage

Get all the dimensions with a look stylists are calling “tortoiseshell balayage.” With it, you get chocolate, caramel, honey, and a bit of bronde. If you can’t decide on one direction to go with, go in all the brown hair color directions for a truly impeccable look.

There you go! We saw a lot of brown hair colors, didn’t we? We hope you saw some styles that spoke to you. Don’t anyone ever tell you that “blondes have more fun” or that “brown is boring.” Those sentiments could not be further from the truth. There are so many options for you to really take your brown hair color to the next level! Happy dying!