Grey Hairs, Rainbow Hair and the Tweety Tattoo Test

I will confess, the first time I tried ombre hair it had nothing to do with being trendy. My white hairs started popping up, and ombre turned out to be a clever way to blend them in. Darker at the top, lighter at the bottom, and suddenly those greys don’t scream for attention anymore. That was my first little clue that ombre might actually be more than a short phase. When something solves a real problem in everyday life, people keep coming back to it. That’s usually how a trend forms, instead of a quick hype moment that disappears (Dubois, 2014). At the same time my daughter, when she was younger, was obsessed with tie dye hair. Bright colours, rainbow everything. She loved it. But here’s the real world moment. I was not letting her permanently dye her hair like that for school. Temporary colour for fun was fine, but permanent rainbow hair on Monday morning felt like asking for social drama.

That is where the marketing side becomes interesting. Kids may want the product, but parents hold the wallet. The user and the buyer are not always the same person, and that can affect how widely something spreads. There is also the question of context. Bright rainbow hair might fit comfortably in one workplace and feel harder to carry into another. Ombre appealed to me because it could look polished and natural in both professional and casual settings.

That wider acceptance is usually what separates a trend from a fad. If we look at this through a marketing lens, it also lines up with the Diffusion of Innovation idea. New styles usually start with a small group of bold early adopters who are happy to experiment. That is how I think about the boldest splat and tie-dye experiments. For something to become a real trend it has to move beyond that group and reach the early majority. Ombre seemed to do that as salons, celebrities, and everyday consumers all started adopting it.

Another way to think about it is the Product Life Cycle. Fads tend to explode quickly and disappear just as fast. Trends grow more steadily and stay around longer because they fit into daily routines. Ombre seemed to move through introduction and growth into something more stable. The question for tie-dye and splat hair is whether the initial excitement becomes a repeatable habit. To really confirm whether something is a trend or a fad, L’Oréal would need data rather than guesses. Social media listening would show whether people are still talking about these styles months or years later. Google Trends could reveal whether search interest stays consistent or spikes briefly and fades. Sales data from salons and retail products would also show whether people are buying these styles repeatedly.

For a brand such as L’Oréal, the interplay between promotion and consumer demand is especially interesting. Dubois (2014) examines pull and push approaches around these styles. A brand can promote a look through its own communications and chosen creators, while consumer enthusiasm can pull others towards it. Hair transformations lend themselves to that process: one person posts a before-and-after photo, and suddenly people in the comments want to know how it was done.

L’Oréal could work with hairstylists and beauty creators who demonstrate a look, while encouraging customers to share their own results. Social listening could help identify which styles are attracting sustained interest. Natural-looking colours such as glossy brunettes, buttercream blondes and soft balayage appeal to me because they can fit into everyday life. More striking looks, such as roots in a contrasting colour, raise a different question: are people admiring the image, or do they want to live with the look?

Sometimes trends can feel a bit like the Tweety Bird tattoo someone got at 19 and later regrets. It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, but years later you are wondering what you were thinking.

For every new look, I would ask the same question: will people still want to live with it when the initial excitement has gone, or is it another Tweety tattoo moment waiting to happen?