You know that moment when you catch someone’s hair in natural light and it just looks expensive – not because of a dramatic transformation, but because every strand seems to glow from within? You’ve probably scrolled past it on Instagram or TikTok without knowing exactly what to call it. It turns out there’s a name for that effortlessly luxurious brunette look, and it has nothing to do with going lighter or bolder. In fact, the entire point is restraint. And according to top colorists, that’s precisely what makes it so universally flattering.
Why brunettes are ditching high-contrast color
For years, the salon conversation for brunettes often revolved around how much lighter they could go. Chunky highlights, heavy balayage, and stark contrasts dominated. But something has shifted. Celebrity colorist Jess Gonzalez, a PRAVANA Color Expert, explains that clients are now moving away from high-maintenance, high-contrast color and instead gravitating toward hair that feels polished and effortless. The trend driving that shift is called expensive brunette – a multidimensional color approach designed to make brown hair appear richer, shinier, and more luxurious without any dramatic overhaul.
So what does it actually involve? Rather than a single all-over shade, expensive brunette relies on subtle highlights, lowlights, glosses, and customized color placement to create depth and movement. Think of it less as a specific shade and more as an overall effect. The goal, according to master colorist Tiffanie Richards of Louise O’Connor Salon, is to give the impression of sun-kissed highlights without making it look like you’ve actually had highlights – almost as if you’d spent a few weeks in Capri and your hair naturally picked up warmth along the way.
How the look actually comes together
Despite how effortless it appears, this trend is rarely achieved with a single-color formula. Gonzalez describes a layered process that typically involves an overall base color combined with painted-on balayage – a freehand highlighting technique – to build subtle dimension, finished with a gloss to lock in depth and shine. The result is a seamless blend where tonal shifts create light reflection and movement throughout the hair, rather than obvious streaks.
Richards notes that the hallmark of expensive brunette is dimension. Rather than one flat brown shade, the color incorporates gentle shifts in tone that catch light at different angles. For lighter brunettes, she recommends asking for subtle babylights – very fine, delicate highlights – placed around the face and crown to enhance natural color. Lowlights, which are strands colored slightly darker than the base, can also be added to create richer tones and more depth for those starting from a lighter brown.
Celebrity hairstylist Reece Walker, working on behalf of Glaze Hair, emphasizes that the finished look should feel seamless and blended rather than streaky or overly highlighted. He recommends requesting a rich brunette with natural-looking highlights and bringing inspiration photos to your appointment. And when it comes to versatility, all three experts agree: warmer, cooler, and neutral brunettes can all achieve the look, and it can be customized to complement virtually any skin tone, eye color, or hair texture.
The celebrity blueprint worth saving to your phone
Some of the most compelling examples of this trend come straight from the red carpet. Olivia Munn’s rich chocolate tones are enhanced with subtle highlights that add depth without obvious contrast. Halle Berry blends deeper roots with soft caramel highlights framing her face, resulting in a look that reads as healthy, glossy, and naturally elevated. Hailey Bieber takes it in a deeper direction, pairing espresso tones with a glossy, light-reflecting finish that proves you don’t need lightness to achieve luminosity.
Dakota Johnson demonstrates how warm, caramel-toned highlights can add dimension without disrupting a rich base color, while Lily Collins offers proof that expensive brunette doesn’t even require highlights at all – her glossy, cool-toned brunette creates dimension purely through shine and tonal richness. Jessica Alba’s soft, tonal highlights woven through a medium-brown base produce a multidimensional effect, and Eva Longoria’s subtle caramel ribbons through an espresso base add brightness around the face while keeping everything polished. Kerry Washington, meanwhile, shows how rich, uniform color paired with healthy-looking shine creates depth and dimension on curly hair.
Shine, according to Walker, is one of the most important components of the entire trend. Without it, even the most expertly placed highlights can fall flat.
Your next salon visit, simplified
The experts’ collective advice is refreshingly simple. Rather than walking in with a specific shade in mind, focus on the overall effect you want to achieve. Gonzalez suggests asking for a rich brunette with lots of shine and subtle dimension. Richards recommends requesting babylights around the face and crown. Walker says to bring reference photos and ask for natural-looking highlights. The beauty of expensive brunette, as Gonzalez puts it, lies in its subtlety – and that subtlety is exactly what keeps the trend flattering and low-maintenance across the board. You’re not reinventing your hair. You’re just letting it look like the best, most sun-touched version of itself.
