4 Tips for Creating Trending Cowboy Copper Hair Color

If you're doing your daily scroll across your social media fees, it's highly likely you will run into at least one or two Cowboy Copper hair posts. 

The latest social media hair color trend is making major waves, with the look surging in popularity by a whopping +10,000% from last year on Pinterest, according to All Things Hair.

It's very likely this season that you may have a client or two who wants to make the transition to a copper color. If you need some advice on how to bring this style to life, look no further. 

Paul Mitchell Artistic Director and Beauty Launchpad 25 Under 50K winner Paula Peralta (@thepaulaperalta) is sharing her four tips for creating the iconic Cowboy Copper hair color. 

1. Don't Over Lift 

When working on a previously colored canvas, you have to lift it a bit to get the vibrancy and depth of tone, but try not to over lift or you’ll find yourself falling a bit flat when you apply your final formula. Work WITH the red, orange and gold tones in the hair, don’t remove them completely. 

2. Use Low Volume Developer 

When you lift the hair, you expose red, orange and gold tones. If you’re using higher volumes, you have to account for that in your formula to work with the dominant pigment you’re exposing. Lower volumes ➡️ Less exposed dominant pigment ➡️ Less corrective formulation

3. Lean Into the Orange 

This might seem like an obvious statement, but while the world calls this a “redhead,” it’s actually more of a warm red than a cool red. That means you need to lean into the orange. My rule is at least 50% of my formula is orange or “copper” tones. 

4. Consider a Demi Formula 

Even the most opaque demi formula is more translucent than permanent color. A demi can be a great choice if your canvas is already in the copper family but you just want small tonal tweaks. Paul Mitchell the Demi 7NC is my favorite pick and pull copper tone.