The fight against fading hair color is constant for those with dyed manes, but keeping your lengths in pristine condition can feel particularly Sisyphean in summer, when showers are more frequent and the sun’s bleaching power is strongest. Take it from this pink-haired editor, who has done everything short of encase her strands in UVA/UVB-proof plastic yet has watched them shift from cotton candy to sand to a colorless sort of straw nonetheless. It’s draining—quite literally—so, here, a contrarian view: Why not embrace washed-out hair as the easy summertime statement it is?
At its best, the look recalls surfers and grunge kids, who allow the color to leach from their strands as a sign of rebellion—or because they simply couldn’t care less—and that hands-off approach suddenly feels right in the free-spirited months governed by the heat. Take Lucky Blue Smith, whose signature shade of platinum so often reflects those sun-bleached tones with a hint of salt-strewn texture. His sister Pyper America Smith recently let her hot pink lengths fade gradually into the prettiest rose-tinged blonde, while Mary Charteris took it one step further, dwindling all the way down to apricot. Watching my own lengths dim to a soft, gold-streaked peach, I grew to love those hazy colors that can’t quite be mixed by hand—that are best distressed slowly, beneath the beating sun—and perhaps best of all, require no upkeep.
In sum, a high-maintenance mane is so contrary to the essence of summer—why bother when the alternative looks so effortlessly cool? Washed-out hair, really don’t care.