Color Melting Is Winter’s Best Low-Maintenance Hair Trend

If you’ve never been able to pick a side of the highlights vs. balayage debate, now you’ll never have to. Meet color melting: The low-maintenance, high-payoff hair dyeing method that brings the best of both worlds.

Color melting is a hand-painting technique that adds brightness, dimension, and movement to hair without demanding constant upkeep. As to why (else) it’s trending right now? “Winter often calls for a softer, more natural style,” Nick Stenson, celebrity hairstylist and founder of Nick Stenson Beauty tells Glamour. “People are looking for low-maintenance ways to keep their color while still looking polished and effortlessly blended.”

Intrigued? Keep reading for all the expert insight you’ll need on color melting, plus some inspiration shots for your next salon visit.

How is color melting different from balayage or highlights?

Stenson says that the key difference between color melting and other common dyeing methods is that “it creates a seamless blend of tones with no harsh lines.” Balayage creates a gradient effect, usually placing blended brightness around the mid-lengths and tips, whereas highlights add contrasting lighter streaks starting at the roots.

Color melting strikes a balance between the two: It focuses on soft color transitions from roots to body, which makes it easier to grow out and maintain than traditional highlights. But by utilizing multiple shades and strategic areas of higher contrast, color melted hair maintains more definition than the ombré effect of a gradient balayage.