Known for her bold moves in the kitchen, Nara Smith has whipped up everything from cola to chewing gum and cereal from scratch. (And, some minty fresh lip scrub for her Vogue Beauty Secrets slot.) This time, the kitchen scales came out for a not-so-edible project.
“I’m the most indecisive person when it comes to making smaller decisions,” the honey-voiced influencer and cookbook author says in a recently shared social media post, “and dyeing my hair has been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. For the last few months I’ve been texting my hairstylist a lot, asking her whether this is the right decision. And ultimately, she said ‘if you want to go back to black, you definitely can, so why not just do it?’”
“I don’t know whether it’s the seasons changing or life just feeling really good lately, that made me decide to just do it today,” she added. It’s not the first time Smith has gotten experimental with her hair—trying out a gravity-defying, architectural hair look for the holidays last year—but it is her first major dye job.
And it is actually a good time to go red, especially the warm auburn hue Smith has since debuted. Going from a dark base to red requires some significant color lifting, and so the sunnier season is the perfect time for showing off a rich, multidimensional shade.
Celebrity hairstylists have predicted it to be a hot tone this season. “Tons of my clients have been going red over the past year as the trend has taken hold,” Tracey Cunningham previously told Vogue. “I took Emma Stone red, and her shade is quintessential cowboy copper.”
Smith and her hairstylist started by lightening her hair with the Matrix High Riser Pre-Bonded Lightener: a product that works for a variety of hair patterns and diameters, lightening up several shades while protecting hair integrity. When starting with naturally dark hair like Smith’s, it’s important to go gentle. The electric shade of orange her hair became reminded Smith of a German cartoon character—and they layered on a deep wine red. Her eyebrows were also bleached.
Smith’s stylist used a concoction of nine Matrix Super Sync shades, comprising six shades of brunette, copper, ruby red, and warm blonde. Although they had tested the color out, when washed off, Smith decided she wanted to achieve a color that was another step closer to brunette, so her stylist applied more mocha brown and ash tones over the top.
