Sunbeam Blonde is the Prettiest Summer Hair Color Trend

Now that spring is here and summer is fast approaching, dyeing your hair sunbeam blonde is the perfect way to manifest the kind of weather you want to see.

Perhaps that’s why the golden blonde shade is having such a moment right now. “It’s a fawny tone that is overlaid with a pale gold in a halo section of the head,” says colorist Nicola Clarke, who counts Kate Moss and Cate Blanchett as clients.

Name-checking the likes of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and a young Claudia Schiffer as great examples of women who have worn the trend in the past, Clarke points out that, more recently, the look was visible at the spring/summer 2024 shows. On the runways at Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Emporio Armani, luminescent golden hair brought light to models’ faces, negating the need for copious amounts of makeup.

As well as adding luminosity and the appearance of healthiness to the skin (timely after a long, drizzly winter), sunbeam blonde makes the hair look–as the name suggests–sun-kissed and natural. “It’s the look you get after you’ve been sitting in the sun for a couple of weeks,” says Clarke. “It just adds sunlight, utilizing different colors, like flattened honey, caramel and syrupy tones, as well as vanilla, through sections of the hair.”

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in 1999.

RJ Capak

For anyone whose color could be described as “mousey,” sunbeam blonde is the perfect way to segue into something a little lighter and brighter, without being too full-on. But it’s also a great look to try if you’re already quite blonde and want a look that feels natural, wearable, fresh, and youthful.

“It’s the perfect golden shade,” agrees colorist Zoë Irwin. “It’s all about building tone on tone color–the highlights don’t look like they are sitting on the natural hair, but rather melt in.”