Highlights 2.0, ‘90s sun-kissed strands and antique pearl rather than iced blonde, are your keywords for summer blonde hair ideas this season. Of course blonde is never just blonde, but the shade is certainly in its soft-girl era right now. The vibe is less surfer, and a stark homogenous blanket of frosty colour has been replaced with delicate, dreamy and surprisingly easy to wear iterations.
These are the summer blonde hair ideas to inspire your next visit to your colourist.
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Weekend blonde
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Highlights are back - but not as you know it (read it's not a revival of the iced blonde streaks of yesteryear). For the past few seasons, balayage, and working with a more natural base, have (almost) made highlights redundant. But this summer, "it's about a lived-in look with a twist,” says Harriet Muldoon, blonde specialist at Larry King, of a trend she has coined ‘Weekend blonde’.
For her, Margot Robbie in her Wuthering Heights era is its perfect embodiment. “Weekend blonde is romantic and delicate and gives off a soft golden glow,” Harriet notes, adding that to achieve the look you should ask your colourist for a combination of high-lift tint and gentle bleach. The beauty of using a high-lift tint in between the foils, she says, is that it lifts the base to a butter yellow hue, while a gentle bleach with a lower oxidation “won't take your hair up to a super blonde, but keeps it on the golden side. It's giving a Sunday morning lived-in feel, wearing a cashmere luxury tracksuit with a coffee to go.”
Christel Barron-Hough, a colourist specialising in Scandi blonde and founder of Stil Salon in London, also references this midway blonde shade, which she says sits between warm and cool tones. For her, it moves away from the ‘90s Olsen Twins grunge era to a look that's more polished.
Rachel Green lights
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'Rachel Green lights' also involves using a high-lift tint rather than bleach, cementing this as the trending technique for 2026's updated blonde. "This year we're going in with more natural '90s highlights - think Rachel Green era," says Harriet. “A high-lift tint is essentially the lightest colour before bleach to create more golden tones. They give off a more natural shade than the whiteness off a bleach so I love to use them for a sun-kissed effect.”
Powdered pearl blonde
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Think about the colour of pearls with their base cream shade and shimmering grey overtone. Now translate this to hair and you get ‘powdered pearl blonde’.
“Whether that’s embracing natural greys or stepping away from warm golds, it has an almost 18th-century feel – matte, dense and intentionally flat in tone," says Nicole Kahlani, consultant colourist at Hershesons Fitzrovia in London. "It’s about leaning into natural ash undertones and treating colour globally, inspired by a time before heavy dimension. Think runway blondes – soft, mousey, antique. If anything lifts, it’s only half a shade at the ends, just to gently brighten. The goal is an old-world, ‘dusty’ finish.”
Folklore blonde
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Imagine a world where grown-out roots become your hair's main character energy. Enter the ‘folklore blonde’ trend, a look Christel signposts as a major trend for summer 2026 and a look that she notes was already popular among Scandi-cool girls at Copenhagen Fashion Week.
“Visible roots are becoming increasingly romanticised,” says Christel. “With a soft, dream-like quality, this is a defining colour direction on the style scene this spring. ‘Folklore blonde’ is all about telling the story within the hair and allowing the natural cycle of hair growth to take centre stage.”
Central to the look is a blurred transition, “as if the colour has naturally diffused over time,” says Christel. “This trend reflects a shift away from ‘90s grunge-girl roots; instead, the result is more organic, soft-focus and modern.”
Barn girl blonde
Lily Rose Depp, Margot Robbie and Bella Hadid have all co-signed the ‘barn girl blonde’ hair look. Nicole, who coined the trend, describes it as a “muted, sandy blonde with a natural root and a slightly matte finish you get from softly lightened hair. It's lighter through the lengths but still grounded with a natural root. Not overly sun-kissed like beach blonde, but slightly more muted and effortless, as if you’ve spent more time in the countryside than by the sea.”
In other words, think of ‘barn girl blonde’ as summer 2026's answer to bronde hair and an antidote to iced blonde. "Ask your colourist for a tint to lighten your roots, if you don’t already have that natural honey-muted, dirty blonde tone," Nicole advises. “Then, request free hand-painted balayage using no foils to emphasise the ends. Make sure to include a colour-melted toner to blend everything seamlessly. I refer to this technique as ‘3-D toning’ to add multiple dimensions in a natural way.”
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