Dark roots to dye for
If the spirit of the age is one of unrelenting economic woe, what better way to embrace it than with 'recession roots'?
Re-sprouting roots mean many things: "ropey hair needs fresh lick of dye" for one, "skanky" for another, but "hip"? Only in the trailer parks of Alabama. But then the markets crashed. Businesses folded. People lost their jobs. Which is where roots came in. Or, became "in".
Five-centimetre roots and coloured ends? Cool. Double the centimetres and you've got the hairstyle of the season - think Drew Barrymore and ex-The OC actress Rachel Bilson's glossy chocolate top and honeyed tips.
In an ironic twist, some salons are even offering dyed-in roots. Bleach in Dalston, east London, for one. It's headed by Alex Brownsell, the talented 22-year-old hair colourist whose work regularly features in Vogue , Dazed & Confused and i-D . She has worked for Hermès and Topshop, and her clients include Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller.
"Roots are trendy because of the recession - sounds naff, doesn't it?" she laughs, pushing back her tangle of white-blonde, peach-highlighted hair. "But it's true - which means bad news for traditional hairdressers." Business has been brisk since the salon opened three weeks ago.
In a spirit of faux frugality, then, I check in for "recession roots". My hair was dyed earlier this year, so all she has to do is to lift some of the lighter dye. She then intensifies the existing roots, taking them down to my cheeks to give me two-tone hair. To play up the haven't-touched-up-my-roots-in-yonks vibe, she lightens the end with bleach.
When she removes the foil, there are sighs of relief: from her, because my hair has taken well to the bleach, and from me, because I don't hate it. She runs a toner through the bits where dark meets light to blend for a natural finish, and washes it with Bumble and Bumble's Color Support Extra Mild Shampoo (£18, 0800 014 7424), which is gentle on bleached hair. I'm left with the recessionista look of obvious, overgrown roots and grown-out hair dye. It sounds grim, but looks elegant. I like it lots.
All this has me thinking: will the roots index be replacing the hemline theory as a harbinger of our economical fortunes?
From £60, bleachlondon.co.uk
Around the UK:
lisashepherd.co.uk
markwoolley.co.uk
toniandguy.com
saks.co.uk
telegraph.co.uk
). I think I'm gonna do it again! Hopefully it'll look better if not, I can always dye it black
It's beautiful.
Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoa. Seriously? Was the color all you had done? Seems a little much, doesn't it? 
Or, did you just go somewhere fancy? Or are you a generous tipper? 
I'm really nervous about doing it myself, but reading that makes me think that it can't be too hard. The idea is that it isn't evenly distributed throughout the hair, so the messier the better. 
