32 Hottest Dirty Blonde Hair Ideas (Women Hair Color Tips)

Whenever the term dirty blonde hair is mentioned, it does not literally mean blonde hair with brown or black streaks.

It refers to blonde hair with brown undertones. There are many beautiful variations of this hair color and you might even be interested in getting most of them.

32 Most Popular Dirty Blonde Hairstyles

Here are the 32 most popular dirty blonde hairstyles:

Natural Dirty Blonde

This is medium to dark blonde hair with brown undertones. This serves as the basis for the other colors on this list. The nice thing about this color is that you can adapt it to suit various hair textures. It also looks exceptionally well if you have a warm skin tone.

Platinum Blonde Highlights

Platinum highlights to dirty blonde hair give the illusion of more volume and dimensions. Also, the platinum blonde highlights make the hair look glossier.

Cute Dark Tones

Adding a few dark tones to dirty blonde hair gives it a softer feel. The dark tones break the uniformity of the hair color, making it look more natural.

Dark Dishwater Blonde

This color option looks more on the brunette side rather than blonde. It is an excellent choice if you are trying to grow out your natural hair color but do not want to trim off your existing blonde highlights.

The name might seem off-putting, but dishwater blonde is a mixture of brown and dark yellow.

All-Over Cool Blonde

The cool blonde look will suit you well if you have a cool skin tone. This is a variation of the old-school honey blonde color but has a more neutral tone. You can add silver or blue to your dirty blonde hair.

Natural Color Waves

Complement your natural hair colors by adding blonde highlights along the tips. Add some relaxed waves and you are ready for any occasion. You can get them using heatless curlers if you do not have naturally wavy hair.

Icy Blonde Shaggy Bob

This short hairstyle benefits from icy blonde highlights quite a lot. The icy blonde sections add more dimension and accentuate the soft waves. It just looks classy, whichever way you look at it.

Golden Bronze

Combining dark brown roots with dirty blonde tips gives your hair a beautiful ombre effect, especially when combined in the middle, like for alt hairstyles. The golden blonde color will also add luster to your hair. Do not use too much red, as it would make your hair too warm.

Dark Roots With Icy Cool Ends

This is a variation of the ombre black hair with a highlights color style. The contrast between the dark roots and the ice-blonde ends is drastic, but when blended perfectly in the middle, it looks great.

Beachy Waves Featuring Blonde Shades

Combining dirty blonde highlights with dark hair and beachy waves adds a lot of dimension and movement. The highlights somewhat emphasized the curls by making them seem shinier.

Dark Locks Featuring Caramel Highlights

This color combination is not quite as contrasting compared to the previous entries. However, it is still quite beautiful. The transition between the dark hair and the caramel highlights looks seamless.

Perfect Melt

If you have natural dishwater blonde hair, add golden blonde highlights for the perfect melt. This will significantly enhance your natural hair color and give it a refreshing update.

Balayage Babylights

Add light blonde highlights to your medium dirty blonde hair using the balayage technique to make your hair color pop. The balayage technique will make the transition look so natural that people will think you are born with this hair color.

Subtle Shades

This hair color suits long and wavy hair. Give your natural dirty blonde color subtle highlights. They should be one to three shades lighter, so your hair will look more voluminous without being too loud.

Angled Bob

The angled bob cut has a bad rep for being the go-to style of Karens. However, it will look stylish if you take a bit of weight from the fringes and add more dimension using dirty blonde highlights.

Dark Roots Featuring Honey Highlights

This is yet another great style if you want to grow out your natural hair color while incorporating your previous blonde highlights. Adding a thin layer of honey blonde will allow your previous highlights to blend seamlessly with your natural hair color.

Long Hair Featuring Highlights

If you have longer than shoulder length natural dirty blonde hair, remove a bit of weight around the ends and add light blonde highlights. This will prevent your hair from looking too heavy. The highlights will also add volume and frame your face nicely.

Dirty Blonde Highlights on Brown Hair

This is an excellent alternative to dyeing your entire head a dirty blonde color. Opting for dirty blonde highlights for your brown hair will make your locks look lighter but subtler.

Because dirty blonde hair has a brown undertone, it will look natural combined with brown hair.

Dirty Blonde Featuring Blonde Highlights

Speaking of subtle highlights, combining dirty blonde hair with lighter blonde colors will give you a more natural-looking output. At first glance, you might not notice the highlights, which is the point. This combination works well without being overpowering.

Highlights on Dark Brown Hair

This is a stark contrast to the previous entry. This is a combo of dark brown hair with light dirty blonde highlights, so you will see the differences between the two—however, these two highly contrasting colors work when done using the balayage technique.

Long Layered

Layering long hair allows you to preserve the length while removing a lot of weight. Adding dirty blonde highlights, using the ombre or balayage techniques, will give the illusion of more volume. The highlights will also frame your face much better.

Curly Hair

Adding dirty blonde highlights to naturally curly hair will soften the curls while, at the same time, putting more emphasis on them. The contrasting colors will also add more movement to your hair.

Flamboyage

The flamboyage is a combination of balayage and ombre coloring techniques. This is fabulous for framing your face. It also lightens your hair color without dyeing everything the same hue.

Red Highlights

Combining dirty blonde and red highlights will give your hair a warmer undertone. However, do not get too excited with the red streaks. Just add a bit of red here and there.

Purple Tones

Contrary to the previous entry, adding purple tones will give your hair a cooler undertone. If you have a cool skin tone, this will make your hair match it even more.

Ombre Dirty Blonde

Use dirty blonde as the highlight color for ombre dyeing techniques. When used especially on brown hair, you can expect the transition to look more natural.

Cool Style Featuring Pink Ombre

If you want to give your hair a bit more personality without giving a radical color change, you can choose a pink ombre for your dirty blonde hair. The transition will be pretty soft and the soft pink will look nicely with light dirty blonde hair.

Strawberry Toned Hair

Similar to red highlights, adding strawberry blonde highlights to dirty blonde hair will add more warmth to your hair tone. However, this will be significantly more subtle while looking more natural.

Ash Dirty Blonde Hair

Ash blonde hair is with silver and blue undertones, which means it is on the cooler side of the spectrum. Although it is beautiful, adding warm dirty blonde highlights will add more depth and volume to your hair.

Blue Ombre

Similar to the pink ombre, adding blue ombre to your dirty blonde hair will change the undertone of your hair. Also, the blue tips give your hair more attitude. Applying it using an ombre will soften the transition.

Highlights and Lowlights

Adding highlights means adding lighter colors than your original hair color. On the contrary, lowlights are colors that are darker than your natural hair color.

Combining your natural dirty blonde hair with highlights and lowlights will give your hair more dimension and perceived volume than just highlights.

Dirty Blonde Hair Extensions

You can get dirty blonde hair extensions if you do not want to commit to hair colors and prefer something low-maintenance. When installed by a professional hairdresser, extensions will look natural.

How to Get and Maintain Dirty Blonde Shades Look

Step 1 – Choose the right shade

One of the first things you should consider when choosing hair color ideas for your dirty blonde hair is your skin’s undertone. If you have a warm skin tone, use hair colors that have reds and oranges. On the other hand, if you have a cool skin tone, you can use silver and blue.

Step 2 – Style your dirty blonde hair appropriately

There are many ways to style your dirty blonde hair. You can add highlights, lowlights, and even extensions. Depending on the shape of your face, you can even get short haircuts or add curls or waves to your hair. Choose the style that will frame your face the best.

Step 3 – Maintain

Maintain and take care of your hair color, that is, if you do not have naturally dirty blonde hair. This means you will need to use a special shampoo that will protect the hair and the dye used on it. Typically, you need a purple shampoo to maintain blonde-colored hair.

Step 4 – Use the appropriate products

You must use moisturizing products to color your hair dirty blonde. The bleaching and dyeing process will dry your hair, so use moisturizing products to give back the lost moisture and protect the strands from further damage.

Dirty Blonde Hair Color Tips

Here are some of the things that you need if you want to go full dirty blonde:

• Make sure the color matches your skin’s undertone – If you have a warm skin tone and get dirty blonde hair with cool tones, it will not look natural. In this case, you should add warm highlights to balance out the colors.
• Create your own – There are many variations of dirty blonde hair and you can create your own by getting contrasting highlights to break the monotony of color. Highlights will also add the illusion of more volume, so even if you have thin hair, highlights will make it look thicker.

Common Problems

One of the problems that you will encounter with dirty blonde hair is dry and somewhat frizzy hair during the first week. Your hair might look amazing after you leave the hairdresser. However, once the products wear off, your hair will feel quite dry.

FAQ

What is the natural color of dirty blonde hair?

Dirty blonde hair is just blonde with a bit of brown mixed into it. The color might be uniform, but some have blonde and brown streaks in their hair.

How rare is dirty blonde hair?

If we are talking about natural dirty blonde hair, it is pretty rare. Most of the time, people with naturally dirty brown hair started naturally blonde. As with all-natural blonde hair colors, they tend to darken with age.

What is the difference between a dirty blonde and a blonde?

A dirty blonde is blonde with a bit of light brown or dark yellow mixed into it. It is still a blonde color, just ever so slightly darker.

Will purple shampoo lighten dirty blonde hair?

Since dirty blonde hair has dark yellow undertones, it is possible that purple shampoo will neutralize it and make your hair ash blonde instead. You can still use it to keep your hair from turning orange. Make sure to use it bit by bit.

Who are some famous people with dirty blonde hair?

Lots of celebrities have or used to have dirty blonde hair. One prime example would be Jennifer Aniston. She was the one who put the dirty blonde color on the map.

Some other well-known celebrities with this hair color include Rachel McAdams, Cara Delevingne, and Gigi Hadid.