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Bronde Hair: The Best of Blonde and Brunette in One Color
Bronde hair blends blonde and brunette for a sunlit, low-maintenance color. Explore bronde balayage, teddy bear bronde, and how to keep the blend glossy.
Updated on September 28, 2026 | 3 min read
Jaclyn LaBadia, Davines Writer
There’s a new hair color on the block and it's the perfect balance between blonde and brunette. Bronde is a multidimensional, lived-in shade that’s expensive-looking and super easy to maintain. And it’s flattering on just about everyone. Here’s everything to know about the bronde hair color trend.
Key Takeaways
- Bronde hair blends blonde and brunette tones into one seamless, sunlit color.
- It flatters nearly every skin tone because the blend can lean warm or cool.
- Bronde is usually created with balayage or foils plus a gloss, so grow-out is soft.
- Teddy bear bronde is the cozy, golden-neutral version driving the trend right now.
- Toning and shine upkeep keep the blend dimensional instead of brassy or flat.
In This Article
What Is Bronde Hair?
Bronde Hair Color Ideas to Bring to the Salon
How to Get Bronde Hair
How to Keep Bronde Hair Glossy and Toned
FAQs
What Is Bronde Hair?
Bronde hair is a fawn-inspired shade that’s become one of the most requested colors in salons yearly. Darker than dirty blonde but not quite brown, with a soft brunette base that transitions seamlessly into a deep blonde gradient. Bronde is a bespoke blend of highlights and lowlights - a mix of balayage, baby lights, and root smudging - with a darker root and mid-tone richness that can lean warm or cool depending on your skin tone and natural color. It’s the perfect in-between hue for transitioning lighter or darker. You can add more blonde or tone it down as needed. Bronde hair is an effortlessly luxurious color that looks incredibly chic on just about everyone.
Is Bronde the Same as Balayage?
Because it’s a multi-dimensional shade created through a heavy mix of highlights and lowlights, you might instinctively refer to the bronde hair color trend as balayage. But bronde and balayage are not mutually exclusive. Bronde is a color, more specifically, a mix of colors. And balayage is a free-hand hair-painting technique. Colorists frequently use the balayage technique to create the bronde shade. But the upkeep and at-home maintenance of your bronde is similar to that of maintaining balayage. We’ll dive a little deeper into that in a bit.
Bronde Hair Color Ideas to Bring to the Salon
Much like expensive brunette shades, bronde is a color designed to make strands appear richer,shinier, and more luxurious. It’s a trend that works for every season and skin tone. From balayage highlights, to teddy bear, dark, ash and honey, these are our favorite ways to wear bronde.
Bronde Balayage
A bronde balayage is perfect for brunettes who want to go lighter gradually. The classic route to bronde, a balayage combines hand-painted ribbons of creamy beige, honey, or golden blonde over a brunette base. This version can be adjusted to lean cool or warm, suiting all skin tones because it, and because of the rootiness, requires minimal upkeep.
Teddy Bear Bronde
This celeb-inspired shade is the most viral variation of the trend. Teddy bear bronde is a neutral to warm blend meant to mimic the cozy, golden-brown hue of a classic teddy bear. It’s most flattering on a soft medium brown or dark blonde foundation, with honey, caramel, and beige ribbons woven throughout.
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Dark Bronde
Dark bronde hair is a deeper take, with hints of blonde, while steering closer to brown. Ideal for low-commitment first-timers, it's a brunette-leaning blend with a rich brown base and a subtle mix of cool and warm blonde babylights. A softer grow-out compared to higher-lift bronde shades, makes it extremely pretty on medium to dark brunettes.
Honey and Ash Bronde
What makes bronde hair such a universally flattering color is that it can lean warm or cool depending on the undertones used to create it. Warm amber, honey, and butter brondes work well with gold, peach or yellow skin tones. And cool ash, gray, or violet brondes look best on skin with pink, blue or red undertones.
How to Get Bronde Hair
If you’re ready to go bronde, the first step is gathering your inspo photos to bring to the salon with you. Bronde works from either direction, blondes deepening or brunettes lightening, so there’s lots of room for interpretation with this color. Visuals help to make sure everyone’s on the same page during the color consultation. Ask for a dimensional balayage with a root melt, blending brown lowlights and blonde highlights. And specify whether you want your bronde to lean warm or cool. Stick within two levels of your base color to keep your bronde as natural as possible, and request a hair toner or finishing gloss as the final step to neutralize unwanted brassy tones, seal the hair cuticle, and add intense shine.
How to Keep Bronde Hair Glossy and Toned
While bronde is a decidedly low-maintenance hair color. Because there’s less of an obvious root line as your highlights grow out, you can typically go 8-12 weeks before needing a touchup. But any type of hair lightening leaves the hair more porous, making it susceptible to brassiness and damage. Everything from washing too often to heat styling and using the wrong hair products can not only mess with your color, but leave your hair dehydrated, frizzy or broken. So just like with blonde hair care, your at-home color maintenance should focus on keeping your hair healthy and glossy, while controlling brass. Starting with your wash routine.
Wash your colored hair no more than 2-3 times a week, using cool water and a sulfate-free shampoo to preserve your hues and remove dulling residue. Improper washing (washing daily, using harsh shampoo, keeping the water temperature too high) is the fastest way to fade your color and dry out your hair. A chelating shampoo, followed by a fortifying conditioner helps remove buildup from hard water metals that can alter your blonde, while keeping your hair strong.
Excessive heat styling is another culprit behind brassiness and breakage, so limit the use of hot tools, keeping them on low and prepping strands with an illuminating heat protectant when you use them.
ILLUMINATE + HEAT PROTECT
The finishing step that makes a bronde blend read glossy and expensive, protecting the lightened ribbons from heat and sun fade.
What is it? Brightening thermal leave-on fluid for blondes with heat protection up to 450°F, UV protection, and shine that extends blow-dry longevity.
How do I use it? Apply to damp hair before blow-drying or to dry hair for shine touch-ups, focusing on the lightened mid-lengths and ends.
In addition to your color-safe shampoo, conditioner, heat protectant, and high-quality stylers, adding products for frizzy hair into your routine is a must to keep your color soft and glossy. Multi-tonal shades like bronde rely on light reflecting off the highlights and lowlights to look rich and dimensional. Dull or matte hair absorbs light, making mixed shades look muddy or flat.
FAQs
What exactly is bronde hair?
Bronde hair is a blend of brown and blonde highlights and lowlights with a soft brunette base that transitions seamlessly into a deep blonde gradient. Bronde hair features a darker root and mid-tone richness that can lean warm or cool depending on your skin tone and natural color.
Is bronde the same as balayage?
No, bronde is not the same as balayage. Bronde is a color, more specifically, a mix of colors. And balayage is a free-hand hair-painting technique. Colorists frequently use the balayage technique to create the bronde shade.
What is teddy bear bronde?
Teddy bear bronde is a neutral to warm blonde-brunette blend meant to mimic the cozy, golden-brown hue of a classic teddy bear.
Is bronde hair low maintenance?
Yes. Because there’s less of an obvious root line as your highlights grow out, you can typically go 8-12 weeks with your bronde before needing a touchup. But it’s important to keep your hair healthy and glossy, while controlling brass with a color-safe shampoo, conditioner, heat protectant, high-quality stylers, and products for frizzy hair.
Does bronde hair work on all skin tones?
It sure does! Bronde is a universally flattering hair color that works on all skin tones because it can lean warm or cool depending on the undertones used to create it. Warm amber, honey, and butter brondes work well with gold, peach or yellow skin tones. And cool ash, gray, or violet brondes look best on skin with pink, blue or red undertones.
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