Bleach play: How halo rings and ghost roots are taking over hair trends

1. THE TREND: Playful bleach experiments – halo rings, ghost roots, hidden under-roots.
2. WHO’S DOING IT? Rosalía, underscores, Isamaya Ffrench, and anyone adventurous enough.
3. HOW CAN I GET IT? Most versions are low-lift and DIY-friendly if you’re willing to experiment.

Rosalía dropped her latest album LUX earlier this month, an operatic pop record inspired by Catholic saints, nuns, mystics and their relationship with spirituality and the divine. The musical themes extended into the aesthetic universe of the album, including Rosalía’s hair – which hairstylist Evanie Frausto bleached a celestial ring into, mimicking the glow of a halo. 

The look has sparked a slew of recreations, with fans across the world – from Costa Rica to Dallas to London – DIYing their own version of the angelic look (both permanently with bleach, as well as with concealer). TikTok user Rachel’s recreation video received 1.4 million views and a repost from Rosalía herself, while Higor Bécker , based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was inspired to put his own spin on the style with streaks of blond throughout his mullet done by hairstylist and friend Edu Marts. 

While LUX has brought renewed interest to the hairstyle, Rosalía isn’t the first to play around with these sorts of styles. The halo trend traces back to Japan’s “angel ring” style, which uses a colourful band of bleach or dye to mimic the way light appears around anime characters’ halos. Light beam highlights have also been popular for years amongst the clients of OOO-ing Studio, in the trendy Taiwanese city of Taichung, while Caroline Polachek wore the look during her Pang era courtesy of Alex Brownsell, founder of Bleach London.

“I love Rosalía’s halo hair. It’s a subtle but beautiful nod to the female saints who inspired her new album. Saint Cecilia [the patron saint of music] was often portrayed with a halo,” says Brownsell. “It also reminds me of tonsure, the practice of monks shaving the tops of their heads but leaving the circle at the base. I’m always happy when people find fresh ways to experiment with colour. I never thought we'd see Catholicism having its bleach moment, but here we are.”

Alongside halo hair, bleach play has seen another iteration recently: ghost roots. In one version, it involves bleaching the under-roots of the hair so the lighter sections stay hidden until the hair moves. The term is also being used for a different approach, sometimes called hot roots, where the roots are lifted while the rest of the hair is kept darker, creating an almost spectral contrast. 

The look has been around for several generations now. In the early 2000s, Brownsell gave Katie Shillingford, former Dazed fashion editor and now fashion director of AnOther Magazine, a two-toned white and black hairstyle that was half dip-dye, half bleached roots. In 2019, Billie Eilish started bleaching her roots and dying them neon green, a style that became her signature for the next couple of years. Many OOO-ing clients have gone for platinum bleached roots too; more recently, the look has been adopted by rapper Nettspend and make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench.

“Ghost roots also give a bit of a surreal, biblical glow,” says Brownsell, who did Ffrench’s hair. “On Isamaya they almost feel like a supernatural spotlight. For people who love darker, more gothic hair, they’re a nice way to add some levity or colour without going fully to the light side.” The style was also a nod to black metal, which Ffrench is a fan of. “I love the idea her ghost roots are like an illegible band logo (her favourites Blood Incantation are a perfect example) printed in white on a black t-shirt,” says Brownsell.

For Jess Rushforth, project director at Dazed Studio, the style was originally sparked through necessity, after years of black box dye meant that she wasn’t able to achieve a full silver bleach in one session. But she quickly found that she loved the look. “I almost feel like I’ve unlocked a new character in a game! I’ve gotten loads of comments about it, from friends but also just from people in the street. Even my Dad – to my surprise, as he didn’t really like my colourful era,” she laughs. 

“People ask about the process and how long it took (a good four to five hours including the cut) and some have compared me to an anime character,” she continues. “I recently went to Paris and some of my friends from there said it made me look ‘even more British’, commenting on how daring and free-spirited we are in London, not caring about what others think of us.”

What unites halos, ghost roots, and hidden under-roots is the way people are using bleach for experimentation rather than a full overhaul. The internet has cycled through plenty of bleach-led phases – scroll back far enough and you’ll find the remnants of e-girl face-framing strands and, of course, dip-dyes. As Brownsell explains: “Bleach really is transformative and a great way to blend identities – you can keep brightness running through darker tones like hope in the face of the inevitable. Hair is deeply personal for people, but also a great way of experimenting, engaging and entertaining.”

Brownsell also has one piece for advice for anyone looking to recreate the celestial Rosalía hair for themselves. “In medieval art, halo colours had specific meanings,” she says. “For example, green for confessors, red for martyrs, white for virgins. So, that’s something to think about if you try this one at home.”