Do y’all think the lights in the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts were too dim for Paul Feig to notice that Sydney Sweeney changed her hair color for the Vanity Fair Oscar party? Let’s just go ahead and imagine that the director, who is working with Sweeney on the upcoming film The Housemaid, and the actor spent the party chit-chatting about her choice to subtly shift her golden blonde shade—and add chunky highlights—just in time for the red carpet.

In a press release, colorist Jacob Schwartz describes the new shade as “light suede blonde,” as distinct from the “dark suede blonde” Sweeney has worn in recent months. It’s “reminiscent of a suede jacket or bag, with that natural interplay of textures and tones,” he stated.

The multi-dimensional tone is a bit more muted than her typical bright golden blonde, with new neutral undertones; Schwartz added a mix of highlights using Schwarzkopf Professional Vario Blond SuperPlus and lowlights with Schwarzkopf Professional Igora Vibrance. Most inspirational for me, personally, are the few inches of natural root, which for non-celebrities buys a few more months before you have to return to the salon for fresh highlights. But Sweeney could ostensibly have access to a colorist every day, so let’s all just agree that my lazy-girl hair color hack is now officially an A-list beauty trend.

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To create Sweeney’s gentle waves, her longtime stylist Glen Coco used an as-yet-unannounced Kerastase product, along with the brand’s L’incroyable Blow-Dry Hair Lotion. “Next, I went in with the SharkBeauty FlexFusion Styling Concentrator attachment to lightly rough dry the hair before going in with the Wet or Dry Fusion Brush attachment in wet mode to smooth the hair,” he explained in a press release. From there, he grabbed a round brush to blow the hair smooth, keeping a bounce at the ends, then slightly rounding them with the Wet or Dry Fusion Air Straightener.

As Sweeney and her hair team clearly know, there’s nothing like a good blowout to set off a new hair color. We can’t wait to see what iteration of blonde Sweeney has us drooling over next.

More award-season beauty:

• The Full Breakdown of Selena Gomez’s SAG Awards Look
• Zoe Saldaña’s Braid Is Coquette to the Third Power
• There Is a Facelift in This Year’s Golden Globes Gift Bag

Watch Mikey Madison break down her Anora beauty transformation:

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