Several celebrities (think Taylor Swift, J. Lo),  are shade-shifting from blonde to brunette—and sometimes back—but they often use hoards of highlights to make light brunette look blonder or lots of lowlights to shift back.

BLONDE COLOR SWAPPING

The easiest seasonal color shifts are within the not-too-light blonde to not-too-dark brunette zones, which is why so many celebrities are taking that route, with a little help from highlights or lowlights.

Taylor Swift is more of a natural warm brown these days and J. Lo is back to her brunette-leaning color with caramel highlights. For those forever-blonde types who aren’t ready to shade swap, Mariah Carey and Bebe Rexha proved that a near-solid blonde works best, even though hair extensions are lending a lot of help.

Both the extensions and highlight/lowlight tactics help keep hair healthier and avoid drastic color changes season after season. Moving between the blonde and brunette zones offers the best options for never-ending change.

Taylor Swift at AMA's

OMBÉ OUT, HIGHLIGHTS IN

If there’s one thing missing from winter hair color trends, it’s the obvious, intense ombré that everyone sported for summer. It was entirely absent at the American Music Awards this past October, precisely because it’s all over the malls.

As noted about blonde-to-brunette shade swapping, celebs crossing over are doing it with subtle base-color changes and highlights or lowlights, because they make changing back and forth easy. Highlights often come from balayage, but right now, foiled looks are big on the red carpet, too.

After all, when you want sparks that can be seen, foiled highlights—applied using a color board—give you full, even saturation and shade variations that stand out under spotlights.

Carrie Underwood at AMA's