Ombre :: Hombre

So when did ombre become such a big thing? I hadn't realized it was until my daughters were asking for clothes that were 'ombre.' I wasn't sure what it was exactly that they were asking until they explained "you know mom, it's graduated colors." As if everyone knows that. And yes, my 12-year-old used 'graduated colors' in her definition. 

But see that's the thing. I never thought of ombre having to do with color. The word always reminded me of those old Westerns. The ones with a poncho-wearing Clint Eastwood that would talk through his cigar; saying just a handful of words as he squinted at the sun.

I figured that I just must have had the definition mixed up. But when I went looking for the meaning of ombre, I found several. The classic Spanish (hombre) for 'man.'  Ok, there's my Clint Eastwood reference. But there is also another that dates back to Spain (16th Century) for a card game like the game of Whist.

So how did this definition become known in the fashion world for the graduation of color tones? Apparently that definition comes from the French for 'shade' ... which was then applied to clothes, hair or even art when using graduated colors.

I didn't even think of it as something people do to their hair until the last season of The Voice. When I saw Gwen Stefani's hair I realized that this was a style I was seeing at the office. I had noticed girls were darkening their roots leaving highlights on the ends. At first I thought it was just a messed up dye job, but then saw too many people with the same style to think it was a mistake. A quick google told me that I was simply out of date and not up on my fashion jargon for the ever popular 'ombre hair.'

So I'm not ready to be doing any 'ombre' to my hair, but I kinda like the look for beading. So I did a bit of simple peyote and just changed up the colors as I went. Then I beaded it into a strip of old jeans. I did a straight cut and wore it for a couple of days as I wanted it to fray just like we used to do in high school when we thought it was cool to have that worn in look. Yeah, I might be out of style, but if I wait long enough it comes back.