In addition to her powerhouse vocals and stellar songwriting skills, Paramore front woman Hayley Williams is known for her neon orange hair. The trademark hue is the result of years of experimentation: Williams started with drugstore box dyes and eventually graduated to a close partnership (and friendship) with Nashville-based hairstylist Brian O’Connor, who now handles all of Williams’ beauty needs.
The pair met in 2006, shortly after a Paramore tour through Japan inspired Williams to take her hair color to the next level. “Japan was my heaven,” Williams tells W, citing influences like Harajuku culture and FRUiTs magazine. “I had already been box dyeing my hair for a while, but I really, really wanted to try things that were either bolder or just more fun.” Back in the States, she walked into a salon where O’Connor was working, and the rest was history.
After seeing pictures of herself as a child and realizing she had been born a redhead, Williams wanted to go back to an orange hue, but as “the anime version” of herself. In addition to dyeing her hair with three different shades of bright orange, yellow and red, O’Connor gave her an edgy, angular cut and Williams’ signature style was born.
“It became something that I was known for after that,” Williams says. “The hair was always a part of the interviews or the reviews. That was the beginning of our creative collaboration, which ultimately led to us starting a company together.”
That company is Good Dye Young, which is now available in all Ulta Beauty locations nationwide. The fully vegan line of hair care products focuses on helping customers achieve similarly bold looks, and includes a Lightening Kit, Semi-Perm in a range of shades and DYEPosit hues. (“Riot” is the shade that most closely resembles Williams’ classic orange).
In October 2022, the pair also opened the queer-friendly Fruits Hair Lab in Nashville. “It’s really our safe place,” O’Connor says of the salon….
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