7/9/2025

Introducing Surreal Color: The AI-Inspired Hair Trend

Zara Kenyon & Edward Sweeney

Model with long, loosely tousled, golden blonde hair.

Ever found the most covetable hair color inspiration – only to realize it’s not real? AI-generated looks are taking over social media, and opening our eyes to new possibilities. Because, even though the hair might be a virtual mirage that seems too good to be true, the colors you see can, at last, be recreated. Introducing Surreal Color.

Inspired by AI and brought to life by professionals, Surreal Color is a collection of six signature services that blur the line between screens and salon results. Exclusive to Wella salons, each look takes what you love about AI-powered trends – from the high shine to the seamless blending – and makes it a reality with masterful techniques and ground-breaking color products.

So, let’s explore the Surreal Color menu coming to your nearest Wella salon. From metallic blondes to ethereal brunettes to power pastels – this is the future of color…

Surreal Blonde

Closer look at the blended highlights through a model’s golden blonde hair.

Look Credit: Romeu Felipe (@romeufelipe)

The AI aesthetic is dialling up the glow through every shade of blonde, lending a light-reflective sheen so shiny it almost appears metallic. So, how do you take that finish from screen to reality? With the Surreal Blonde service, which combines luxurious highlights with the zero-lift, zero-damage, light-reflective power of a SHINEFINITY Color Glaze.

Your colorist will start by weaving in tactically placed highlights with bond-strengthening BlondorPlex, giving you up to nine levels of lift and 97% less breakage* with every sweep. Then, your SHINEFINITY glaze is applied in the blonde hue best suited to you. From honey to ash, your shade will shimmer with a translucent veil of glow-boosting color.

Surreal Pastel

Model with dark blonde hair featuring strokes of pastel pink, blue and purple tones.

Look Credit: James Earnshaw (@jhair_stylist)

Pastel hair has always had an awesomely ethereal edge, but Surreal Pastel takes it to new heights with a haze of multi colors that reflect a soft-focus finish. The embodiment of mermaid hair, this service sees swathes of blue, pink and purple hair tones woven through lengths and ends, melting into one another to mimic the ultra smooth effects seen in AI images.

Sweeps of BlondorPlex and new shades of SHINEFINITY bring this flawless mane to life, giving you a pastel look that can be worn through all base shades, whether blonde or brunette. But, by far our favorite canvas is a soft-as-cashmere blonde, with just the right balance of cool and neutral tones to let pastel hues take center stage.

Surreal Dusk

Model with dark brown hair featuring blocks of violet color.

Close-up of model’s dark brown hair and violet highlights.

Look Credit: James Earnshaw (@jhair_stylist)

AI technology is blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, making otherworldly looks like this more covetable than ever before. Embrace an ultra-violet mane with purple highlights through a deep brown base, as seen here, or experiment with electric blues, acid greens and neon pinks to give the trend a personal twist.

It takes an iconic color to create a painted mane as vibrant as this, and Color Touch’s demi-permanent, vegan formula was made for the job. With 90+ shades, every color of the AI rainbow is made real, with the addition of Metal Purifier technology for a true-to-tone finish, no matter your hair’s condition. The result: uncompromised vibrancy and shine that fades flawlessly over 28 washes. Surreal Dusk is the answer to your boldest, brightest looks.

Surreal Brunette

Model with dark brown, ultra-short bob haircut featuring caramel highlights.

Close-up model’s chocolate brown and caramel hair color.

Look Credit: Renya Xydis (@______renyaxydis______) and Haleema Moraitis (@colouredbyhaleema_valonz)

Inspired by Pantone’s Color of the Year, Mocha Mousse Brown, a Surreal Brunette service enriches darker hair with diffused panels of dimensional chocolate hair color. Colorists in our salons have been overwhelmed by AI-powered references for this decadent trend, and if you’re someone who’s been eyeing up its glossy finish, you’ll love this iridescent take.

Book in, and your colorist will create the subtlest highlights with BlondorPlex to give your brown hair movement, before toning with the intensity of Koleston Perfect or the vibrancy of Color Touch. Koleston will deliver ultra-shiny, pure-pigment results with up to 100% grey coverage, while Color Touch will lock in up to 70% grey coverage** with a healthy-looking, glistening finish.

Surreal Bronde

Model with full, voluminous, curly bronde hair.

Close-up of model’s brown-blonde hair, featuring toffee highlights.

Look Credit: Romeu Felipe (@romeufelipe)

Bronde is the hybrid color of 2025. Bridging the gap between blonde and brunette, it’s sun-kissed through spring and summer, and brimming with cozy richness through fall and winter. Give it an AI upgrade with hyper-real, blended highlights that bounce light in all directions, courtesy of the Surreal Bronde service and layers of dimensional color.

Your colorist will kick-start your look with subtle highlights using BlondorPlex, before adding shadows with Color Touch that let you see brown hair in a new light. Then, permanent Koleston Perfect will refine the blondish hues scattered throughout, with anti-metal and ME+ technology giving you a pure, balanced color you can trust. The finishing touch: a zero-lift, zero-damage, clear SHINEFINITY Glaze that grants your newly bronde hair with a mirror-like finish.

Surreal Platinum Blonde

Close-up of model’s platinum blonde highlights.

Look Credit: Renya Xydis (@______renyaxydis______) and Haleema Moraitis (@colouredbyhaleema_valonz)

A new generation of platinum blonde is here, ushering in the coolest, crispest tones you’ve seen with a touch of root that screams ‘Old Money Blonde’. The latter is a trend that’s been reigning blonde trend boards all year long, and now it’s getting a lighter, brighter lift that’s both surreal and serene. But how does your colorist make Surreal Platinum work for you?

First, with the care of BlondorPlex, a lightener like no other, thanks to its built-in bond-strengthening power. If you’ve come this far, you already know it reduces breakage by up to 97%*, but did you know it’s also infused with an anti-brass complex that keeps your platinum free from yellow tones? Once your hair has been lifted, your colorist will mix up your perfect blend of Illumina Color shades, so you get a radiant, youthful, 100% natural-looking blonde that gleams with health. But the glossiness doesn’t stop there. A SHINEFINITY Color Glaze seals in an irresistible finish. For shine you can feel, it’s the finishing touch every color service needs.

Once you’ve got your Surreal Color embrace unreal condition with our virtual hair consultation tool, powered by AI to build a hair care regimen completely bespoke to you.

*When using Wellaplex N°2 with Blondorplex, versus Blondorplex alone.

** With Color Touch Plus.