MOOD Creative Director, Tracey Ann Smith talks key cutting and colour trends for summer and how to keep them looking their best.
Summer Colour
Golden Hour Blondes
Warm blondes are back for summer 2026 but they’re not brassy – they are softer and more expensive looking with gold reflects scattered throughout a beautiful butter cream-like blonde base for dimension and shine. For blondes, this beautiful sunshine hue can easily be achieved with a toner shift using MOOD Moody Toners and the colour can be kept looking luxurious outside the salon with MOOD’s Ultra Care range – a must have to ensure blonde tones continuously look luxe and healthy between salon appointments.
Ethereal Copper
Copper is the colour of the season, but this year we will see it a lot softer, with an added golden glimmer. This shade provides the ultimate shine to the hair, adds warmth and a glow to the complexion and makes green and blue eyes in particular really pop. I love pairing this hue with a beautiful soft, S shaped wave or some crimping to add further movement to the hair and really show off the reflects of colour. With this shade a colour protecting shampoo and conditioner like the MOOD Colour Protect Shampoo and Conditioner are essential to keep the copper looking its most radiant and to avoid colour fade.
Summer Cuts
The Bixie
The bixie has made a resurgence for summer 2026 and is a great option for clients who want to go shorter but are not quite ready to go full on pixie cut short yet! The bixie combines both the pixie and the bob, meeting in the middle of both styles in length, with shorter choppy layers through the top to create that edgy pixie like style, but with the ends being left longer and smoother. I love pairing this style with a bold colour like platinum to give the style an even more contemporary, high-fashion and edgy finish. To style this cut, a texturising spray is essential - mist through damp hair before blow-drying and working in with your fingers. I love the MOOD Hairstyling Bodyguard Salt and Care Spray.
Graduated Bob
The French bob was the “cool girl cut” last summer and this year we will see the graduated bob take over. Clients are on the lookout for sharper bob styles that also maintain length, and this is the perfect bob choice for them. Over the past few years this bob would have been seen as outdated, but for 2026 it takes a more contemporary approach – it keeps its signature longer length at the front, but the back is shorter and blunter, with broken up edges to give it a more raw, gritty feel. Paired with a gorgeous vivid hue like a cherry red this is the ultimate haircut and colour combo for those who want a striking summer look.
