“Bessette Blonde” Is Spring’s Chicest Hair Shade
That progression was entirely intentional. “We started her looks from approximately ’92, which slowly and gradually changed and lightened until ’99,” says Kari Hill, the hair colourist behind Pidgeon’s transformation. “Carolyn’s hair transformed drastically from the early ’90s, when the public wasn’t familiar with her yet, to the more familiar look she became famous for in the mid to late ’90s.” The result? A renewed appetite for what we’re calling “Bessette blonde”: a glossy, honeyed blonde with a distinctly ’90s feel.
What is “Bessette blonde”?
Unlike the cool, almost white blondes that dominated the early 2010s, Bessette blonde sits in warmer territory. Think champagne and buttery gold tones, threaded through a natural base. It’s bright, but never stark.
“Carolyn’s colour has a lot of buttery gold undertones – it’s very ’90s,” says Harriet Muldoon, hair colourist and blonde specialist at Larry King. “She was originally quite a dark blonde, but over time, it gets brighter. It’s never platinum – it always has that buttery, warmer tone.”
Hill agrees that gold is central to the look. “Both looks are tonally very gold – ‘bold and gold’ as I like to call it,” she says of Pidgeon’s hair evolution in the series. “The opening colour was very dimensional with chunkier, bold highlights on a much darker base,” Hill explains. Later, as Carolyn’s image sharpened, the blonde became lighter with less depth through the base – but the highlights remained strong and deliberate. Placement is just as important as tone. “The technique is a really chunky weave, but slightly scattered,” says Muldoon. “You see the brightness. It isn’t ultra-fine or diffused.”
What “Bessette blonde” isn’t
Crucially, this isn’t about going as light as possible. It isn’t platinum, and it isn’t the softly grown-out bronde shade that has been so popular over the past few seasons. “The last few years have been all about bronde and lived-in looks,” says Muldoon. “This is about taking the highlights back up to the root. Instead of leaving the natural base through the top, you’re bringing chunky highlights right up.”
Hill agrees. “Carolyn’s blonde was distinctively different in her lack of restraint. The tone was always very gold, and the placement of the striking – I’d say daring – pops of blonde were her signature.” Where bronde shades often lean sun-kissed and diffused, Bessette blonde is cleaner. The warmth is intentional and the highlights visible.