What's your #hairinspo?

If you look at the hashtag #hairspiration on Instagram, you'll see over 700,000 images of all sorts of hair hues, from brown to neon pink.

Hair color has never been as mainstream as it is now. Mermaid hair, balayage, ombre and silver are only some of the popular looks. But there are others. Highlights and lowlights continue to be very popular.

At Watsons, hair color is a growing category as more and more people, not just women, are starting to realize that, yes, they can do it at home.

Whether you go to a salon or do your hair color at home, it is important to remember these things:

Once colored or bleached, your hair cannot be chemically processed again. You can retouch the roots but not the parts that have been colored. 

If you want crazy colors like pink, blue and purple, it has to be bleached beforehand. There is no better way to put it--bleaching is cruel on your hair but it has to be done if you want mermaid hair.

In my opinion, bleaching should be left to professionals BUT you can do it yourself if you have the right tools and ingredients. You need bleach powder, a developer and a toner, among other things. You need to be patient, too, because the process (whether done at home or at the salon), takes time. After bleaching, the bright colors (Manic Panic makes good ones) can now be applied.

Balayage, a technique that is very popular nowadays, can be used to achieve many different looks. Balayage, also known as hair painting, is a process where the lightener or hair color is painted on in such a way as to create a graduated, natural-looking effect. The effect is color that's multi-dimensional.

Conditioner is your new best friend once your hair has been bleached or drastically lightened. You also have to avoid heat styling and other processes like perming and rebonding. It is also good to use hair oils from Kerastase and other hair care brands. Argan oil is a good one to use.

Silver hair is another trend. Silver, in this case, actually means gray. The only difference is the look is deliberate. The trend is so hot that stylists say "gray is the new blonde." To achieve this, hair has to be bleached blonde followed by toner.

Ombre is old news. But you could grow out your hair color until it looks like a surfer girl's natural ombré. Now, that is cool.

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It's not yet too late to try the biggest hair trends of 2016. Go ahead and color!