Bropper: The Hottest Copper Shade of 2026

‘Bropper’, short for Brunette Copper, is the hottest copper shade in salons right now, and it’s the ultimate gateway copper for your brunette clients. This year, the trending shade is a perfect hybrid of warm brunette and spicy copper, which is rich and full of dimension. ‘Bropper’ works perfectly on naturally brunette-based hair, creating depth and warmth without the need to lift the hair before. It’s softer than traditional copper, but catches the light in all the right places! It’s effortless, low maintenance and a super lived-in approach to colour.

Want to learn how you can achieve this in your salon, with your very own clients? We’ve teamed up with our educator, Sara Simpson, to discuss how to achieve this trendy shade using Quif Professional.

To bring this trending brunette-copper shade to life with your clients, Sara created multi-dimensional highlights using the Magi:light+premium lightener in Silver Tone for that super clean lift. The client started at a level 5 with some grown-out highlights and wanted a mix of chunky, statement pieces and softer, lived-in highlights. As mentioned, adding highlights to your client's hair isn’t necessary to achieve ‘Bropper’, but for those who want those lightened strands of hair to brighten up their look, this is the perfect way to achieve it.

Sara incorporated a weave-and-tease technique when lightening the hair, with finer weaves at the top for seamless blending and chunkier highlights throughout the lengths of the hair to allow the copper tones to truly pop. The highlights were placed strategically to catch the light, while keeping the roots softer for an effortless grow-out.

Apply the toning formula around the foils, and leave to develop for 30 minutes. Once developed, wash the toner out inbetween foils to ensure the colour doesn’t run into the level 8 highlights. Once the foils have been removed, shampoo the hair twice and towel-dry so it is slightly damp. Then tone the highlights with Quint:essential using 8:4 equal parts with the Quasi developer, and develop for 20 minutes.

 

Blow-dry and style the hair as desired, to reveal a rich, dimensional brunette copper that’s natural, lived-in with pops of copper that are sure to turn heads.

‘Bropper’ is reflecting everything that clients want this year: a high-impact look that still keeps a natural, effortless finish. For brunette clients, ‘Bropper’ offers a high-impact look without offering a drastic change, hence why it’s the perfect shade for a seasonal refresh.  It adds warmth, dimension, and shine while keeping things low-maintenance.

For stylists, ‘Bropper’ demonstrates technique while delivering results that clients will love and maintain. So if your clients are looking to add some warmth or want to slightly change up their look with some fun copper highlights, ‘Bropper’ is a trend that can definitely work for a lot of clients. If you want to elevate your brunette clients' look, ‘Bropper’ is the ultimate shade.