10 Medium Brown Hair Colour Ideas – From Golden to Ash

When light browns feel too light and dark browns feel too dark, there's one in-between hue that's got you covered. Medium brown hair colour hits that sweet spot, with shades of milk chocolate, mocha latte and warm chestnut lending a glow. For brunettes with a natural look, medium shades deliver timeless elegance, with a richness that feels as effortless as it is polished.

So, let's start your medium brown transformation. Here's how to get the look...

What is a Medium Brown Hair Colour?

A medium brown hair colour is any shade that's not distinctly light or dark. It's right in the middle and, because it can be worn warm or cool, it's versatile enough to suit every skin tone. You've got chocolate and chestnut browns if you like rich, radiant shades, or earthy and ash browns if you prefer a cooler sheen. Plus, these hues pair well with any hair colouring technique. So, whether you want an all-over statement, subtle highlights or a soft balayage, there's a medium brown hair colour for you.

How to Get Medium Brown Hair Colour

Striking that perfect balance between light and dark is a task best left to professionals. Achieving medium brown shades can be tricky, but by heading to your nearest Wella salon, you can hit the dreamiest colour. Your colourist will custom-blend a brunette shade that works uniquely for you, while also hitting all your hair goals in terms of commitment, maintenance and any bonus extras, like grey hair coverage. They'll know exactly which Wella Professionals colour will suit your needs, but it always helps to go in with some research. So, here are the hair colour products you need to know...

For Zero-Damage Brunette Shades: SHINEFINITY Color Glaze

If you want a medium brown shade with a mirror-like, glass hair glow, ask your colourist to book you in for a SHINEFINITY Color Glaze. The zero-damage, zero-lift, demi-permanent formula creates a translucent veil of colour, so you enjoy up to 250% shinier hair¹ that's also up to 50% softer and smoother². It's the ideal ammonia-free product when you want to enhance your natural hair colour, with a palette of warm tones and cool tones that give medium brown hair a next-level glow.

For Vibrancy and Shine: Color Touch

This demi-permanent colour is the dream for brunettes. Color Touch comes infused with Metal Purifier, which neutralises metals in your hair so your shade can shine true to tone. Rich, balanced tones bring out the natural movement in medium brown shades, creating a finish that looks fresh, modern, and full of life. And because it’s kind to your hair, you get a glossy refresh with low commitment.

For Lit-From-With Lengths: Illumina Color

Medium brown shouldn’t mean flat. With Illumina Color, every strand is enhanced by MicroLight Technology, which improves the clarity of the cuticle so light can enter each strand and illuminate your hair from within. The result: a brunette that feels brighter, more dimensional, and shimmering, showcasing the subtle highs and lows you didn’t know you had. Plus, it delivers long-lasting radiance, up to 3 levels of lift, and up to 100% grey coverage.

For Rich Intensity: Koleston Perfect

When you want your brunette to make a statement, Koleston Perfect delivers. Its permanent formula gives you medium brown hair with intensity, clarity, and unparalleled dimension. Ultra Precision Colour Technology ensures rich, even results, while Metal Purifier locks in a true-to-tone finish while protecting hair from extra damage in the presence of metals. From warm, light-reflective mocha to bold, espresso-dark drama, the shade possibilities are limitless and always striking.

10 Ways to Wear Medium Brown Hair Colours

1. Medium Caramel Brown Hair

Image Credit: @spartaky1

If your natural hair colour is dark but you want to embrace medium-brown tones, try asking for a caramel balayage through the mid-lengths and ends of your hair. The warmth contrasts beautifully against the natural root shadow, framing your face with radiance – and you can make it extra vibrant by asking for Color Touch as your toner. Team with loose waves to give your newly lightened hair a sun-kissed feel. We love EIMI Ocean Spritz for grip, guts and texture that makes tousled hair effortless.

2. Medium Red-Brown Hair Colour

Image Credit: @danielmbeauty

The chocolate cherry trend is going nowhere, as this lustrous look demonstrates. Packed with warm tones and hints of copper, it's the perfect autumn shade, made extra luminous with strokes of balayage. Illumina Color delivers inside-out luminosity for highlights that glow, and for even more medium red-brown radiance, you can maintain the shade at home with Color Fresh Mask in Copper Glow. All you have to do is smooth the tinted mask through clean, damp hair when you want to refresh your shade. After 10 minutes, cherry tones will pop all over again.

3. Medium Brown Hair Colour with Highlights

Image Credit: @danielmbeauty

How dreamy is this? Enhanced by sun-kissed bronde highlights (also known as brown-blonde), it shows you how transformative the subtlest strokes of lightener can be. BlondorPlex is the ideal pre-lightener for this look, as it not only gives you up to nine levels of lift, but it also promises up to 97% less breakage³ for a kind-to-hair glow. For added care, wash with ULTIMATE REPAIR Shampoo and ULTIMATE REPAIR Conditioner, a health-boosting duo that ensures your medium brown mane looks its most lustrous.

4. Medium Chocolate Brown Hair Colour

Image Credit: @jhair_stylist

There's nothing one-dimensional about this all-over chocolate shade. Thanks to the vibrancy of Color Touch and the shine of ULTIMATE SMOOTH, it's a head-turning hue that's high on this season's trends list. A glow is the goal, so after asking your colourist to recreate the shade in the salon, maintain it at home with ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum. The multitasking elixir nourishes in 30 seconds for smoothness that lasts up to 3 days⁴, so you get long-lasting frizz control, radiance and a heat protectant in one step.

5. Medium Rose Brown Hair Colour

Who said brunettes can't embrace the pastel trend? Add a hint of pink to medium brown hair for a rich and rosy look, courtesy of an in-salon SHINEFINITY Color Glaze. It's a shade you can also maintain at home with the Color Fresh Mask in Rose Blaze. Simply apply to the mask to clean, damp hair, let it work its magic for 10 minutes, and then rinse to reveal a refreshed rosy hue.

6. Medium Golden Brown Hair

Image Credit: @romeufelipe

Serve up some toffee chocolate with this medium brown ombre look, featuring darker tones through the root section and a delicious bronde (brown-blonde) through the lengths and ends. It's bursting with golden hues to give your skin tone extra glow, and that irresistible shine shows just how beautiful a SHINEFINITY Color Glaze truly is. We are obsessed.

7. Medium Honey Brown Hair

Image Credit: @hairbyamybee

You've heard of honey blonde, but what about honey brown? It's just as delicious, but with a deeper tone that makes the hints of honey feel soft and seamless. Ask your colourist for ultra-subtle highlights to achieve this natural-looking dimension. The goal is an almost-invisible shift from dark to light to dark again, with the tones all melting together. Color Touch is the perfect formula to request for this look, as its vibrancy and shine ensures every ribbon of colour appears beautifully rich.

8. Dark Brown Hair with Medium Brown Highlights

Image Credit: @romeufelipe

This is a show-stopper. If you have a dark base and you want a touch of lightness, opt for warm brown hair tones that stand out in the very best way. There's still plenty of depth in this look, but the highlights lend a sultry, sun-kissed feel. Ask your colourist for BlondorPlex to recreate the effect; our bond-strengthening lightener that ensures your hair goes bright but not brassy. Not only does it give you up to 9 levels of lift (ideal for dark hair) but it also guarantees up to 97% less breakage³. Then, if you're blessed with curls like these, complete your look with NutriCurls Curlixir Balm. The defining formula ensures every ringlet looks healthy, shiny and bouncy.

9. Surreal Brunette Hair Colour

Surreal Brunette is more than a colour – it’s an illusion made real. Inspired by the depth and dimension of AI-generated looks, this Wella signature service transforms medium brown hair into an art form. Precision lightening and tonal layering create a finish that is fluid and impossibly radiant. It's a brunette that feels timeless yet modern, natural yet otherworldly. And best of all, it's ready to be recreated at your nearest Wella salon.

10. Medium Ash Brown Hair Colour

Image Credit: @styledbyleahx

On the lighter end of the medium brown spectrum (but still not a light brown!) is this ashy masterpiece, featuring sweeps of coolness by Koleston Perfect. The permanent hair colour is ideal when rich intensity is your goal, as seen in the lustrous, almost-blonde highlights and earthy base shade. So, if you find ash hues suit your skin tone better, this is the medium brown look for you.

How to Maintain Medium Brown Hair Colour

Give your medium brown mane the care it deserves with salon-grade products that bring out its shine. We love these gloss-enhancing formulas for the most lustrous brunettes around...

1. The Shine-Boosting Duo

Shine completes your whole look, so when you want your medium brown hair to look and feel its healthiest, reach for ULTIMATE SMOOTH Shampoo and ULTIMATE SMOOTH Conditioner. The two formulas are suitable for all hair types, and infuse strands with a blend of Squalane and Omega-9; to mega nourishers that care for your hair from the inside out. One those days when you want even more moisture, swap the conditioner for ULTIMATE SMOOTH Intense Mask. Rich and creamy, it softens, smooths and adds shine in 10 minutes – the perfect weekly treatment.

2. The Miracle Hair Oil

A hair oil is going to take your medium brown hair from glossy to glassy. You can use it on wash day, just before you blow-dry, or to add instant shine in between washes. For the most luxurious and versatile oil, try ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum. It's an oil, serum, heat protectant and UV shield in one golden bottle. Plus, the results are game-changing. Smooth it through the mid-lengths and ends of your damp or dry hair, and the rich oil nourishes in 30 seconds to give you smoothness that lasts up to 3 days⁴.

3. The Colour-Depositing Hair Mask

Last but not least, add a tinted treatment mask to your maintenance regimen. Color Fresh Mask in Chocolate Touch is ideal for refreshing medium brown tones in just 10 minutes. Smooth it through clean, damp hair, let it absorb, then rinse to reveal your revived colour. It's great for boosting brightness and eliminating brassy tones in between salon visits.

¹ Versus untreated bleached hair.

² Instrumental testing versus our regular demi-permanent colour.

³ When using Wellaplex N°2 with Blondorplex versus Blondorplex alone.

⁴ When using ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum, if unwashed for 3 days, vs. untreated.