Every year at exactly this time, the beauty hot line at the salon starts to ring. Almost every beauty editor from New York to London to Paris calls and asks the same question: "What's new with hair color, Louis?" The query used to send chills up my spine. The fact of the matter is that until very recently,although hair color did evolve, the changeswould happen gradually. I would often find myself scrambling to expound on the most minute color shifts from season to season.

Of course, there was always the trend setter, the woman bold enough to try the most non-traditional hair colors. Debbie Harry's famous blond hair was bleached only in the front and left dark in the back.

Debbie and I became friends over the years and I eventually started to color her hair. I had to ask her why she only colored the front. She responded simply, "How was I supposed to see the back of my head?" It made perfect sense to me and I continued to follow what became her most famous trademark. Madonna fearlessly bleached her hair to a platinum blond that often ended up in short boyish styles because of breakage from color abuse.

I will never forget the scene from her movie Truth or Dare in which, after a concert, with her hair covered in gobs of conditionerand covered by a plastic bag, she sippedsoup for dinner. I am sure she prayed day and night that her hair would last for the rest of the tour.

Even more daring was Cyndi Lauper, who bleached her hair so blond it looked like feathers. Then she would add insult to injury and add a stripe or two of another random color to her already delicate follicles. Her hair never seemed to grow longer than chinlength. I wonder why?

Not all color trends were as extreme or as destructive to the hair. Remember Cindy Crawford's blond stripes around her face? Every girl in America bought a bottle of Joleen bleach to try and imitate her. This was an easy look to achieve at home and became the "it" color for more than a few seasons. It often looked pretty, unless girls got carried away and fried their hair. Unfortunately, thelook could lead to stripes of color all over the head. In most cases, women who tried thislooked terrible, like they had botched their home color jobs or worse. But go figure, this color became a huge trend.

Linda Evangelista was the woman who made hair color change acceptable for every woman. Linda was the top supermodel of her time. Before Linda, a top model would neverhave been bold enough to radically change her color. Linda astonished the fashion world by showing up at the collections with her beautiful brunette hair made white blond. This made more news than any designer collection shown that season. Soon other girls followed. It was no longer unusual for amodel to change her look from season to season.

Linda still topped them all by accepting a Clairol color campaign and changing her hair from brown to blond to red in three days. I was lucky enough to be picked as the colorist for the job. I was sweating bullets the entire three days. Each color had to be beyond perfect. Meanwhile, Linda was totally at ease. She looked great and loved wearing every color. I remember her bringing in color-coordinated outfits with jewels and sunglasses for each hair color change. Linda Evangelista is perhaps the woman most responsible for turning hair color into fashion's most important accessory.

Except for the rare exception, things have calmed down over the years. Warmer caramel colors have taken over as the must-have hair tones. Oddly enough, these colors would have been considered brassy and unacceptable just a few years ago. Almost every client still brings in pictures of Jennifer Anniston or Gisele Bundchen. Gold, amber and coppery auburns are in. Ash colors look dull and drab by comparison.

Brunettes who at one time were almost considered second-class citizens now frequently sport the color of choice. Making an obviously brunette woman blond often discolors their complexion and is perhaps the biggest beauty faux pas. Keeping close to your color palette is essential unless you are willing to make a daily makeup change daily. This is a major error.

Hair color change is happening faster than ever. Recently, I made top model Coco Rocha red for Vogue and then almost ebony brown on the whim of the great photographer Steven Meisel for another shoot a few weeks later.

Color change is no longer stagnant. The next time a beauty editor calls, I'll have no worries about being short on news. Pick a color, any color, I'll have plenty to say!