There was a lot of copper and bright orange hair on the runway when W Salon presented “Style with Innovation,” the debut of its linear hair collection at Ala Moana Center last week, part of the weeklong Shop A Le‘a event.

But salon director Thi Nguyen says there are many ways to introduce color to your coiffure, without going overboard.

One way to add color to your tresses is as practical as it is stylish. With ombre techniques, subtle to dramatic color can be added from midscalp to the ends of hair. This was shown on a model with blond hair graduating into orange tips, as well as a model with brown hair that subtly turned blonder at the tips. With your own natural color at the roots and on-purpose contrast, you don’t have to worry about retouching every three weeks as it grows out.

“It’ll last six months to a year,” Nguyen said.

The salon’s new color collection also embraces the concept of banding. Nguyen said he was playing with the notion of adding color that enhances the shine around the crown of the head when one steps into sunlight.

“When the sun hits the hair, there’s a shiny band, like a halo,” said the stylist. Strong colors representative of amethysts, rubies and jade, he said, “strengthen you.”

Strong short cuts are also intended to highlight women’s strengths in the new economy. Cuts tend to be more edgy than pretty in an old-school view of what makes a woman beautiful. Where in the past it might have been long, cascading tresses, new cuts make a bolder individual statement.

“As a professional man, I like to see a strong, sexy woman who’s not so needy, not so dependent,” Nguyen said.

W Salon is at Ala Moana Center. Call 943-2700. For a video of the event, visit Fashion Tribe at bit.ly/HiwLh1.