10/10/2025
10 Delicious Ways to Wear Mocha Brown Hair Color
Zara Kenyon
If espresso brown hues feel too dark and latte blonde highlights are too light, hit that sweet spot with a coffee-inspired hair color that combines depth and glow. We call it mocha brown hair color, with a hint of chocolate that gives this buzzy new trend a delicious and decadent twist. Think glossy, light-reflective strands that shimmer in every setting, from golden hour to candlelight.
Whether you prefer a soft, milky mocha or something deep, dark and sultry, this versatile shade is the perfect blend of warmth and sophistication, made to suit every season and every skin tone.
What Color is Mocha Brown Hair?
Mocha brown is a multi-dimensional brunette shade, resplendent in sophisticated highlights and lowlights. This medium brown hair color can be worn cool or warm, whether you crave smoky espresso tones or rich hints of caramel. So, no matter if you have an olive skin tone, red tinges or hints of pink in your complexion, your Wella Professionals colorist can shade-match a mocha tone that works just for you.
10 Mocha Brown Hair Colors to Try
1. Dark Mocha Brown Hair Color
Image Credit: @aalyhabeauty
With the depth of an espresso base and a swirl of caramel, this dark mocha brown mane is gaining buzz for all the right reasons. The shades were created with Color Touch, our demi-permanent formula for uncompromised shine and vibrancy, delivering glossy radiance from root to tip. Charge up the glow with ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum, a luxurious elixir that nourishes in 30 seconds for smoothness that lasts up to 3 days¹.
2. Light Mocha Mousse Brown Hair Color
Image Credit: @romeufelipe
Pantone’s Color of the Year 2025 is at its most decadent in this look, which features milky hints of chocolate brown that make the mid-lengths and ends of hair shimmer. A SHINEFINITY Color Glaze is perfect for this look, as the zero-lift, zero-damage glow-booster gives you a translucent veil of color with irresistible shine you can feel. Ask your colorist to use it when lustrous shine is your ultimate hair goal. Your milky mocha tones will reflect the healthiest-looking shimmer.
3. Caramel Mocha Latte Hair Color
Image Credit: @danielmbeauty
If you take your color like you take your coffee – sweet, smooth and milky – this lighter take on mocha brown is for you. Featuring bronde (AKA brown-blonde) tones, it’s for latte lovers who want extra lightness through the face-framing layers. For these kinds of highlights, we always recommend our most advanced lightener for maximum lift, BlondorPlex. The innovative formula, paired with Wellaplex N°2, gives you up to 97% less breakage² – ideal for treating the slightly more delicate hair at the front.
4. All-Over Mocha Brown Hair Color
Image Credit: @matherzberg
For an elegant take on mocha brown hair, opt for low-contrast highlights. This deep brunette features the softest ribbons of lightener for a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ sparkle. Koleston Perfect will deliver all the pure-pigment impact you want from a look like this, with the permanent formula’s Ultra Precision Color Technology giving you balanced results with natural depth and shine. It also comes with up to 100% grey coverage – meaning no more silver strays! – and a built-in Metal Purifier that helps reduce damage during the coloring process.
5. Cinnamon Mocha Brown Hair Color
Image Credit: @jhair_stylist
Add a little spice to your mocha with these cinnamon brown highlights. If you love copper curls, you’ll be as obsessed as we are with this show-stopping hair inspiration. Color Touch is the dream formula for this look, with a vast palette of vibrant reds to bring some heat. Its built-in Metal Purifier ensures your shade stays true-to-tone as it fades beautifully over 28 washes. Keep the lightness through the lengths and the depth at the root to help ringlets pop like never before. Then, work in NutriCurls Curlixir Balm to take the definition to the next level.
6. Mocha Brown Balayage
Image Credit: @hair.by.gigi
Balayage is a go-to highlighting technique for mocha brown hair, as the freehand painting guarantees that signature multi-dimensional finish. Plus, starting to apply lightener through the mid-lengths instead of the roots makes your regrowth softer, so you enjoy the benefits of a low-maintenance look, still with a polished feel. This particular masterpiece was crafted with BlondorPlex for the lightener, followed by Color Touch to create a bronzy, caramel mocha glow.
7. Mocha Brown Bob Haircut
Image Credit: @florenceneilson
So often, hair color inspiration appears through long, mermaid-like manes, but if you want to see what mocha brown looks like with a shorter haircut, consider this a flawless example. The glossiness of the color and the bounce of the blow-dry give hair the healthiest-looking sheen, which you can boost with ULTIMATE REPAIR Miracle Hair Rescue. It’s a leave-in treatment that repairs hair damage in 90 seconds³, so you give brunette tones the best chance to glow. Use it to prevent and treat damaged hair.
8. Chestnut Mocha Brown Highlights
Image Credit: @dereqc
The number one hair lightener in the world⁴, BlondorPlex, is bringing the glow in this chestnut brown look, resulting in golden ribbons of light that lock in rich warmth and movement. If you’re a naturally dark brunette, and you want to try highlights for the first time, this is a great reference to take to your nearest Wella salon. The lightener pops while still blending seamlessly. Plus, it’s easy for you to maintain at home with the Color Fresh Mask in Caramel Glaze. The color-depositing mask refreshes your color in 10 minutes, so hair looks salon-fresh in between appointments.
9. Mocha Brown-Blonde Hair Color
Image Credit: @marianiliehair
Bronde hair (or brown-blonde hair) is huge right now. It’s the hybrid shade brunettes and blondes can’t get enough of, helping you go just light enough without ditching the depth and decadence of a chocolatey base. This is a stunning demonstration, with brighter highlights giving the hair a sun-kissed finish. Ask your colorist to try it if you’re craving a bronde – and make sure you request Illumina Color. The permanent formula helps to protect the clarity of the cuticle, so light can enter each strand and illuminate your hair from within. Then, take note of the model’s care recommendation, and add ULTIMATE REPAIR Night Serum to your regimen. The sleep-in treatment protects your hair against pillow friction, ensuring you wake up to a frizz-free, more manageable mane.
10. Golden Mocha Brown Hair Color
Image Credit: @danielmbeauty
If you like your balayage with a sultry, sun-kissed feel, you can still achieve it with mocha tones. The key is asking for chunky highlights that add a piecey finish. The golden shimmer of these tumbling ribbons is like painted sunshine – warm and radiant – and you can recreate it by booking a SHINEFINITY Color Glaze at your nearest Wella salon. The breakthrough service gives you up to 250% shinier hair⁵ that’s up to 50% softer and smoother⁶. Luminosity = unlocked.
How to Maintain Mocha Brown Hair Color
Brunettes look their best when glossy, so after your color service, follow an at-home hair care regimen that’s focused on shine. Because who doesn’t want lustrous mocha tones that radiate a healthy glow?
1. Wash with this Shine-Boosting Duo
Shiny hair starts in the shower. For silky-smooth and frizz-free strands, start your routine with ULTIMATE SMOOTH Shampoo and ULTIMATE SMOOTH Conditioner. The two envelop your hair in a luxurious blend of Squalane and Omega-9, so dullness is swapped for a silky shiny hair finish that gleams from root to tip. The shampoo washes away the impurities that leave hair rough and dry, with the Metal Purifier neutralizing harmful metals for a quick, effortless detox. Then, the conditioner smooths and nourishes your hair from the inside out, before rinsing completely clean to ensure strands are beautifully cared for without feeling weighed down.
Pro Tip: Once per week, swap ULTIMATE SMOOTH Conditioner for ULTIMATE SMOOTH Intense Mask. The intense creamy formula transforms stressed strands in just five minutes with an extra dose of nourishment.
2. Protect and Glow with this Multi-Tasking Hair Oil
For highlights that dazzle, a hair oil is a styling and care staple. But not just any hair oil; ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum is the multitasker your kit is missing. Not only does it nourish in 30 seconds and adds smoothness that lasts up to 3 days¹, but it works triple duty as a heat protectant and UV shield, too. Apply it to clean, damp hair for smooth blow-dries, smooth through dry hair before styling for instant protection, and even add it to ULTIMATE SMOOTH Intense Mask to make the formula extra sumptuous.
Pro Tip: Layer ULTIMATE SMOOTH Miracle Oil Serum over ULTIMATE REPAIR Miracle Hair Rescue for a health-boosting power pair. Miracle Hair Rescue defies damage for healthier strands, while Miracle Oil Serum secures smoother hair by taming frizz fast.
3. Top Up the Tone with Color Fresh Mask
A color-depositing mask is a game-changer if you like your shade to always look salon-fresh. Color Fresh Mask is the one, available in a wide range of shades, including golden and caramel tones for mocha brown manes. So, if your brunette reflects delicious caramel ribbons, use Color Fresh Mask in Caramel Glaze, and if it boasts a sun-kissed sheen, reach for Color Fresh Mask in Golden Gloss. All you have to do is apply your chosen shade to clean, damp hair and let it absorb for 10 minutes. Then, rinse thoroughly to reveal a speedy refresh for the most radiant mocha hair.
Pro Tip: After shampooing but before applying Color Fresh Mask, gently squeeze excess water out of your hair. This way, the tinted treatment won’t be diluted, so your tone looks extra fresh.
¹ If unwashed for 3 days vs. untreated.
² When using Wellaplex N°2 with Blondorplex versus Blondorplex alone.
³ When using ULTIMATE REPAIR Miracle Hair Rescue.
⁴ Based on the 2024 Professional Hair Color Global Market Brief Study for the bleach coloring sub-product type category published by Kline
⁵ Versus untreated bleached hair.
⁶ Instrumental testing versus our regular demi-permanent color.