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Expert advice on how to pick the right hair color

Expert advice on how to pick the right hair color

Choosing a hair colour is like choosing a hairstyle – there are so many options available that finding the perfect match can seem impossible at times… but it doesn’t need to be! Colour compatibility depends on your skin tones and undertones, followed by your eye pigment and character. While some people aim for subtle tones, others may want to make a statement with their hairstyle choices or follow trending colours of the season. So if you’re thinking about changing things up but you’re not sure how to do it, here is a little advice from industry leading experts on how to pick the right hair colour.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SKIN TONE AND HAIR COLOUR COMPATIBILITY

Colour compatibilities and contrasts are what make our world so unique and wonderful. There was probably a time when you liked a piece of clothing in a specific colour, but it just didn’t work for you. However, the exact same outfit on one of your friends looks magnificent! The two of you may share the same height, same build, similar age, and may even get asked if you’re related on a regular basis – but it just didn’t suit you. Have you ever wondered why that is? How does the same outfit look so different on people who share many physical similarities? The answer lies in your skin tone and undertone. The same way complexion and undertone affect your fashion choices, it affects your hair colour compatibility as well. Choosing the colour that compliments your skin will accent your facial features, while blending tones might enhance skin imperfections.

Changing a hair colour is a way to flatter you complexion, but also it’s a way to express yourself and add style into your life.

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR SKIN TONE

Determining your skin tone is a simple task. All you need to do is examine your skin tone in natural light, ideally without any make-up on.

What is your skin tone? Is it very light or medium? Do you have olive skin, or perhaps dark? Naturally, there are many subcategories of colours, but your basic tone should be enough for this step.

KNOWING YOUR SKIN UNDERTONE

Your undertone might be more subtle than your complexion, but it’s one of the most important factors to consider when picking a hair colour. Warm, neutral, and cool hues hidden beneath the skin epidermis determine what tones suit you best. So how do you identify yours? There are a few ways to check your undertone, but here are the two most simple options:

  • Examine your wrists – Expose your wrists to a source of natural light. If your veins look green, you have warm tones. However, if they are purple or blue instead, your undertone is cool. You have neutral tones if you can’t tell which of the colours is dominant.
  • The paper test – Take a piece of white paper and hold it up to your face in front of a mirror. The reflection of light off your skin might be yellow, blue, rose, or grey. Yellowish tones are traits of warm skin undertones. Cool skin tones have blue-red, pink, and rosy casts, while neutrals appear grey and green.

If you’re getting indecisive results when doing the paper test, your skin undertone is most likely neutral.

NEUTRAL UNDERTONE RECOMMENDATIONS

A neutral undertone gives you the possibility to experiment with warm and cool colours. To stay on the safe side, try not to make your choices too light or too dark. Stick with neutral and balanced tones for optimum results.

WARM UNDERTONE RECOMMENDATIONS

A warm skin undertone works best with a hair colour that contrasts it. You could benefit from a palette of cooler tones such as champagne, platinum blonde, sandy, and silver. Or, if you prefer more earthy tints, try dark brown, mocha, chestnut, chocolate ash or even violet tones.

COOL UNDERTONE RECOMMENDATIONS

The same “rule of contrast” we advise you to follow when choosing hair colour for warm undertones also applies to cool tones. Flatter your complexion by considering warm and honey based shades, such as golden, caramel blonde, light strawberry blonde, mahogany, mocha, cinnamon, and warm reds as your new hair colour choice.

WHAT TONES ARE FLATTERING YOUR EYE COLOUR THE MOST?

Picking a hair colour that compliments your complexion is not that easy. Besides your skin tones and undertones, your eye colour plays a significant role in how hair dye will fit you. Remember, hair and eye colour work best if they flatter each other!

BLUE EYES

Blue eyes can be very seductive and striking. Their shades may vary from tones of clear summer sky to the dark and unknown ocean depths. With such powerful eye colour comes great responsibility – knowing how to pick the right hair colour to make the most of your eyes’ natural beauty. Blue eyes with a warm skin undertone will benefit most from beige, honey, gold labels, chestnut, amber, copper, and cinnamon highlights. But if you’re up for some bold choices, you should try fiery red.

As for blue eyes with a cool undertone, they go best with cool and ash tones, base colours of brown, blonde and black (without red undertone). However, if you want to make your eyes stand out even more than they already do, try adding an ashy highlight.

GREEN EYES

For those of you with mystique green eyes and olive and warm skin tones, bronze and caramel colours darker than the skin will do magic. Still, if you prefer darker notes, consider burgundy, plum, or even black as your option. You have many colour choices to work with because almost all browns and reds go well with green eyes.

CHESTNUT AND LIGHT BROWN EYE COLOUR

Lucky women with chestnut and light brown eye colours can experiment with warm or cool tones. However, contrasting your hair colour and skin hue gives the best results.

DARK BROWN EYES

If your eyes are dark brown, the most flattering hair colour choices are cold and natural tones. Also, opting for a couple of shades lighter or darker than their natural hair colour is always the right call. However, if your skin is olive or darker, you will benefit from light, dark brown and amber tones with lowlight highlights.

GREY EYES

The lucky few born with grey eyes are blessed with a variety of choices. As the most neutral eye colour, it goes well with most tones, as long as there is a contrast between hair and eyes. Whether you decide to go with dark browns, blacks, reds or any other colour options, you won’t have to worry too much about your choices. You already have killer eyes – having killer hair will make you unstoppable!

Whatever your choice may be, don’t forget to adjust your hair regimen to its new needs. Dyed hair no longer shares the same features as natural hair. It needs different nourishment and products with colour-lock technology to prevent fading and enhance the glow with every wash.

FOR THE BRAVE…

Sometimes the logical choice isn’t what you want – rules were made to be broken after all! Let’s say your complexion has cool undertones, and the suggested colour for you is something with warm notes. However, you prefer cooler tones. Our advice is –  Go for it! If you always wanted to have a specific hair colour, you should indulge yourself. Our character and preferences are an equally important part of the decision, because after all, how you wear a colour matters the same as the colour itself.

The most important thing is that you’re comfortable with your choices. However, if your dream colour is going “against the rules“, it’s still advisable to have some assistance along the way. Your hairstylist will help you find the best solution and make it work because they do magic like that. So, when wondering how to pick the right colour, the answer is – to pay attention to your skin complexion, its undertones, eye colour, and lastly, follow your heart.