Choosing a hair color can be complicated. It is not as easy is just grabbing a box of dye and deciding that’s what color you want. Whether you have witnessed friends who have suffered through terrible hair colors or have managed to choose a color that is not at all flattering for yourself, you know that selecting the best hair color can be challenging.
Skin Tone Is Critical
When you choose a hair color, it is not necessarily about choosing the color you like as much as it is choosing the color your skin likes. The right hair color will compliment your skin tone and bring more attention to your best facial features.
In fact, the right hair color can actually make you look younger than you are, but the wrong color can give you a washed out, unnatural look that makes you appear older. Unfortunately, although 55 percent of women color their hair, spending as much as $330 each year on color, very few actually understand how to choose a color that works with their natural skin tone.
Close to Natural Color
As much as you may want to experiment with wild colors, most stylists recommend remaining in a shade range within your natural color. The reason for this is that permanent hair dye lifts the outer color and reveals your natural pigments below it.
If you are looking for a lighter shade, think about the color your hair turns in the summer when you spend time in the sun. That may be the best shade for you to choose.
Hair color is measured by level and shade. Color levels are on a scale of one to ten, with one being darkest. Within each of these colors are pigments, like black-brown or red-brown. Dark hair has more red pigments while blonde hair has more yellow pigments.
Hair that falls in the pigment levels in the middle have a mixture of red and yellow, or orange, pigments. This doesn’t mean you can’t choose bold colors. If you prefer to make a stronger statement, go ahead and choose the blues, purples or pinks that have become popular today.
Skin Tone and Hair Color
Your skin tone contains similar pigments that your hair has, so if you were born with dark hair, you will more than likely have orange, brown or red pigments. If you were born with blonde hair, your skin will have undertones like blue, green or pink pigments.
Stylists term the pigments as warmer, for darker hair, and cooler, for blonder hair. If your skin has warm undertones, your skin will look better with golden blonde or honey brown colors while cooler undertones look better with ash blonde or auburn.
One way to determine whether you have warm or cool undertones is to look at a vein under the skin of your arm. If the vein appears green, your undertones are warm, while if it appears blue you have cooler undertones.
There are other factors that can affect whether a hair color works for you. Your eye color, age and natural hair color can all have an impact on how a hair color will work for you. As we get older, skin tone changes as well, so a color that worked well when you were younger may not look as good as you get older.
For example, black or platinum blonde can bring out imperfections and wrinkles as we age, so those colors may not be suitable as you get older. If you are considering a different hair color, schedule an appointment with the expert stylists at J. Faith Hair Studio. They will work with you, your skin tone and other features that can have an impact on how a new hair color will work for you.
