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There are color technologies available today to take us in any color direction we choose to go, and leave the hair healthier and shinier than ever before possible. When choosing a technique, we can choose to color all the hair or only a portion of it. When choosing a shade, it may be light or dark, warm or cool, vibrant or natural.
Choosing a shade
The table at the bottom of this page can help you determine if your natural coloring is warm or cool, with recommendations at the bottom. Warm hair colors have a gold, copper, auburn, or red base while cool colors comprise ash browns and blondes. If you look at the color wheel, you can see that the left side appears to come forward, while the right side appears to sit deeper in the page. Colors that advance, like gold and copper, work very well on individuals who have a natural sunny look, while colors that recede, like raven, ash, or violet brown enhance the natural depth of an individual with cool or dark features.
The more vibrant and light a color is the more it will advance or "pop", especially if it is a warm color. It follows logically that colors that are dark in value recede more than lighter colors, with cool dark colors receding the most. You can see this in the color wheel as well, as darker colors appear further away, with the exception of orange and yellow. Deep dark red hair colors, which are not on this wheel, can actually appear cool because they advance very little.
It is important to understand the importance of contrast. Great care must be taken when going from very dark to very light, or when doing the reverse. It is not always the best option to do light blonde highlights on dark brown or black hair, for example, because the effect can lack richness, the light blonde jumps forward against the dark (even if it is cool) and the overall effect can be uninteresting and monochromatic. Often a more flattering effect can be achieved contrasting warm and cool tones that are close to the same level as the natural color. This is especially good news for those with dark hair who thought they were limited to ash shades.
MY NATURAL COLORING IS WARM: |
MY NATURAL COLORING IS COOL: |
Eye color: Golden brown, green,green-blue, or hazel (light brown) with gold or brown flecks. |
Eye color: Deep brown or black-brown, gray blue, dark blue, or hazel with white, gray or blue flecks. |
| Skin color: Brown with pink or gold undertones, pale with peach or gold undertones, freckled, or I burn easily with pink, bluish-red, or ruddy (red) tone. | Skin color: Very dark brown, true olive (most Asian and Latino), medium with very little color in cheeks, medium with golden undertones, pale with slight pink or no color in cheeks. I tan to brown, golden brown, or bronze. |
| Jewelry: My skin tone looks better with gold jewelry than it does with silver. | Jewelry: My skin tone looks better with silver jewelry. |
Veins: The veins in my arm are greenish, and my skin tone looks better with gold jewelry than it does with silver. |
Veins: The veins in my arm look blue, .and my skin tone looks best when I wear silver jewelry. |
Hair Color: My hair is naturally deep brown with gold or red highlights, red, strawberry blond, medium blonde, or dark blond. |
Hair Color: My hair is naturally black, very deep brown, medium golden brown, golden blond with no red or strawberry, or salt and pepper. |
Recommendations: Avoid blue, violet, white, and jet-black hair colors. Depending on your skin tone and your preference, you'll find rich golden browns, auburn, strawberry, and golden blond shades enhance your "sunny" look. If skin tone is red, warm colors with golden tones tend to work well. If skin tone is more golden, try colors containing red or copper. |
Recommendations: Avoid gold, yellow, coppery red and bronze tones in medium to light shades. Depending on your skin tone, shiny blacks, ash browns, cool blonds, dark violets and cool red to red-violets can work very well. Black or very dark brown hair can be stunning with contrasting warm chocolate tones that are relatively dark in value. |
