Choose Hair Color for Skin Tone

If you've looked in the mirror lately and thought you look drab or washed out, it might be time to reevaluate your hair color. Rather than blindly choosing a color you like, make sure it will work with your shade and skin tone. Quickly determine the shade of your skin, then figure out what your skin's undertone is. Learn what hair colors work well with your exact skin. The right hair color will accentuate your appearance and make you look revitalized!

Steps

Evaluating Your Skin

1. Consider your skin's shade. Broadly speaking, the shade of your skin is most likely pale, medium, olive, or dark/deep. This should be fairly obvious, but helpful in choosing a hair color. You won't want your hair color to exactly match your skin's shade and tone or your hair color will look washed out.
2. Find your skin tone. Regardless of your skin's shade, you need to determine what your skin's undertone is: warm, cool, or neutral. Wear a white shirt and stand in front of the mirror. Stand in natural light or bright incandescent lights if possible. Look at the veins on the underside of your wrist to determine the undertone.
   • If the veins are predominantly blue-purple, you've got cool undertones. If they're mainly green, you've got warm undertones, and if they're a mix between the two, you have neutral undertones.
3. Think about your skin's undertones. If you're having trouble determining your skin's undertones, ask yourself a few simple questions. Do you look better in gold or silver? If gold, you've got warm undertones. If silver, you have cool undertones. What color are your eyes? If they're green, brown, or hazel, you've got warm undertones. If blue, grey, or green eyes, you've probably got cool undertones.
   • One of the easiest ways to determine skin undertone is to consider how easily you burn. If you burn, rather than tan, you're cool, whereas if you tan easily, you're warm.

Choosing a Hair Color For Dark Skin Shades

1. Balance any warm tones. If you have a warm undertone, choose a hair color that has rich chestnut or cinnamon shades. This will help balance out any of the yellow or warm undertone in your skin.
   • If your skin has red undertones and is a lighter shade, choose a medium to dark brown, black, or blue-black hair color. If your skin has warm red undertones, but is darker, choose a darker rich color and avoid lighter browns.
2. Warm up any cool tones in your skin. If you have cool undertones, pick a hair color with some warm highlights to brighten your hair. You want a warmer shade to add some dimension to your hair, especially if it's already dark brown or black.
3. Adjusting a golden tone. If you have a warm golden undertone and lighter dark skin, you can really choose most any hair color, from light to dark browns or reds and blondes. Highlights that contain a red base can help accent golden undertones.

Choosing a Hair Color For Pale or Medium Skin Shades

1. Choose a deep rich base for your hair color. If you have warm undertones with yellow, pick a hair color that leans towards like chestnut, dark golden brown, auburn and mahogany. Then highlight using a red base, such as cinnamon or copper.
   • If you choose a blonde base or blonde highlights, you may end up overemphasizing your yellow undertone.
2. Choose a medium color base for your hair color. If you have warm undertones with red, avoid choosing a red or auburn hair color. Instead, use a honey brown or golden base color and add caramel low-lights. This will downplay the redness in your skin's undertones.
3. Choose an intense color base for your hair. If you have cool tones with a pink or blue undertone, look for an intense brown, red, or blonde base. Then, pick highlights that have a honey-wheat or ash look. This will help contrast your cool undertones.
   • Choose burgundy, cherry, or garnet hair color for dark skin with cool undertones. You can use these as a base color or highlight color. The cool red tones in this hair color give your skin a smooth even look.

Choosing a Hair Color for Olive Skin Shades

1. Choose a warmer hair color. If you have olive skin with a warm or yellow undertone, choose a golden color for your base. For example, choose a honey blonde, auburn, chestnut, or mocha color.
   • If doing highlights, try a warm red color to really bring out the warmth of your skin tone.
2. Pick a cool hair color. If you have olive skin with a cool undertone, as most olive skinned people do, pick a hair color that highlights these cool tones. For example, pick an ash, platinum, copper, or violet red.
   • If you have dark olive skin with cool undertones, avoid choosing a light ashy blonde or something similar that will starkly contrast.
3. Accentuate your eyes. If you have a warm eye color, such as hazel, brown, or green, consider choosing a color that will highlight your eyes. For example, if your hazel eyes have some flecks of red, choose a hair color that has a reddish hue in order to bring out your eyes.

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Sources and Citations

See also

• Do Ecaille Hair Color
• Dip Dye Dark Hair
• Lowlight Gray Hair
• Lowlight Blonde Hair
• Bleach Hair Blonde
• Prepare Your Hair for Bleaching
• Color Hair With Food Coloring
• Dye Hair
• Dye Your Hair Brown After It Has Been Dyed Black
• Dye Hair Two Colors

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What links here

• Improve Your Appearance
• Determine Skin Tone
• Choose Colors That Flatter Skin Tone
• Make Yourself Look Completely Different and Beautiful