Best Hair Colour Ideas Depending on your Skin Tone
Choosing your perfect hair colour from the huge variety of shades and tone options available can feel like a minefield. “But how will they look on me?!”
When you’re struggling to come to a decision, it’s best to go back to basics. Rather than choosing a shade you think you like out of a shade chart, you should make your decision based on what will suit you.
Ever bought a new dress to discover it doesn’t look right when you try it on at home? This could have a lot to do with your skin tone and how the colour appears directly against your face, the same applies to hair colour!
Understanding your skin tone is the key to finding the right colour palette for your natural base, something that works for both your hair colour and the clothes you wear. These are just a couple of factors to think about when picking the best hair colour for you and we recommend you have a hair ID consultation to help you decide.
What you’re looking for is a colour that enhances your natural features, and looks great against your skin.
The trick is to find the best hair colour that works for your skin tone.
What do we mean by skin tone?
There are two things to understand when it comes to skin tone.
You’ve got your skin tone, which is the outer surface of your skin, this changes over time due to the weather, sun damage or age. It's your skin’s predominant colour and you can be either fair/light, olive-toned/medium, or have darker/deep skin.
Then you have your skin undertone. This is the colour from beneath the surface of your skin that defines your overall hue. This stays the same regardless of how well you tan.
There are three types of undertones: warm, cool, and neutral. People with the same skin tone can have very different undertones. Fair or light skin tones can have warm undertones and dark or deep skin tones can have cool undertones.
That being said, there is a general rule that can help give you a bit of clarity on the subject:
• Darker skin tones and eye colours tend to have warmer undertones.
• Lighter skin tones and light eyes tend to have neutral or cool undertones.
How do you find out your skin undertone?
There are several ways you can figure out your undertone, the first one is to see your stylist and ask them to identify your undertone. Or there are a few things you can do at home:
1. Check your veins
Taking the inside of your wrist, check what colour your veins appear. I’ll bet you’ve never really thought about it, but the colour of your veins both changes how your skin appears on the surface and dictates whether you’re cool, warm or neutral. If your veins appear blue/purplish-ish, you’re cool, if they’re green then it’s likely you’re on the neutral to warm scale.
2. Take the jewellery test
Do you think you look better wearing gold or silver? If gold jewellery is more flattering against your skin, you may have warm undertones; if silver works better, you’ve probably got cool undertones. And if both look great, then you're neutral. This is a bit of a subjective test, but it can give you a good idea of your undertones.
3. Hold white paper against your skin
Make sure there’s plenty of bright natural light around you when you hold a piece of bright white paper against your skin. If your skin looks pinkish your undertones are likely to be cool and if your skin looks yellow you’re more likely to have warm undertones. If you’re not getting either of those colours, your skin undertone is probably neutral.
So, now you’re experts in skin tones and undertones, let's look at some of the best hair colour ideas for each type!
Best hair colour ideas for cool skin tones
The best hair colours for cool skin undertones are ones that have a slightly bluish or purplish tone. Colours like ash blonde for example, with undertones created with blue and violet, will look great against your skin. Ash is a tone that can be added to all depths of colour to harmonise against your skin tone.
If the hue of your skin appears slightly pink, deep coppers and true reds work really well too.
Best hair colour ideas for warm skin tones
As the name suggests, warm skin undertones are golden, or peach-coloured. If you have these warm undertones then shades like gold, copper, chestnut, mocha, dark auburn, dark chocolate, honey, mahogany and cinnamon are going to pop.
Warm skin tones can also look amazing when paired with hair that’s liquorice, blue-black or true black in colour.
Best hair colour ideas for neutral skin tones
A neutral skin undertone is a mix of all of the above, which means you can carry off both warm and cool colours - lucky you! One rule of thumb though is to avoid colours that are really vibrant or bright. Softer or muted versions of the colours will look better as oversaturated colours can easily overpower your neutral skin tone.
Recommended hair colour options include strawberry blonde, amber, copper, or rust shades, or go for ash, beige blond or honey brunette.
What about non-natural hair colours?
All of the above hair colouring ideas are focused on creating a harmonised and natural look. So, what if you want to match more vibrant hair colours to your skin tone?
For cool tones, all shades of pink and purple can be particularly flattering, as can a cool yellow. If you have a warm skin tone, oranges and yellows for maximum impact.
The benefit of a neutral skin tone is that anything goes when it comes to finding statement hair colours, just go for a toned-down version like medium blue, dusty pinks or jade.
How to get your look right, the easy way
The only way to make sure you’ve got your skin tone and undertones right is by checking in with your stylist.
An appointment at one of the Blushes hairstyle and colour creation spaces is going to answer all your questions. Check out our salons in:
When you book a Hair ID consultation our colour specialist will look at skin colour and undertone, as well as your personal fashion style, personality, preferences and lifestyle to find a hair colour that will make your complexion shine and your eye colour pop.
The aim is always to ensure that you choose a hair colour with confidence, and 100% love the result.
