Choosing your Hair color...what shade works best on you?

You've finally decided to color your hair after seeing how great your friends' hair color looks on her. So you rush to the store, buy that exact hair color and do it yourself at home. Come to find out, the hair color looks all wrong on you and you hate it. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me before I went to Cosmetology school. You ask yourself  "why did this happen". Here's why...

When you're choosing a hair color, it's not as simple as picking up a box and getting that exact hair color match. Many elements factor in when coloring your hair:

Your Skin Tones, eye color, your natural and artificial hair color all play a big role in which hair color  shade will look great on you. You need to first determine whether you fall into the warm or cool category. Color Me Beautiful by Carole Jackson delves into the realm of  how skin tones effect everything from hair color to your fashion choices.. Below we have simplified finding your skin tone into 2 main categories:

cool category

If your Eyes are:
Deep brown or black-brown
Gray blue or dark blue
Hazel with white, gray or blue flecks

Hair: Blue black Deepest coffee brown Medium ash brown Medium golden brown Dishwater blonde Salt and pepper White

Skin Tone:
Very dark brown
True olive (most Asians and Latinos)
Medium with no color in cheeks
Medium with faint pink cheeks
Medium with golden undertones
Pale with no color in cheeks
Pale with pink undertones
Brown or bronze when I tan
 
If you were two or more of these, then you fall into the cool category. Naturally cool people should avoid gold, yellow, red and bronze tones in hair color. These warm tones have a tendency to make you look sallow and drawn.

The best hair color shades, depending on your skin tone, are shinny raven-wing blacks, cool ash browns, cool blondes in shades ranging from mink to platinum and icy white. You're also fortunate enough to be able to wear many exciting "unnatural" hair colors like lipstick reds, burgundies, and orchids, purples.

warm category

if your Eyes are:
Golden brown
Green, green blue or turquoise 
Hazel with gold or brown flecks

Skin Tone: Brown with pink undertone Brown with golden undertone Pale with peach or gold undertones Freckled Ruddy

Hair: Deep brown with gold or red highlights Red Strawberry blonde Gray with a yellow cast Natural golden blonde

If you were two or more of these, then you fall into the warm category. You should avoid blue, violet, white and jet-black hair, ash based hair colors which will seem to "wash out" your natural color. Depending on your skin tone and your preferences, you'll find dark, warm browns, rich golden browns and auburn, warm gold and red highlights, and golden blond shades look best on you. Highlighting is a great way to add warm tones to your hair.

tones & colours

Tones & Colours on boxes G- Golden tone N- Neutral R- Red R-O- Red/Orange R-V- Red Violet V- Violet A- Ash B- Blue

Another key factor is understanding tones and levels on color boxes. Tone refers to whether a hair color is warm or cool. The warm (golden) colors are red, orange and yellow. You may have noticed on some hair color boxes, there are references to "medium warm brown" or "natural golden blonde". This means the undertone of the color is warm - either red, orange, or yellow. These can be used to give hair a warmer look.

The cool (ash) colors are blue, green, and violet/purple (same thing). When the hair color names refer to "dark ash blonde" and so forth, it means they have a green, blue, or purple undertone. These you should be careful with. If you put a green or blue undertone hair color on a warm color (especially a gold/yellow color) hair, you will come out with green.

Levels refer to the degree of lightness or darkness of a hair color with 1 being the lowest (black) and 12 being the highest (lightest blonde).

Understanding the Color Wheel

Now that you know whether you need a cool or warm tone and you understand tones and levels, you're ready for the next step. Understanding the natural pigment in your hair and adding artificial pigment (color product). This is where the color wheel comes into play.

 Complimentary colors are colors opposite on the color wheel. Red-Green, Blue-Orange etc. What does this mean to you? Well, if you have golden blonde hair, your hair tone is either red, orange, or yellow warm tones. So if you put a cool colored tone on like ash. You're hair is most likely to turn green.

 Look at the wheel. Let's say you have yellow under tones to your hair, and you want to cool it to an ash. You decide blue undertone ash toner will do, since it is a cool undertone. Well, by doing this you'll end up with green hair! As you can see, on the wheel that blue and yellow make green. If you want to cancel out whatever undertone you have, you should use the opposite color on the wheel. In other words, if you have brown hair with red highlights and you can't stand the red, then you would use the opposite color  on the wheel to neutralize the red. In this case, the neutralizing color would be green (ash). 

Here's an  example of choosing a color:
You have golden blonde hair ( Level 9 ) and you want to go darker to a light, medium, warm brown ( Level 7 ). Remember you have yellow and maybe orange in your natural hair pigment. So you would choose a neutral level 7 because neutrals have all 3 primary colors in them and almost always cancel out those bad colors like green or orange. My word of advice is, if you are a blonde, going darker, have a professional do it because blonde hair is a little tricky when it comes to going darker. Usually, one color application isn't enough because you will most likely come up green. The green will have to be neutralized. See a professional. 

Guidelines when coloring your hair at home:

If you have artificial color in your hair (any color or tone) and you want to go lighter, doesn't matter how light, you will not accomplish this just by choosing a lighter shade. General rule of thumb in hair coloring is, hair color can't lift (or lighten) hair color. You can change the tone, but not the level (lightness) Go see a professional.

If you are going darker, choose a warm, golden tone or you might come out ashy.

If you grey is coming up too light, or the hair color is not covering the grey, let the color stay on your roots for at least 40 minutes or longer. Grey is very resistant and needs hair color to process longer.  Check out Hair Coloring Tips if your grey is not covering well


reprinted from style101.com