Choosing the Right Hair Colour for Your Complexion

Understanding your complexion is the first step in learning how to choose a hair colour that complements your skin. Your complexion may range from fair to dark, influencing how different hair colour shades look on your skin. This guide helps you understand your complexion and how to choose hair colour for your skin tone.

Understanding Your Complexion

Your skin complexion is the colour you see on your bare face. The most commonly recognized skin complexion system classifies skin into six categories depending on the amount of melanin:

• Type I and Type II skin ranges from extremely fair to fair.
• Type III skin is fair to beige with golden undertones.
• Type IV skin ranges from light brown to olive skin.
• Type V and VI skin is more melanated, ranging from brown to deeper shades of brown.

Within these skin types, each individual has undertones: neutral, warm, or cool undertones. Neutral undertones mean you have a balance of cool and warm tones and, therefore, a wider range of hair colour options.

People with warm undertones have more yellow or golden undertones. They look good in warm hair colours, while those with cool undertones look better in cool tones.

So, how do you determine your undertone?

The common way is to check the colour of your veins in natural light. Turn your wrist over in natural light and check their colour. Blue or purple veins indicate cool undertones, while green veins indicate warm undertones.

Another way to check your skin’s undertone is to place a white sheet around your shoulders and check the reflection on your bare face. If your face has red, pink, and blue undertones, you have a cool skin tone, and if it appears yellow or golden, you have a warm skin tone. A combination of pink, bluish, and golden undertones means you have a neutral skin tone.

How to Choose Hair Colour Based on Your Complexion and Undertones

The key to the right hair colour is matching it to your skin tone and undertone, regardless of the hair colour service you want. So whether you want to improve or change your natural hair colour, here are ideas to inspire your transformation.

Hair Colour Shades for Fair Skin

You can pull off any hair colour with fair skin as long as you match it to your undertones. Go for colours that complement your skin’s pink, violet, and blue undertones if you have cool undertones. Here are some ideas:

• Blonde shades: ash, white, platinum, icy, sandy, baby (natural blonde), strawberry blonde.
• Brunette shades: light ash brown, icy brunette, smoky brown, mushroom brown.
• Red shades: violet auburn, deep burgundy, plum, rose gold.
• Bold shades: cool pastels such as soft blues, pinks, and purples.

Hair colours that work well for fair skin with warm undertones include:

• Blonde shades: honey, cream, strawberry, and dirty blonde.
• Brunette shades: honey brown, caramel brown, mocha brown, and golden brown.
• Red shades: copper, ginger, auburn, mahogany red, and golden red.

You can experiment with various styles, from a full-head hair colour transformation to balayage, highlights, lowlights, or ombre.

Flattering Hair Colour for Medium Skin Tones

Medium skin tones are darker than extremely fair and fair skin tones. They work well with darker hair colour, regardless of the undertone. However, you must still match it to the warmth or coolness of your undertone.

For medium skin tones with a cool undertone, choose shades with blue and purple hues to complement your skin’s cool tones. These include beige blonde, peanut butter blonde, sand brown, and mocha.

If you have a medium skin tone with warm undertones, you can experiment with warm shades of brown. These include golden bronze, bronde, espresso, butterscotch, caramel browns, warm chestnut brown, and true black. These colours also work well if you have olive skin.

Best Hair Colours for Dark Skin

Dark skin, sometimes called deep skin, is richer brown to dark brown in colour. This skin type naturally works well with darker colours like chocolate and black. But you must still choose a colour that complements your undertones.

Choose hair colours like espresso, violets, ash blonde, navy, and burgundy for dark skin with cool undertones.

Deep, warm colours work well with dark skin with warm undertones. Go for deep copper, espresso, and chocolate brown. Lighter colours like golden, honey, and copper also work well.

Choosing the Right Hair Colour for your Eyes

You can elevate your look by choosing a hair colour that complements your natural eye colour. If you have blue eyes, dark colours like deep blacks and darker brunettes can create an interesting contrast with them. On the other hand, lighter golden or honey tones can highlight them further.

Copper and other red tones make green eyes more vibrant, while warmer browns are perfect for bringing out the intensity of your eyes.

Hazel eyes often contain a combination of hues. Therefore, the perfect hair colour for hazel eyes will depend on the colours you want to draw attention to. Deep warm colours make the green in hazel eyes pop, while cool-toned ash colours emphasize the brown and golden tones in hazel eyes.

Brown eyes are versatile. You can experiment with various hair colours, from warm colours like golden brown and caramel to cooler shades like platinum and ash blonde. If you have grey eyes, consider cool hair colours like platinum blonde, ash brown, and pastels.

Conclusion

Choosing hair that compliments your skin tone and undertone is the first step to looking good after dyeing your hair. If you’re still a professional hairdresser can guide you during your hair colour consultation.