How to Choose the Best Hair Colour for Your Skin Tone

Hair colouring is one of the most favourite hairstyle change women are constantly doing. However, even though many have made hair colour changing customary, some still commit mistakes especially in choosing the right hair colour for them.

A person’s skin tone as well as the undertone has a huge impact on how a certain hair colour will look on them. This is where the mistakes usually committed. For you to avoid these common mistakes when it comes to choosing a hair colour, you can check out this guide below and see what colour best fits your skin tone.

Hair Colour For Light Skin Tone

Beautiful girl with strawberry and purple hair colour

If you have light skin colour with a cool undertone, you must go for warmer hair colour. This way you can balance out your skin colour and you will not look pale and washed out. You can try strawberry blondes, gold, honey or copper hair dye.

Warm reds, golden blondes and neutral brunettes can as well counter-balance the colour of your undertone. These colours will surely compliment your complexion and will make you look glowing and beautiful.

If you have a light skin tone but with a warmer undertone, opting for a cool colour palette can neutralize your icy hue. Why not try to colour your hair with platinum blonde, or silver. Champagne colour, as well as beige, will also look good on you.

If you have blue or green eyes along with your light skin with warm undertones, you may want to colour your hair with a cool ashy blonde. This colour will compliment your eyes and your undertones and you will surely look fresh and glowing.

For women who have light skin but with neutral undertones, it is best to mix the warm and cool shades to achieve a creamy but warm hair palette. For most light skinned-neutral undertone women out there that wanted to be on fleek, you can try colouring your hair with a shade of rose gold. This way you can look classy and gorgeous.

Hair Colour for Medium Skin Tone

Brunette lying on the grass

Another skin tone you might have is the medium skin tone. If you belong in this skin tone category you are considered lucky. Women with medium skin tone can experiment with almost every colour available. However, the key factor here is to avoid going extreme in choosing hair shades.

For Brunettes, you can stay on the medium to light brown palettes such as walnut. Blondes, on the other hand, it is best to go for colours like beige, wheat or sand. These colours will make your look very natural which is your main goal.

If you have warm undertones, your complexion will be enhanced by colouring your hair with a golden hair colour palette. This goes for both women who have dark or light natural hair colour. If you will dye your hair with paler or cooler shades, you will look washed out and you will look older than your age.

If you have a skin tone like Vanessa Hudgens? Then you must try dyeing your hair with both warm and cool shades. This is what makes a neutral undertone great, you can go with both cool and warm tones on your hair without worrying that you will appear washed out or ugly.

However, you must create a great transition of colours throughout your hair. Having a darker base transitioning to a soft tone to the end of your hair can look good on your skin tone. These mixtures of shades will emphasize your complexion.

Hair Colour for Olive Skin Tone

Smiling woman in Black Tank Top

You might not know that there is such thing as olive skin tone. The reason why you might not get the right hair colour all the time cause maybe you get your skin tone wrong. An olive skin tone gives out a green or grey tint.

If you have an olive skin tone with a cool undertone, you might want to stay within the brunette shade with a few fine highlights so that it can add depth to your looks. You must not use too much blonde but instead go towards cinnamon, chestnut and mocha shades.

For olive tones with a warm undertone, the best colour shade that will never go wrong is caramel, and deep golden palettes. You will as well look good in mocha and ebony tones. However, if you wanted to lean towards red, you must pick violet reds to compliment your skin tone. If you wanted to be more trendy and opt for blondes, you may want to stick with honey-based tones.

Dark locks usually look gorgeous on women with olive skin and a neutral undertone. Colours such as chocolate brown and chestnut will bring out the warmth of your skin’s undertone and balance the look.

Moreover, because you have a neutral undertone, you can try to mix and match shades. If you wanted to go for a lighter shade, you can try a soft balayage to add lighter streaks to your dark locks without making them look exaggerated.

Hair Colour for Dark Skin Tone

On to the next skin colour on our list. Dark skin tone or also referred to as deep skin tone is a darker complexion. You will surely rock a dark hair colour if you have a dark skin tone with a cool undertone. If you do not want to wear black hair, other options that are good for your skin tone are blue-blacks, dark violets, and espresso.

If you want to add a highlight to your hair, you can choose streaks of platinum blond, blue-red or even brown. For women in this skin category that has a warmer undertone, you can dye your hair with caramel or toffee blonde hues. Wanted to go brunette? Stick to mahogany or maple colour shades.

A shade with a strong contrast will complement dark skin with a neutral undertone. Why not try to dye your hair with a platinum blond or a soft and cooler beige. It is best to also consider your eye colour and not only your skin tone when choosing the right hair colour that compliments your appearance.

Skin Tone Vs Undertone

You must understand that skin tone and undertone are different. Skin tone is the colour of your surface skin while the undertone is the colour of your skin beneath the surface. When identifying what colour best fits you whether it is hair colour, makeup shades or our outfit, your undertone is the key factor you must consider.

A person’s skin tone can change but the undertone cannot which is why it plays a significant role in choosing the right palette that will complement you. Aside from determining your skin tone, you must also need to know how to identify your undertone.

How To Know Your Undertone

First, you must know that there are three undertones the cool, the warm and the neutral undertone. No matter what your skin tone is, you will have an undertone beneath it. Follow the tips below on how to properly identify your undertone so that you will know what is the best colour palette you can use for your hair.

Check Your Veins

Hands

Your veins are the most helpful tool that can help you determine your undertone. It is best to check the veins on your wrist under natural light. If you see your veins are purplish or bluish, this is a clear indication that you have a cool undertone.

For a warm undertone, you will notice that your veins will be greenish. If you are unsure about the colour of your veins because they seem to match your skin tone then it means that you have a neutral undertone.

Skins Reaction to the Sun

How your skin reacts when it is exposed to the sun will as well help you determine your undertone. Once you get easily burnt or turns pinkish after being exposed to the sun, this means that your skin has less melanin. A skin with lesser melanin has usually a cool undertone.

However, if you get tan easily and rarely get burnt even if you are exposed to the sun for long, it means that your skin has more melanin that can also mean that you have a warm undertone.

Your Eyes and Hair Says It All

Individuals with cool undertones have green, blue, pale brown or grey eye colour. They also have natural blond, brown or black hair colour. Furthermore, if you have strawberry blond, brown or black hair with a hint of red plus you have amber or hazel eyes, you will surely have a warm undertone.

For a neutral undertone, the hair and eye colour tend to have a combination of cool and warm shades. This means that you may have blue-green eyes and a hint of copper on your hair shade. Aside from knowing your skin tone and undertone, it will also help if you know the four different hair colour shades and determine which one you got.

By knowing your hair colour shade, you will know what approach you will go when colouring your hair. It can as well have an impact on the outcome of the colour that you will choose.

The Four Hair Colour Shades

Just like with our skin tone, every individual also has different natural hair colour shades. All in all, there are four different colour shades which are brunette, red, black and blonde. These main colour shades can be changed a little bit so that they can provide a different appearance.

Blondes can become strawberry blonde, or ash blonde and champagne. This goes the same with other colour shades. With your natural hair colour shade as a base, you can create a different look by adding a different tone to your hair.

This is where your skin tone plays its role. Although you can change your entire hair colour with any shade you want, it is still best if you follow the rule in choosing the right hair colour. This is by choosing according to your skin tone and undertone to achieve a more beautiful outcome.

Moreover, your natural hair colour will have an impact on the result of the hair dye you are applying to your hair. For example, if you wanted to go vibrant red colour from black locks, you will have to bleach your hair first to achieve the right colour that you want. However, you can just add hints of red tones into your black hair if you do not want to bleach it.

Is Hair Dye Safe for Hair Extensions?

Hair colour at salon

Now that you know how to identify your undertone and understands what colour looks best on you, it is now time to apply the dye to your hair. If you are wearing hair extensions and are worry whether the hair dye will damage it or not, it is best to choose brands that most hair professionals recommend.

Letting a professional dye your hair for you would also be your best option. Although you can dye your hair and your hair extensions at home if you are not certain about it, it is best to go to a hair salon and let the professional do it.

If you are confident that you can safely dye your hair at home with a hair extension attached to it then you might consider using the following products below to ensure that your hair extensions will not get damaged from the chemicals of a hair dye.

The Best Hair Dye You Can Use at Home

Hair dying at home for hair colour

Before you can start dyeing your hair extensions at home, you should read our blog regarding colouring hair extensions for you to know the important factors you must observe during the process. Additionally, you might want to check out these products that you can use when dyeing your hair at home.

  • John Frieda Precision Foam Colour
  • SheaMoisture’s Hair Color System
  • L’Oreal Paris Feria
  • Clairol Nice ‘n Easy
  • Garnier Nutriesses Color Creme

These brands should be the ones on your top list if you dye your hair at home with or without hair extensions. SheaMoisture’s Hair Color System for example claims that their product does not have harmful ingredients such as parabens, paraffin and the likes that can damage both your natural hair and your hair extensions.

You can use other hair dye brands that you prefer or your hair technician recommended but just make sure that it is safe for DIY hair colouring at home especially if you are wearing hair extensions.

Final Word

Whatever skin tone you have, there is always a hair colour that will look good on you. The key to achieving this is to consider your skin tone especially your undertone to get the colour right. If you failed to determine which colour is best for you, you can ask for your hair technician’s help in figuring out what colour suits you best.