chosing hair colour

Time was when your hair color choices were blonde, red, brunette, and black, but those days are long gone! Each basic hair color comes in a full array of choices from platinum blonde to jet-black. Moreover, the modern consumer must choose from non-traditional hair colors that range from hot pink to chartreuse. However, the wrong hair color choice can give you the blues and leave you red in the face!

First Hair Color Choices
The best method in choosing a hair color is first to choose the results you want from it. Depending on whether you are covering gray, highlighting a natural hair color, or using hair color to completely change your image, knowing what you want helps you to narrow down hair coloring choices.

Before you get down to choosing a hair color, first decide on your commitment to hair coloring. Temporary hair colors wash out in a shampoo or two, semi permanent products typically last for a couple of months, while permanent dyes may either give you grow-out pains or necessitate frequent root touch ups.

Choosing a Compatible Hair Color
After you’ve decided on results and made your commitment, it’s time to get out the color wheel. Beauty experts tell us that we’re either “cool” or “warm” depending on our skin tone, eye color, and natural hair color.

	Cool Category	Warm Category
Eyes	Dark Brown, Black-Brown, Gray Blue, Dark Blue, or Hazel with white gray or blue flecks	Golden brown, Green, Green-Blue, Turquoise, Hazel with gold or brown flecks
Hair	Blue black, Deep brown, Ash brown, Ash Blond, Platinum Blond	Deep brown with gold or red highlights, Red, Strawberry Blond, Gray-Yellow, Natural Golden Blond
Skin	Very dark brown, True olive, Medium pale, Medium with golden undertones, Pale, Bronze	Brown with pink or golden undertones, Peachy or with peachy undertones, Pale with gold undertones, Freckled, Ruddy

Although this is good advice, if you’ve just finished a tanning session, if you have some complexion problems (Rosacea, liver spots, blemishes), or if your hair color is already not what nature intended (in other words previously tinted or more salt than pepper), it may be difficult to determine by examining your skin tone and hair color. Don’t despair! There is a shortcut!

Examine your wardrobe. Cool hues are green, blue, and violet. Warm hues are reds, oranges, and yellows. Chances are, your wardrobe is a mix with either cool or warm hues in the majority. Clothing colors that look good on you and make you feel comfortable probably indicate if you’re in the cool or warm category. For instance, if olive drab makes you fade into the woodwork, then cool tones like ash blonde (ash tones contain green) are probably not for you.

In addition, most commercial hair colors have aids on the box, yet if you have a hard time deciding which group is your group, you may want to seek the advice of a professional hair stylist.

Hair Color Tips:

1. Highlighting is a great way to add tone to monochromatic hair (jet black, pure brown).
2. Beware of hair colors that have green, blue, or purple undertones, like “ash”. If you mix them with warm tones, your hair color will turn out green.
3. The levels (one to twelve) you see on hair coloring boxes are the lightness or darkness of the color. Level one is black (darkest) and level twelve is light blond.
   
4. “Complimentary colors” are opposite each other on the color wheel. Blue-orange, violet-yellow, etc. If you want to neutralize unwanted highlights, choose the complementary color. For instance, red will cancel out an ash undertone, and an ashen color neutralizes any red highlights in your hair.
5. Be sure to check if your hair color is a “progressive dye”. Progressive dyes continually add more color with each use. For instance, if you’re coloring blond hair black, your first use of a progressive hair color may not give the result you expected. However, continued use will turn your hair jet black.
6. Hair colors, like perms, are chemically based. If you’re pregnant, be sure to check with your doctor before coloring your hair.
7. Henna hair dyes are organic based hair colors that don’t mix well with chemicals.
8. Stay out of the pool and the ocean after coloring your hair. Neither sea salt nor chlorine mixes well with chemical hair colors.