How to Choose the Perfect Hair Colour

08-06-2019

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Every so often we all crave a change in hairstyle. There are many ways to do this. You might decide to chop it all off in a radical fashion, or you might install hair extensions for a fuller or longer look. At our Manchester hair extensions salon, we are often asked to dye women’s hair too. Going for a different hair colour is one of the more dramatic ways to change up your look – particularly in conjunction with hair extensions!

However, changing your hair colour will only go well if you know what suits your natural skin tone and eye colour. A beautiful hair colour might look amazing on the packet, but that doesn’t mean it is going to suit you well. There are several factors to choosing a new hair colour, in fact.

The right kind of colour will complement your skin tone and highlight your best features, whereas the wrong colour could make you look tired and old. In this article we will take a look at some of necessities when choosing a suitable hair colour:

Stay within your natural colour range

If you venture too far away from your natural shade, it can look quite fake next to your skin tone. Your hair contains the same underlying pigments as your skin. That’s why similar colours will work better. Some hair dye shades are not natural anyway, like violet hues and pillar-box reds. Those dramatic looks can work well, but the overall impact still depends on your skin tone.

Match your skin undertones to your hair dye colour

As mentioned, your skin tone contains the same underlying pigments as your hair colour. Those with naturally brown or black hair will probably have warm, earthy undertones to their skin. These would probably be orange, orange-based red, brown, or gold tones. The rule of thumb is quite simple: if you have warmer skin undertones, you will want a warm hair colour. Golden blond or honey brown will work well with those.

Natural blondes are likely to have cooler skin undertones. These would range between green, blue, pink or blue-based reds. Here the rule of thumb is the same: the cooler your skin tone, the cooler your hair colour should be. Cooler skin tones look good against ash blonde hair, auburn brown or even black.

If you are not sure about your skin undertones, you can actually tell from the way your veins appear. Check one of your arms in natural light. If the veins look green, you have warm tones. If they appear more blue, you have cool tones.

Consider how the hair colour will work with your eye colour

Your eye colour will also help you to choose the right hair dye colour for you. Go for a cooler hair colour if your eyes are any of the below colours:

Deep brown

Brown-black

Blue-grey

Dark blue

Hazel

Go for a warmer hair colour if your eyes are:

Green

Golden brown

Turquoise

Hazel with gold/brown flecks

 

Consider how your age will impact your hair colour choice

As we get older, softer colours tend to suit us better. The more extreme the colour is (for instance, jet black or platinum blonde) the more obvious our wrinkles and imperfections will appear. This is because our skin tones change as we get older. Just before our hair starts to grey, it gets darker. This is because the skin and hair is preparing to lose pigment. Once hair turns grey, skin tone will also get lighter.

Again, it is a good idea to stick within the closest two levels either side of your natural hair colour. That means your natural hair colour now, not twenty years ago. This way you will retain the most natural look possible.

That doesn’t mean to say you can’t go for something more bold if you want to, of course! There is no reason hair colour shouldn’t be bright and eye catching, if that’s what you want. However, it still makes sense to stick with the most complementary tones, whether cool or warm. We have written more about how hair changes as we age, in case you’re interested!

 

Make sure your hair extensions match your new hair colour

If you are going to install hair extensions after dying your hair, you’ll need to make sure that the extensions are the same colour as the dye. At our hair extension salon in Manchester, we always carefully blend the hair extensions to match the client’s exact hair colour. It is a good idea to let your new colour settle a little before adding the extensions in so that you don’t end up with a mismatched shade.

We don’t recommend dying hair extensions as the hair may not take the colour in the same way as your natural hair does. However, we will do our best to match the extensions to whichever colour you have chosen to dye your natural hair. Take a look at some of our previous work and see what you think!

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