How to Choose the Best Hair Color for Your Skin Tone

Changing your hair color isn’t always a big deal.

Just ask Kylie Jenner, who’s sported every color from cherry red to tennis ball yellow to neon purple.

In other instances, a hair color change can be life-altering. Five-time Academy Award-nominated actress Amy Adams credits her acting career to being a redhead. When she changed her naturally strawberry blonde locks to red, she started getting cast into movies including her breakout role in Junebug.

If you want to choose the best professional hair color for you, an easy way is to consider your skin tone. In this post, we’ll go over some tips to help you pick the most flattering shades based on your undertone.

Skin Tone vs Complexion

Your skin tone or undertone is different from your complexion. The latter tells you the shade of your skin, whether it’s light, medium, or dark.

Your undertone, on the other hand, will remain the same no matter what season it is. You could be tan in the summer or pale in the winter. But your skin tone will either be cool, warm, or neutral, no matter how much sun you get.

Aside from helping you decide the best hair color options, figuring out your skin tone can let you know which makeup colors to go for. It can also help you determine which hues you should be wearing so you can look like a million bucks.

How to Figure Out Your Skin Tone

If you don’t know what your skin tone is, check your wrist. If your veins look bluish or purplish, you have a cool skin tone. If they appear greenish, you have a warm skin tone.

Do you have trouble telling the difference, maybe because your veins seem to change color depending on the light source? Then you most likely have a neutral skin tone.

People with neutral undertones are lucky because they can pull off any shade including hair color.

Another way to determine your undertone is to hold a shirt in a bright shade of blue or green against your face. Next, hold up a different shirt in a shade of red or yellow.

If your skin looks better against the blue shirt, you have a cool undertone. Otherwise, if the red looks more flattering on you, then you have a warm skin tone.

Best Shades for Warm Skin Tones

If you have a warm skin tone, you’ll want a cool-toned hair color to complement it.

The best professional hair color for someone who has a lighter skin with warm undertone is a pale blonde shade. Platinum or champagne hues are great, even a silvery blonde color will be flattering.

The same principle applies if you want to go for a darker hair color. Think amber or auburn if you want to go red or a rich black-brown if you want to go brunette. The idea is to choose browns or reds in a cooler shade.

For highlights or ombre, you should avoid warm colors as they will look brassy against your skin. If you have dark skin with warm undertones, choose a hair color that’s lighter or darker than your skin.

Don’t pick a hair color that’s the same color as your skin. Otherwise, you’ll look washed out.

Best Shades for Cool Skin Tones

If cool colors complement warm undertones, warm colors go best with cool skin tones.

So if you’re at a beauty supply store looking for the best professional hair color, you’ll want to go for those that have the words “warm,” “chocolate,” or “honey” in them.

If you have cool undertones and want to go blonde, steer clear of platinum shades or silvery champagne. Opt for a beachy golden blonde a la Sofia Vergara.

If you want to try dark colors, avoid stark black. Instead, opt for a rich, chocolatey shade. For fun colors, you can try pinks, greens, and blues. Silvery pastels and grays aren’t your best options as these will make you look washed out.

Additional Tips for Coloring Aging Hair

As we get older, our hair becomes more fragile. This makes coloring aging hair more difficult.

One thing you should absolutely avoid is to stop coloring damaged, fried hair. Do protein treatments until your hair regains strength before you go in for another hair coloring session.

You should also do bleaching in stages and only if a professional thinks your hair can take it.

As for choosing colors, it’s best to go for shades that are closest to your natural hair color. You can use this hair color chart to help you choose the best shades.

Remember the goal is to enrich your natural color and subtly conceal grays, not make your hair look obviously dyed.

Make Your Hair Color Last Longer

Now that you’ve chosen the best professional hair color that matches your skin tone, you’ll want to know how to take care of your dyed hair. One of the best things you can do is to use a sulfate-free shampoo and avoid frequently washing your hair.

You can also put some of the dye you used to your shampoo and conditioner. This will help keep your hair color fresh.

If you have some color left over from your coloring session, save it. You can use this for touch-ups.

As for hair products, try to avoid those with alcohol or oils. These can make your hair color fade faster.

Something else you can do if you’re ready for a color change is to crush vitamin C pills and mix it with your dandruff shampoo. This works just like a color stripper and it’s gentler on your hair than using bleach.