How to Pick Your Hair colour
We sell A LOT of hair colours and we have done for decades. Without fail what frightens people most is not how to use the hair colour but how to pick the correct colour for them. Just like picking paint for your house or a foundation for your face hair colours can look seem to look different on the box or we simply do not understand the magic behind picking a colour that works for you.
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With our easy guide, we will help you to choose the right shade, tone, and color so that your hair has that freshly “just out of the Hairdressers look”
What completion type are you?
The most important thing you need to consider is that the hair colour complements and works with your complexion. Not just the lightness of your complexion but also the warmth.
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Generally speaking, skin tone can be categorized into cold, warm, and neutral. A cool hair colour complements a cool complexion, a warm hair colour suits a warm complexion and a neutral skin tone can get away with most colours but really works best with the neutral tones.
What Hair Colour you REALLY want?
Whether the colour you want is Blonde, brown, or red is actually only the second factor that needs to be considered when picking a home hair dye.
If you are going for a dramatic change it is best to do so in a hair salon and it is always best to do it gradually This allows you to get used to the change and reassess your decision as you go along.
Obviously, this is not the case when you are picking a Wild hair colour like Pink or blue – this is pretty much a case of taking the warmth of your completion into consideration and going for it.
How brave are you? This determines how wild of a colour you can go for
How experienced you are at using hair colours ? This determines whether you should go for a wash-out hair colour, a semi-permanent hair colour, or a permanent hair colour.
How quick & noticeable is your root regrowth? This determines how much maintenance your chosen hair colour will require.
What completion type have you?
There are basically three complexion types:
1. Cool
2. Warm
3. Neutral
If you have a cool skin tone then use cool hair colours, if you have a warm skin tone then stick with warm colours and if you are lucky enough to have neutral you can go for any hair colour.
For example, if you have a cool skin tone and want a light brown you would choose light ash brown rather than light warm brown. Whereas if you have a warm skin tone and were going blonde your skin would be complemented by honey rather than an ice blonde. It really is that easy.
When you combine warm skin tones with cold hair colours they fight each other and the skin can look tired and jaundiced. Likewise, when you combine a cool complexion with a warm home hair colour your hair tends to look brassy and classes with your skin.
This simple fact is often why a hair colour just "Doesn't suit you" and looks wrong when it should in theory look great.
You can find out which skin complexion type you have by looking at the following three factors:
- What colour eyes you have – your eye colour is often enough to determine what skin undertones you have. The warmer the eye colour the warmer the skin tone. Ice blue eyes are normally found with cooler skin tones while honey brown eyes usually come with warm skin tones
- What jewelry suits you - People who generally wear gold jewelry do so because it suits or fits their warm skin tone. Those that favor silver normally have a cool skin tone. These two metal types complement the different skin types. Once again if both metals seem to suit your skin then you have neutral skin. If you are unsure, in natural daylight, hold up sliver and gold alternatively to your face and watch how your skin's colour seems to change.
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- What the veins on your wrists look like - In natural light, look at your wrists if your veins seem blue or purple you have cool skin, if they seem greenish you will have a warm skin tone and if you have neutral skin you wont be able to tell if your veins are either green or blue. If you cannot see any veins it means you forgot to raise up your sleeves before looking
What Hair Shade do You want?
No matter how practical it would be to buy a brown hair colour there is little point if you have your heart set on a vivid red or a blonde bombshell look.
Blonde
Blonde is beautiful and it's glamour and it's fun………….but if it’s not your natural hair colour it can also be a lot of maintenance. Your roots are going to need touching up regularly and your hair is going to require plenty of treatments and care to keep it in top condition. It is a great solution for people with more than a few greys. As your hair gets greyer blonde can actually be lower maintenance than brunette or red.
For many a transition using highlights is the easiest way to move from brown to blonde. The other alternative is to move from brown to light brown to dark blonde and then onto full-blown blonde. You can do a U-Turn at any stage and won't overly damage your hair in one go.
If you want to go blonde follow the skin tone rules outlined above – cool (ash) blondes for cool skin tones & warm (honey or golden) blondes for warm skin tones. Platinum looks super on extremely pale skin or where a strong make-up look is worn regularly. Really warm butter-like shades look great on dark skin while caramel and dark blondes flatter olive skin tones. Keeping in mind your skin tone will prevent hair colour from making you look washed out or feeling that your hair colour is clashing with your complexion.
Blonde hair needs a lot more conditioning. This is firstly because lightening your hair strips & damages hair follicles. Secondly The lighter the hair colour the less it reflects light. If you want a pure gloss look you really need to go dark. There are many treatments to nourish and add shine to your hair - watch out for our next blog
Click here to see our range of Blonde Hair Colours
Brunette
Brunette’s have the choice of so many shades and the advantage of there being no need to bleach the hair so often your hair is in better condition after a colour.
Avoid going too dark if you have fair skin – unless you want that dramatic look. Reddish brunettes add a real touch of glamour and drama, particularly for pale warm skin tones.
For olive and dark skins warm chocolates and caramels work best. Going too light can sometimes look a bit mismatched. Any brunette shade works well with dark skins from warm chocolate and reds to the coolest of browns.
Stick to the general rule of no more than two or three shades lighter than your own hair colour to reduce maintenance and to avoid mistakes.
Click Here to See Our Great Selection of Brown Hair Dye Kits
Auburn & Red Hair
Red hair colours vary from purple bases to rich warm reds so once again you can find a shade to suit you no matter what your skin tone.
Do not go too dark (unless you love the dramatic look) – if you want a natural maintenance easy hair dye stick with strawberry blondes or coopers or golds.
Some home hair colours, like Mahogany or Auburn Brown, come under the category of Brunnette but have a lot of warmth which makes them a great pathway to being a Red Head.
For medium skin that is warm, you can go with vibrant warm reds but remember purples can make skin jaundice and yellow looking. Auburn looks fabulous on olive skins while rich warm reds are amazing on dark skin tones.
Click here to see our hair colours for Red Hair
Black
Black hair colour is the one that frightens me the most. Even with a semi-permanent, it is hard to fix if it’s too dark and can look flat as it drowns out your natural (and sometimes embellished) highlights.
When it is done professionally, and the hair is glossy and healthy it looks amazing – when it is done wrong it can really go the whole way wrong.
If you have pale or medium skin tones - even if you are going for a goth-like look (which looks super dramatic and interesting) - try a dark cold brown before plunging into the blacks – if you go too far it can make you look tired and ghostly. If you get it right it looks stylish and pure high fashion.
On olive and dark skins black fits perfectly. It looks amazing, your hair can look in great condition and can be reasonably easy to maintain – be careful to consider that some blacks have blue (cold) undertones while some have red (warm) undertones.
Click Here to see Black Hair Colours
How brave are you?
This determines how wild of a colour you can go for and how far away from your natural shade you can go.
If you have zero courage, which many of us have had at the start of this COVID period then go for semi-permanent (i.e. washes out in 4 to 8 washes) and a shade within two tones of your own current hair colour.
If you are brave (like we all probably will be at the end of COVID) you can go for the more adventurous blondes, reds, and purples. Pinks and Purples are selling like hotcakes as people work from home.
Click Here to see Fun Hair Colours
Our website has our hair colours categorized by permanent and semi-permanent but do remember darker hair colours tend to take longer to wash out. If you do go a bit too darker shampooing your hair repeatedly normally takes some of the colour out of it.
Some people find that using “Strong shampoos” like silver shampoo and Head & shoulders can help to remove some of the colour. I have even known people (not mentioning names Ann) who have sat with Head & shoulder on for an hour or so to remove some of the colour.
How quickly your roots grow back?
If you are covering grey roots the lightness of the hair colour will be in direct proportion to the amount of grey you have i.e. a lot of grey needs lighter overall hair colours so the grey roots blend in with the hair colours, while only a few greys hide better in your natural hair colour / shade. Also if you are using a hair colour as a root touch up (which all can be used as) using a permanent hair color makes sense (as you don't want the roots to fade back in).
Click here to see Products for Root Touch up
If you are recolouring your roots and want a home hair dye colour like what you already have as a general guide, we advise you go a shade lighter than you think you are. Focus on putting the colour on the roots and then pull it through your full head of hair at the very end. A small comb and some hair clips can be invaluable tools.
If you go a shade too light you can always go over it with a darker colour but if you go too dark, it can look heavy. There are colour removers on the market and some people use silver shampoos or head & shoulders to remove a little of the colour, but these techniques often leave your hair in poor condition.
A root touch up home hair dye like Clairol Nice & Easy Root Touch up is a great way to experiment with root regrowth as it comes with a handy brush to paint the colour on your hair’s parting and temples – but don’t forget most hair colours can be used just to touch up roots – all you do is just apply the colour to the roots rather than the whole head.
How experienced you are?
If you have zero experience, then go for the root sprays which is wash in and out. Using a light hairspray like Ellnett over them makes them last longer and means they are much less likely to come off when rubbed or wet accidentally.
They are generally easy to use, look very natural, and last well. They wash completely out with shampooing and are inexpensive.
If you are gaining confidence and don’t want the hassle of spraying your hair each time you wash it then a semi-permanent is the one for you. It usually fades in a few weeks.
How long it lasts depends on how often you shampoo your hair, the type of shampoo used, and how dark of a colour you go for. It also varies from person to person.
As semi-permanent often condition rather than damage hair. Semi-permanent hair colours often keep more of your hairs highlights and as they fade with each wash as a safe gambit for home hair dying.
As hair colours are so inexpensive (relative to hairdressers and wine) you don’t have to stick with any colour for more than a day if you don’t want to.
You cannot lighten hair with semi-permanent hair colour. You can only add tones and shades (not take them away). You need ammonia or similar to remove your hair colours and these are always permanent.
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Once you begin to know what you are you may wish to move on to the permanent home hair colour kits. When Hair Colour is used for root touch up a permanent is often preferable as roots can food back in with a Semi-Permanent.
If you want to go lighter you have to use it permanently.
Most people stick with semi permanents (which allow repeated root touch-ups) unless they are going lighter or for a dramatic hair shade change.
JUST HAVE FUN & LOOK AMAZING
Our quick tips on choosing a hair colour are to try to stay two shades from your natural hair colour if you don’t know what you are doing or are afraid, check whether you have cold, warm, or neutral skin tones before choosing your hair colour and finally ENJOY the new experience of being in charge of your own hair – no more hours in a hairdresser (you can watch Netflix while you’re coloring your hair) .
Think of the money you save by being able to top up your own hair colour at home (even when the hairdressers are back open) and finally you can forget your grey.
Keep a bottle in the house and touch up your roots anytime you see a grey pop-up – Inexpensive easy and a bit empowering.
Click here to see our great range of Hair Colours for Sale at Low Prices
If you have any queries on your hair colour choice, please phone or email us (send a snap of your current hair so we can have a look), and will happily talk you through your choices.
Click here to contact us or Click Here to Buy Your Hair Colour Now