Saturday, April 23, 2011

How To Choose A Color That Compliments Your Skin Tone

Almost all of my clients at one point or another have said, "I would love to be (insert drastic color change here), but I could never pull it off." At this point I pull out the color swatches and show them why a color will or will not work for them. Usually your ethnicity is a big factor on which colors look great on you. If you have dark skin with olive tones like Jessica Alba, you most likely look very natural in golds and yellows. These tones are warmer and bring out the golden tone in your skin. Here is an example of why going all blonde does not usually look good on these skin tones.



Jessica Alba is so beautiful, but this platinum blonde hairdo does absolutely nothing for her. It makes her look washed out and sallow. No one would ever look at this color on her and think it was natural. Here is another example of Jessica with honey blonde highlights.


Gorgeous! Now why does this color work better? Well first off, highlights are always a better way to go lighter. I know us girls are very impatient and want what we want when we want it! However when it comes to hair (unless you want to look RIDICULOUS, like the first picture of Jessica), going light little by little is much more natural looking. Real hair has multi tones in it. In this picture, Jessica's natural color is lightened about 2-3 shades with a single process, but not completely eliminated. Highlighting is done on top of the single process to make for a blonder but much more natural look. See how the dark tones are mixed in with the blonde? Way nicer than the solid chunk of blonde. The highlights are done very thin to make for a sunkissed look. Instead of using that lighter wheat toned color for the highlights, her stylist brought the shade down slightly darker so he/she could add a honey golden tone. "Honey" means a tone lighter than a caramel, but darker then golden blonde. So in turn, you can not be as light as her first pic and still have honey tone.

So this is all well and good, but what if you're someone who is so pale that even 10 minutes in the sun will either burn you or bring out every freckle in your face? Blonde will look good on that skin tone, right? Not always. Here is a picture of my next example. The one girl in Hollywood who needs to either listen to her stylist, or fire her. Seriously, how much is she paying this person to look like THIS:

Gaaahh....
Well, clearly as you can see, this color does not compliment her skin tone in the least. She is trying to make up for it with a spray tan and extensions that went out of style in 2008. Have you ever thought, "Well if I get a tan it will look better." No it won't. Sorry, but if you don't look good in one color, a tan is not going to make it any better. You are what you are. Lindsay is very light skinned, but still has an olive complexion which is why she can not pull of this color. Other fair skinned celebs like Nicole Kidman and Anna Paquin are able to wear blonde because of their cool skin tones. Lindsay looks much better as a redhead or a warm brown. I've watched her experiment with every color blonde imaginable, with every tone and it does not work. So you might be thinking, "I see yellow hair and pink skin on her, why are you telling me she has an olive skin tone?" Simple. The more yellow added to a blonde, the closer her stylist can get to her golden (very pale, but golden) skin tone. It backfired in this case, because even that yellow gold blonde is still not rich enough in golden tones to compliment her color. So in the picture it is contrasting off her skin, making her look sallow. Sorry babe, give it up.

Hey! Those orange tones make you absolutely glow! Even though she is much younger in this picture (I would have used an updated one, but Lindsay hasn't been red in years) the red hair makes her look much younger by highlighting her natural color. I guarantee that if Lindsay came back to the scene with this beautiful hair color cut much shorter, she would be taken more seriously. Not because she wouldn't be blonde, but because she wouldn't look SICK. Blonde hair makes her look like she has the flu.

So an easy way to find you skin tone is to take a white and beige towel to a mirror and hold one up at a time to your face. Which looks like it blends with your skin more? And be honest with yourself. I know if you've been hoping for a certain color and it doesn't end up looking great it can be disappointing, but there are ways to wear a color beautifully, even if it clashes with your skin. I will make that the topic of my next post.


Remember, people won't tell you your hair looks like crap. They WILL compliment you though when it looks great.

2 comments:

  1. please tell me you are in nyc. i need a stylist that GETS IT!

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  2. I too always learn something new from your post.

    ReplyDelete