Warm or cool hair?

the_devil_made_me_do_it

Been ages since I last saw my true hair colour. I'm due to get my hair dyed next week and am considering what colour I should go.


Wondering whether I should go warm or cool. How can you tell what kind of shade you suit? I know I am dark haired.


Need to work out whether I should choose a warm dark brown or a more ashy dark brown.


At the moment I have darker roots with beachy type highlights. Now winter is coming I always ditch the highlights and get an all over colour.

theoretica

The cheapest would be to get all your hair dyed back to its natural colour (I assume the root colour) and then you wouldn't need to keep dealing with the roots and could just leave it. Well it is a money saving site.

jenniewb

I think it's hard to tell by looking at yourself for many of us. I'd say try going to several beauty counters and asking their opinions, you may find that you also get different answers (which is why I say try a few!)


A rule of thumb some people use is to look at their wrists and find their veins; if the veins look blue-ish they have a cool skin tone, if they look green-ish they have a warm skin tone. To be honest, my face is not the same colour or tone as my wrists and I doubt anyone elses is either!

donnac2558

The vein thing, so how does this work for people of African heritage???

bbright

I would suggest going to a few salons and asking for some advice.

j.e.j.

You need to match it with your skin tone. Are you pale-skinned/olive-skinned?

the_devil_made_me_do_it

I use the same hairdresser. She comes to my house and is really good.


Also I only really get the roots down, I may get a full head colour if the lengths are looking a bit washed out. I get it dyed once every 8 weeks, so it's never over processed.


It's hard to say what colour my roots actually are to be honest. Although I haven't got completely grey roots, there is quite a sprinkling there which tend to mask my natural colour.


I am fairly pale skinned with light green eyes. Had a look at my veins and they do look quite blue, but I think it's quite hard to tell.

Yorkie1

My hairdresser once said I had quite a lot of warmth / red in my natural hair, which she showed me by shining a light very close to my hair so it highlighted the pigments. This influenced the choice of warm colour tones to match the complexion.

I'm not sure how that would work if your hair is already coloured.

aintshesweet

It's difficult to tell without a photo. When you blush, is the flush more pinky or more of a plum/rouge colour? Do you have a ruddy complexion? Do you suit silver or gold jewellery more?

You might be a bit inbetween. There's cool and warm tones of each and every colour, so even though you've got green eyes, they might be a cool green, and if you've got very pale skin, then that points further to cool.

Pink blush + silver jewellery + bluer veins + ruddy complexion + cool green eyes + if you look great wearing black and white outfits = Cool ashy tones
Rouge/plum blush + gold jewellery + green veins + olive/sallow skin/creamy ivory skin + if you look better in ivory and navy than b&w = Warm

You might straddle the line a bit.

jenniewb

donnac2558 wrote: »

The vein thing, so how does this work for people of African heritage???

Works for my friend who is from Barbados (she has a cool tone!), I've not asked friends who have African heritage but as far as I know they have veins... It's not about it being clear bright blue or green, it's the tone that it is: either a greenish tone or a blue-ish tone. I would still suggest going to a make up counter to get another opinion as lighting and etc can all make a difference but even if your skin is dark you should be able to tell if veins are blue or green tone.


Having said that; I don't want to omit what I said about facial skin tone being different than hand or wrist skin tone- mine is different, I don't know if I'm the only one but I would never think for example to test out a foundation or concealer on my hands or wrists, if I did I know the shade would not match my face. Whatever the reason is for this I'd be aware that whatever is suggested by well meaning makeup artists and bloggers about the warm/cool vein thing; take it with a pinch of salt when it comes to deciding if your facial skin is warm/cool!

Lips_and_Lashes

You can work out whether you're warm, cool or neutral toned several ways.

If you wear foundation, what colour is it? Usually they have an undertone of yellow or pink so this could indicate which you are.

Also, does gold or silver jewellery suit you more? Silver indicates a cool tone whilst gold is the warmer, yellow.

What colours suit you?

I'm sure if you discuss this with you're hairdresser, they should be able to tell you.