Hair Color & Skin Undetone - YouLookFab Forum

I see a lot of conflicting advice regarding beauty and fashion online. This is nothing new and only serves to further convince me that I should firstly follow my instincts and rely on what I feel when I look in the mirror.

I’ve been dyeing my hair since I was a teenager (on and off) and find that copper shades suit me best. My skin is very pale with cool/neutral undertones, leaning towards rosy rather than olive or golden. I tend to burn and peel rather than tan. My veins very visibly lean towards blue rather than green.

This article seems to support my hair color preferences: https://www.byrdie.com/best-ha.....-skin-tone

"Fair skin with *cool undertones* looks better with warm tones like strawberry blonde, *copper* , honey, and gold," Papanikolas says.

"Strawberry blondes are great on *fair and neutral skin tones*," Pickthorn tells us. Mix cool and warm tones to achieve a creamy yet warm color with a hint of *golden copper*." Papanikolas also recommends a *light, warm shade of red* to counteract the *cool tones in pale skin*.

However, according to most “color specialists” and the seasons color system, the opposite is true. Hair shade must match skin undertow, meaning if I choose to dye my hair red, it should be in darker, cooler colors… all of which I hate on me and feel like they make me look sickly and washed out.

1 year ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I think it depends on a number of factors. Age being one of them.

If you look at my profile pic, you'll see that I am cool, cool, cool -- skin and silver hair. But you know -- I'm old! LOL.

I was born a strawberry blonde, turned a sort of tow-head as a toddler, then was a dark honey blonde (augmented, often, by highlights) until I turned about 35, at which time my hair started getting "mousy" (i.e. ashy). I didn't like the ashy tones at first. For a while, I dyed my hair red and it looked fantastic! (Though it faded too fast for my liking and I then dyed it back to a dark blonde, which was easier for me to maintain.) And then in my 40s the greys began to proliferate and I had a lot more upkeep. In my mid-50s I stopped dying because I realized the yellow tones were no longer doing me any favours, the blonde dye was turning brassy faster, and I was fed up with trying to maintain it all.

Now I'm wholly silver.

When my hair had some natural warm tones, those golds and reds suited my cool to neutral skin. When my hair turned silver, that, too, seemed to suit. What doesn't suit me, any more, is a too yellow or brassy tone. My skin must have cooled to a point where it just doesn't mesh well.

Star

My skin tone sounds similar to yours. Light blue eyes. Natural dark brown hair. Also dyed my hair since a teen. Copper hair dye was nice on me but when it faded to yellow I looked sick. Now that my hair is natural silver it is abundantly clear cooler colours suit me better. Like you said, you can see for yourself what works and how it makes you feel.

Vildy

I wonder about visiting a wig store - is there such a thing anymore?
and trying on various red shades?

Bee

Active Member

Vildy, better yet. There are multiple image editing softwares where you can change the color of your hair and find the exact shade you have in mind… all with the click of a button and from the comfort of your own home. That being said, I have been meaning to visit a wig shop lately.

My eyes are dark brown and I always found them rather dull and boring… that is until I first dyed my hair copper and the they suddenly (at least to me) appeared to pop with a slight amber hue and copper/bronze flecks. I suppose that’s one of the reasons why I liked the color so much. My hair was very light and I tolerated the sun pretty well as a toddler/young child.

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Sal

I know what you mean - I have warm toned skin but don't like my hair to be too warm.

I think go with your gut instinct - and check in every now and then as skin tone and hair can change over time. I used to go very blonde (though the hairdresser) and loved it in my 20s. But the same colour is wrong on me now.

My Mum was a glorious red head and she had such a great colourist that faded the red to a really pretty strawberry as she aged which kept the warmth in her hair but in the right tones. She was so talented and kind to my Mum too.

Colour theories/advice can be super helpful but it's not as straightforward as they indicate.

This photo was taken roughly a decade ago and although you can’t really tell by my expression, I had just returned from the salon and was extremely happy with the result. I felt like I finally found “my color” after a disastrous attempt using a DIY dye kit I bought at the pharmacy that turned my hair a murky shade of merlot.

That picture - wow, hair color just has incandescent glow

Vildy, that’s probably due to the editing/color correction I did some time ago, back when I was just starting to play with that sort of thing. My roots were much lighter than the rest of my hair and you can still see that in the photo, despite my amateur attempts at making my color look more uniform… I ended up making it look unnaturally glossy and illuminated.

My scalp is extremely sensitive and often gets irritated when I dye my hair. This tends to generate extra heat which causes the chemicals to act faster. That’s how I learned to always leave my roots for last.

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