What Hair Color Looks Best With My Skin Tone?

By Serena Spinello

In order to identify the hair color that looks best with your skin tone, it's important to recognize whether your complexion falls into the warm or cool category. From the warm and cool categories, skin tones can be further broken down into light, medium and dark (deep) coloring. The right hair color should flatter a person's individual complexion and features, not overwhelm or wash out their overall appearance.

Features

Since there is no universal hair color that works for everyone, the key concept is to become familiar with the complexion category your skin falls under. You have a cool skin tone if your skin is fair (with pink or rosy undertones), medium (with pink or golden undertones) or dark (with olive, golden and dark-brown undertones). People with warm skin tones have skin that's fair to medium (think peach, golden, yellow and copper undertones) or golden to dark brown.

Cool Skin Tones

Cool skin tones are further grouped into either light cool or medium to deep cool. In general the hair colors that work best with cool skin tones are: ash blonds and browns, mid-level blonds, flat or coffee browns, bluish red shades like garnet, mahogany and burgundy and dark browns or black that have an eggplant or blue undertone. Ideal hair colors for those who fall into the light-cool subcategory include: light shades of blonds (such as platinum) and browns. Those in the medium- to deep-cool category look best with deep colors such as rich coffee browns and blacks.

Warm Skin Tones

Warm skin tones are further grouped into either light warm or medium to deep warm. The hair colors that work best with warm skin tones are: strawberry and honey blonds, golden brown, warm chocolate browns, auburn, cinnamon, ginger, and other reds that have an orange base. Ideal hair colors for those who fall into the light-warm subcategory include light and warm hues such as golden and strawberry blonds and browns. Those in the medium- to deep-warm category look best with rich and deep shades of chestnut, copper and dark golden browns.

Hair Colors to Avoid

Those with cool skin tones should avoid hair colors that will make them appear washed out (this can happen when your skin color and hair color are too alike). Hair shades that are yellow, golden, red or bronze should be avoided. People who have warm skin tones should avoid shades that are ash-based, as they can make you appear washed out.

Identification

A simple way to help determine what category your skin falls into is to take a white piece of cloth or paper and look in the mirror to make out whether your skin appears more yellowish (signifying warm) or bluish (indicating cool). You can also check out your arm's veins to note whether they appear more green (warm) or blue (cool). Those with cool skin tend to have light-colored eyes and skin that turns red or burns prior to becoming tan. Those with warm skin tend to have darker eyes and a darker complexion that tans easily.