Do you dye your hair? 
 
The main thing to understand with colour if you want it to be flattering for you, enhancing your skin and making your eyes sparkle is, whether you suit a warm or cool palette. So, for example if you’re blonde with pale skin and blue eyes and red is your thing there will be a red to suit you it just might be a different kind of red to your friend who has dark hair, olive skin and brown eyes. 
 
There are warm and cool hues of every colour except orange. This is because all colours are mixed from the primaries, red, yellow and blue. Red and yellow are warm colours, blue is cool. Depending on how much of each primary it takes to make the colour will determine its level of warmth/coolness. Orange doesn’t have a cool version as it’s made from red and yellow mixed together, both warm primaries. So orange is ‘double warm’. 
 
Once you understand your 'rules' it makes it all so much easier to create visual harmony across your wardrobe. When I do a colour analysis, I am looking primarily at your skin undertone, followed by your hair and eyes. 
 
The way to tell if your colouring is cool or warm is to check your veins near your wrist. If they appear green your undertone is warm. If they appear blue your undertone is cool. 
 
Obviously, we can change our hair colour with dye. I get asked a lot if your colours change as you get older, especially if people want to stop colouring their hair and embrace the grey, especially through the transition stage. 
 
This is why I say colour analysis is a journey not a final destination. It’s probably pertinent to have your colours reassessed every 5-10 years as we lose pigment with age and what suited us when we were younger might have changed. If you’re dying your hair back to your ‘natural colour’ from when you were younger there’s a god chance, it’s not so flattering these days. 
 
You see those old ladies with black hair, it looks a bit like a badly fitting wig? Ok, so your dark brunette might not look quite so bad, but you don’t want your hair wearing you. 
 
As we lose pigment in our hair, skin and eyes our contrast levels change. This can happen as we go grey underneath the hair dye and when the upkeep is getting tiresome and it’s just not holding the colour anymore - it might be time to reassess. 
 
Menopause can affect our skin tone too, it might not be as vibrant as it once was, and this can affect our contrast levels. 
 
That deep, rich hair colour may start to seem harsh and you might need to wear more make up to balance things out. If the colours you once loved to seem to be wearing you it can also indicate time for reassessment. 
 
It can be as simple as wearing a neutral with your favourite bright colour. It might be that you just need softer versions of colours as you lose clarity in your natural colouring. 
 
If you’ve had a colour analysis previously this may not about needing a new palette of colours completely. It could be about fine tuning and reassessing what is right for you now. 
 
This can be relevant also if you’ve had a major change of hair colour using a bottle rather than letting nature take its course. You may have gone from natural brunette to vibrant, foxy red and suddenly those muted, deep colours no longer have the wow factor they once had. Time to reassess and look at those more vibrant colours perhaps. 
Tagged as: Colour
Share this post:

Leave a comment: 

Our site uses cookies. For more information, see our cookie policy. Accept cookies and close
Reject cookies Manage settings