Choosing the perfect highlight color involves a harmonious blend of considering your natural hair color, skin tone, eye color, and desired maintenance level, ensuring the shades complement your overall appearance.
Understanding the Universal Rule for Highlights
When selecting highlights, a fundamental guideline to ensure a natural and cohesive look is to keep them within four shades of your current base color. Going significantly lighter than this can create a stark contrast that may appear less natural or even harsh. This principle helps maintain a soft, blended appearance that enhances your features rather than overwhelming them.
For instance, if your base color is a deep brown, highlights like caramel or warm honey would be suitable. Conversely, for a light blonde, a soft, creamy baby blonde would be an ideal choice.
Matching Highlights to Your Base Hair Color
Your natural or current hair color is the primary factor in determining suitable highlight shades. The goal is to enhance, not overpower, your base.
- Brunettes: For those with brown hair, opting for caramel, warm honey, or golden brown highlights can add dimension and warmth. These shades beautifully catch the light and create a sun-kissed effect.
- Auburns/Reds: If your base is auburn or a rich red, copper gold or strawberry blonde highlights can enhance the vibrancy and richness of your hair.
- Blondes/Grays: For lighter bases like blonde or gray hair, a soft baby blonde or creamy platinum shade can provide brightness and a youthful glow.
- Black Hair: Darker hair colors can be beautifully accentuated with subtle chocolate, espresso, or even deep auburn highlights, creating depth without harshness.
Considering Your Skin Tone and Eye Color
Your skin's undertones play a crucial role in determining whether warm or cool highlight shades will be most flattering.
Determining Your Skin's Undertone
Identifying your skin's undertone can guide you toward the most complementary highlight colors.
- Warm Undertones: If your veins appear green on your wrist, gold jewelry suits you best, and you tend to tan easily, you likely have warm undertones. Opt for golden, honey, caramel, or reddish-blonde highlights.
- Cool Undertones: If your veins appear blue, silver jewelry looks best, and you tend to burn rather than tan, you likely have cool undertones. Ashy blonde, platinum, beige, or cool brown highlights will be most complementary.
- Neutral Undertones: If you have a mix of both or your veins appear neither distinctly green nor blue, you can often pull off both warm and cool tones, giving you more versatility in your highlight choices.
Eye Color as a Guide
Your eye color can also offer clues to the most suitable highlight choices.
- Blue or Gray Eyes: Often complement cooler tones like ash blondes, cool browns, or even subtle silvery highlights.
- Green or Hazel Eyes: Tend to pop with warm, golden, copper, or caramel highlights, which can pick up the flecks of color in your eyes.
- Brown Eyes: Can look stunning with a wide range, from warm caramel to rich chocolate or even subtle golden tones that enhance their depth.
Desired Maintenance and Lifestyle
Consider how much effort you're willing to put into maintaining your highlights. This will influence the technique and shade choice.
- Low Maintenance: Techniques like balayage or ombré, where highlights are hand-painted away from the root, offer a softer grow-out and require less frequent touch-ups. Opting for shades closer to your natural base color will also extend the time between salon visits. Learn more about low-maintenance hair color from L'Oréal Paris.
- High Maintenance: Traditional foil highlights, especially those placed close to the root or very contrasting shades, will typically require more frequent salon visits to keep them looking fresh and seamless.
- Hair Health: Lightening your hair involves chemicals that can be damaging. Discuss your hair's current condition and previous treatments with your stylist to ensure it can withstand the highlighting process without compromising its integrity. Stronger, healthier hair will hold color better and look more vibrant.
Quick Reference Guide
This table offers a simplified guide for choosing highlight colors based on common hair and skin tones:
| Base Hair Color | Recommended Highlight Shades | Best Skin Undertone Match |
|---|---|---|
| Brunette | Caramel, Honey, Golden Brown | Warm |
| Auburn/Red | Copper Gold, Strawberry Blonde | Warm |
| Blonde/Gray | Baby Blonde, Creamy Platinum | Cool or Neutral |
| Black | Chocolate, Espresso, Deep Auburn | Warm or Neutral |
Consulting a Professional Stylist
While these guidelines provide a strong starting point, the best way to choose your highlight color is to consult a professional hair colorist. They can assess your hair's unique characteristics, recommend shades that perfectly suit you, and explain the best application techniques for your desired outcome. Bringing inspiration photos to your consultation can also help communicate your vision effectively. A stylist can offer personalized advice on what will look best and how to maintain your chosen style. For further reading on hair color trends, explore resources from Redken.
