Like an uninvited guest, undertones in hair quickly overstay their visit
In front of a mirror with good lighting, hold a piece of silver jewelry next to your face while your hair is covered with a white towel. Next, do the same with a piece of gold jewelry. Watch which tone of jewelry "accentuates" your face. Remember the objective is to draw attention to and brighten your eyes, your face, your complexion-the white towel gives a blank canvas on which to make that judgement . If you choose the gold jewelry, your skin tone will look best with warm hair colors- golds, coppers and reds. Conversely, if it's the silver jewelry, your skin will look best in cool colors, ash tones, platinum/cool blondes. Keep reading to find out how to get salon beautiful home hair color that absolutely looks gorgeous on your skin.
Hair always lightens to "warm" -often brassy tones. Whether your skin tone is classified as "warm" or "cool", no one wants brassy hair color:
1) Determine your natural hair color shade. Remember, the darker your hair, the lower the number that most accurately portrays your natural hair color shade. In hair color lingo, your hair color "shade" is referred to as a "level". If your natural hair color is a dark brown, its level is a "5". If your hair is a dark blonde, its level is a "7"
2) Familiarize yourself with the "natural hair color level system" below and the associated pigments, or "undertones" of each level. As hair is lightened, it is the undertone of the color you are working toward, that will need to be considered.
3) Artificial hair color is designed to "counteract" your undertones. For example, ash is designed to counteract red undertones. Blue, often referred to as "smokey", "cool", "beige" and even "ash" counters red orange and orange pigments. For lighter colors such as dark and medium blonde, "champagne", "icy" and once again "ash" counter *gold tones. "Violet" counters yellow tones.
"Ash" is often a descriptive term used in hair color because it is familiar as a brass eliminator. * "Violet" is often misunderstood. Violet is the secondary color of blue and red. Home colorists tend to choose violet based colors to counter gold tones in blonde hair. Because of the red pigment in violet based hair color, the gold undertones are made-much worse. Violet counters yellow, not gold.
4) Contrarily, if your desired result is copper or red, the undertone isn't' countered, it is enhanced. To find the counteracting undertone, trace your finger directly across the color wheel. In this case, blue is the counteracting tone of auburn. "Smokey" or "cool" would be an example of descriptive terms for a color with a blue undertone.(In the case of Sally Beauty's Ion Color Brilliance, "intense ash" would most closely counter orange tones.) (If you are using L'oreal Preference Liquidcreme hair color, "b" for beige and "bb" for double beige have a blue undertone to counter orange.) Mixing your hair color is an ideal way to help manage your undertones.
There are times when the undertone in your hair is simply too strong to counteract the shade that you are trying to achieve. At these times more advanced hair color techniques such as hi-lighting and multi-tonal hair color may be required. .
The chart below details undertones and the corresponding corrective color using L'Oreal Preference Liquid Creme.
Remember: Your desired shade result will be the medium of the level of your hair + the level of the applied hair color, i.e. your hair-level 5, applied hair color-level 9, the finished result-7. The undertone for 7 is orange. Orange is the undertone that will need to be countered.
These suggestions are only suggestions. The variations of hair color choices and results are, of course unlimited. Mixing your hair color allows more choices and creativity.
Refrain from coloring your ends w/ this same formula. that you've just used on your new growth. to keep undertones better controlled.
There simply is no substitute for a strand test. The return on the few extra minutes it takes to do a strand test is priceless.