What Is The Best Hair Color For My Skin Tone?

Have you ever gone for that perfect hair color to later find out that it’s not-so perfect on you after all? Or maybe you want to know if a color will look good on you, but you really have no idea if it will or not. This post will help you determine what hair color is best for your specific skin tone, and we’ll even talk a little about eye color as well!

I know that before I became a hairstylist, I didn’t understand why sometimes my skin looked red and had a pinkish hue. I didn’t realize that it was from the color of my hair as well as the shirt I was wearing. But now that I know how all of this works, it’s one of my favorite things to help clients navigate!

How to pick the best hair color for your skin tone

Many people may have been led to believe that they can’t pull off blonde hair, but I’m here to tell you that anyone can pull off blonde hair, it just depends on what tone of blonde you’re going with. Some shades will flatter your skin tone, while others will clash with it.

We’re going to determine your skin tone in two separate steps. First, we need to determine the lightness and darkness of your skin. This is very important in combination with your undertones. Contrary to popular belief, warm colors don’t look good with all levels of warm skin tones.

Second, we’ll determine the undertones in your skin. Then you’ll find the section below that describes your exact skin tone to learn what colors you’ll look best with.

Is my skin fair, medium, or dark?

Now you likely already know if your skin tone is fair, medium, or dark. But in the graphic below, match which level your skin fits with best. Keep in mind that you can be a combination of two levels, and don’t pay attention to the shade or undertones here, just think in terms of lightness and darkness.

I know that for me personally, when I have a tan I get get much closer to the medium skin level. But in the wintertime without a tan, I’m much closer to the fair skin tone. In this case, I consider myself to have a fair to medium level skin tone.

Typically it’s recommended to take your hair color a minimum of 2 shades lighter or darker than your skin tone. If your hair color is too similar to your skin tone, it will wash you out.

I also don’t recommend going with too much contrast. If you have a very fair skin, then jet black probably isn’t the best choice unless a super bold and extreme contrast look is what you’re going for (totally okay too!) Going darker is still flattering for lighter skin, I just wouldn’t aim to shoot for 10 shades lighter. Somewhere between 2 and 6 levels of contrast is a great happy medium.

Darker skin tones can pull off light blondes as well. But I recommend keeping it a more golden or neutral/beige color rather than a super ashy blonde color to avoid getting washed out.

Is my skin tone warm, cool, or neutral?

The second step is to determine the undertones of your skin. You need to know if your skin is warm, cool, or neutral. For some of you this may be easy and you already know, but others may be confused by it especially if you have a neutral skin tone.

The easiest way to distinguish the tone of your skin is to look at your wrist. Is it peachy, olivey, or neutral? Are your veins blue, purple, green, or a combination of all three?

Peachy and olivey hues usually indicate a warm skin tone. As do green veins, brown or hazel eyes, or warmer specks in light eyes.

Pale and ashy skin indicates a cooler skin tone. Cool skin tones are usually accompanied by blue or purple veins, as well as blue, or gray eyes.

Neutral skin tones can have a combination of all of the above. So if you’re left feeling confused because you have green eyes with peachy undertones but have purple and blue veins; fear not because you’re likely neutral!

Best hair color for medium to dark skin with warm undertones

If you have a warm, medium to dark skin tone; this typically means you’ll tan easier and you may even consider your skin “olivey”.

When you look at the veins in your wrist they are a greenish color. Your eyes may be brown, hazel, or have golden flakes in the center of them. You probably also look best wearing gold jewelry over silver or white gold.

Warm, golden, rich and chocolate browns, reds, and copper hair colors will look best against your skin tone. Warmer hair colors will always compliment your skin best opposed to cooler colors.

Now if you aren’t a fan of warmer colors or just want to try something different; opt for a neutral tone over a cool tone. Neutrals are just that, neutral. They won’t clash with your skin, nor will they stand out as overly striking. But they’re always a safe bet.

Best hair color for medium to fair skin with warm undertones

If your skin is fair with warm undertones, you may feel like you look a little red or pink at times. Your skin might be sensitive, especially to the sun because of how light it is. You likely have light eyes that may be blue, gray or even green.

You will look best in cool, neutral, platinum, ashy, champagne, beige, and sandy hair colors. The coolness in the hair color will minimize any redness in your skin.

Now notice how I added champagne, beige, and sand to the color choices above. Those are neutral colors, and they’ll be a safe bet for you as well. You just want to try to avoid anything with much warmth to it so that your skin doesn’t look even pinker.

Best hair color for medium to dark skin with cool undertones

You’d be surprised how many clients I’ve come across that didn’t realize that you could have darker skin with cool undertones. But it’s actually not uncommon! I think that’s what makes different cultures so great, with how unique even our skin tones can be based on our ethnicity and background.

Now, if you have a cool skin tone, the veins in your wrist will be blue or even purple. And you probably look best with silver jewelry opposed to gold. Your eyes may appear very dark brown or even close to black, without much warmth to them.

Cool, ashy, silver, platinum, neutral, and ash brown hair colors will look best against your skin tone. You want to try to stay away from anything with too much warmth in it like reds and gold as this can wash you out and make you appear pale or sickly. Although neutrals and chocolates can be a great middle ground.

Best hair color for medium to fair skin with cool undertones

If you fall into this category, your skin is fair and you will potentially burn in the sun easily. You may have blue or green eyes, and you likely look best wearing gold jewelry. Your veins are probably blue, purple, or both.

Warm, strawberry, honey, red, copper, butterscotch, and gold tones will look best on you. Since your skin is light and cool, you’ll want to avoid super light and cool tones to avoid becoming washed out.

Best hair color for neutral skin tones

A neutral skin tone is a combination of warm and cool. You may still be on the paler side, but you can tan pretty easily without getting burned. It’s likely that in the summertime you appear to be warmer toned, and in the winter you appear to be cooler toned.

Some of your veins are blue, purple, and green. You may have green eyes, or a combination of colors like blue with gold flakes in them. You can also probably wear gold or silver jewelry.

Neutral skin tones have the best of both worlds. They can look great in either warm or cool hair colors. I would recommend shying away from neutral tones to not become washed out, but you can avoid this by creating more contrast with the lightness and coolness of the color.

What color looks good on all skin tones?

If you’re looking for a one size fits all hair color, that’s basically impossible. Everyone is different, and tones will compliment you differently than they compliment me.

But for the most part, if you stick to a relatively neutral tone, you’ll be in the clear and it won’t necessarily wash you out. This means that the color does not have much warmth or coolness in the tone.

Examples of this are beiges and sandy tones. Try to think of a neutral color pallet.

Complimenting eye color with hair color

Now I’m not going to go too deep on eye color in this post, but it can be extremely flattering to compliment your eye color based on your hair color.

A general rule of thumb is to choose the color opposite of your eye color to make your eyes pop. This means if you have green eyes, choosing a color in the red family will really make your eyes stand out.

For blue, this is the copper family (although pink is a great option too).

For browns although this isn’t as easy, anything that is vibrant will make them stand out. This could be a vivid color or a bright blonde.

To learn more about the color wheel and finding complimentary hair colors based on your eye color, see my post here.

If the color that will make your eyes pop isn’t flattering with your skin tone, see below for what I recommend by using dimension to offset any clashing colors.

Using dimension in hair color

Now if you aren’t thrilled with the color options in your category, don’t be concerned because I have options for you. If there’s a color you really want to try out, get a few peekaboos or highlights of it. You don’t need to color your whole head.

Keeping some of your natural color will also give you baseline to go off of. Nothing is going to be as extreme or clash quite as badly if you have something to ground the color off of.

This is also helpful if you don’t want your hair to appear extremely unnatural, bold, or high maintenance. Having dimension in there with panels of your natural color and panels of the accent color is a great combo to getting the best of both worlds.

Let’s take someone with light blue eyes and fair skin with warm undertones that likes to wear blonde hair. I recommend they keep a darker root with cool toned blonde ends. The root color should be at least two shades darker than their skin (likely their natural color) and the ends should be at least two shades lighter than their skin.

This darker root will make their eyes pop from the contrast, and the cool blonde ends will stop their skin from appearing pink. The contrast in the lightness and darkness will also stop them from blending in with their hair.

Skin tones & hair color conclusion

Picking the best hair color for your skin tone isn’t necessarily as easy as matching warm skin with warm colors. You also need to consider the lightness and darkness of your skin, because that can make a world of a difference.

First, determine if your skin is fair, medium, or dark. Next, determine if your skin is warm, neutral, or cool.

Complimentary colors:

• Medium-dark skin with warm undertones – Warm, golden, rich and chocolate browns, reds, and copper
• Medium-fair skin with warm undertones – Cool, neutral, platinum, ashy, champagne, beige, and sand
• Medium-dark skin with cool undertones – Cool, ashy, silver, platinum, neutral, and ash brown
• Medium-fair skin with cool undertones – Warm, strawberry, honey, red, copper, butterscotch, and gold
• Neutral skin tone – Both warm and cool colors, avoid neutrals unless there is significant contrast in lightness/darkness

To compliment your eye color, choose a hair color that is the opposite on the color wheel.

Add dimension to try out other colors or to ground your accent hair color so it isn’t as unnatural or clashing.

If you’re still a little confused about what will look best on you based on your skin tone, try to find pieces of fabric that have warm or cool colors. Wrap them around your hair so only that color is seen. Does it compliment your face, or wash you out?

Leave me any questions in the comments, and as always, have a good hair day!

Last updated 8/27/2024