What Hair Color Is Best 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.

Is my skin tone warm, cool, or neutral?

The first step is determining the undertones in 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.

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, or green?

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 usually come with blue or purple veins, as well as blue or gray eyes.

Neutral skin tones can have a combination of all of the above.

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 tone “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.

Best hair color for 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 fair 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, sandy hair colors. The coolness in the hair color will minimize any redness in your skin.

Best hair color for medium to dark skin with cool undertones

If you have a cool skin tone, the veins in your wrist will be blue or even purplish.

You probably look best with silver jewelry opposed to gold.

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. Although neutrals and chocolates can be a great middle ground.

Best hair color for fair skin with cool undertones

If you fall into this category, your skin is fair and you potentially will burn in the sun easily.

You may have blue or green eyes.

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 light and cool tones to avoid becoming washed out.

Best hair color for neutral skin tones

A neutral skin tone is a combination of the two. You may still be on the paler side, but you can tan pretty easily without getting burned.

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.

Also, you can 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.

Lightness and darkness of hair color for skin tone

Now that we’ve determined your skin tone and what shades you’ll look best in, you need to determine how light or dark you should go.

Typically I recommend taking 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 pale, cool skin tone, jet black probably isn’t the best choice.

Going darker is totally ok for paler and cool skin tones; just don’t shoot for 10 shades of a difference. 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.

If you’re still a little confused about what will look best on you, 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 9/26/2022