Tuesday, July 26, 2011

'Cool' Hair Colour

I've been thinking a lot lately about hair colour for those with cool complexions and undertones.  The more I read on-line, the more I notice that 'ash' is usually the only choice/recommendation provided as an option for cool skintones vs the warm skintones who seem to have a variety of options (golden tones, mahogany, auburn, honey and caramel highlights, copper etc etc).  I decided to do a little more research and found out that there actually are quite a few options, which are completely 'unique' for a cool toned.  In fact, if you aren't cool toned, these looks simply won't work.  For many years, especially when I first started dying my hair, I was always told to add golden blonde/caramel highlights.  Then I started playing around with darker shades.  However, I have to say that I am now uber-excited to try some of these new looks - I think women with a true cool undertone need to celebrate it, not try to 'warm' up their hair, but be unique and try something uniquely theirs.  Here are some options if you're a cool toned gal:

 
Well, I started off mentioning 'ash' toned hair and I decided to include it since it is a great option and perhaps one of the most natural looking option for a true cool toned women.  If you are a lighter cool toned woman, ash blonde shades mixed with champagne/neutral beige toned highlights would be stunning.  For women with naturally darker hair, anything from medium to darkest ash brown would look amazing! 


If you are a brunette and want to add life to your hair, there are options, ash is not the only hair-colour you need to be limited too.  There are a variety of plum, burgundy, blue, purple tones that you can add to a darker brown base which adds coolness and that unique look that I mentioned is actually natural looking only on a cool skined woman.  If you're of a darker complexion, I particularily think a burgundy brown is such a sexy option!




Who ever said that red is only for the warm toned woman?  There are actually some amazing options for a cool toned woman when it comes to red - Rich burgundy, cool toned true reds mixed with a more purple/blue base, even plummy-pink reds.  These reds are uber unique and not for the faint of heart, but if you're looking for something striking and you're not afraid of colour, give some of their 'cool red' options a try!!!  If you are a true cool toned woman, these shades will bring you to life - they won't look overpowering on you, they will make you look unique and vibrant!!!


I love this look - Its so unique and original and not everyone can pull it off, but I think its soooo 'cool' (no pun intended - ha ha).  Here you see a really dark ash brown base, even black with the palest ash/leaning on silver highlights mixed with blue tones,  I think if your natural grey is starting to come in and you're not afraid of doing something funky, this is a look you can try - or simply go with the darkest ash/black with a slight blue tinge - I think this is uber funky and there is no way a warm toned women could rock this cool, so if you are cool toned, celebrate it and don't be afraid to try something a little 'cool' (okay - the pun was intended here - lol)!!!


Here is another example of how the blue-black haircolour is stunning.  If you're naturally a very dark brunette or if you have natural black hair - try going a blue-black.  Its so original and you can pull it off without looking clownish - I paricularily like this photo because the model has a light blonde ash highlight sweeping across the front, which is really 'cool' (sorry, I can't help it with the these puns).  Also, if you pay attention to the makeup in this photo - the cool toned pink lip and blush shade, you will see how well it looks with the hair colour.  Again, if I had naturally black toned hair, I'd be running to get it dyed a blue-black - I think its such an amazing look!!!

As you can see, ash is not the only option for a cool toned woman - it may be a more natural option (and thats totally fine, there is nothing wrong with having a natural look, especially if its a look that works with your personality and lifestyle).  However, if you're looking for some options and are tired of being limited to ash toned shades or you feel these shades just don't bring you to life - why not try a cool-toned red or adding some plummy-purple highlights or even adding a bluish tinge?  Have fun with your hair-colour and CELEBRATE your unique skin-tone - don't be pulled into whats 'in' at the moment - be your own person, create your own look that is unique to you and be confident working that look - people will start to notice and respect you and who knows - you may become a trend setter instead of the one following the trends - now that's COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 comments:

Kimberly said...

You know, after I read this post...I had a light bulb go off over my head lol because my whole life I've always thought I was just a girl with dark brown hair. I even went as far as black brown. But I would get confused because my cousins are the ones in my family who have actual black brown hair, and it wasn't the same as mine. So I thought, "am I chestnut? or mahogany?" I dunno. Just confused is what I was really. But after reading this I realized I'm an ash brown brunette. I was looking over the pictures you posted, and thought hey, I kinda look like that! After googling images I started to see more and more! lol, I had found my own people! I always thought ash brown was the light grey brown, like Farrah Fawcett (kinda, she was blond I actually)...but I guess this can be way darker than that.
Anywho :D, I just wanted to share the revelation I had today, and say thanks :)

Ashley said...

Your post made me wish my natural hair color wasn't dark ash blond! I wish I could do that beautiful cool red!!! SEXY!