Coloring and Highlighting Your Hair

Hair coloring at home can lead to a beautiful result or a complete disaster. There are so many shades and combination dye and highlight kits to pick from, it can be overwhelming. Before tackling change, there are a lot of considerations you have to make, to design a look you can be proud of.

Consider your skin coloring first. Hair colors such as very dark browns and shades of black can leave the wearer looking like a corpse. Natural redheads tend to be in this category. Most redheads have fair skin and freckles. Shades of black do not wear well on this complexion. Many shades of brown will work, as long as the brown doesn't lean too close to black.

Fair skin tones should stick with lighter browns, reds, and blondes. A chestnut brown isn't too far fetched, especially if a highlighting kit is used to add lighter strands at random. The trick to highlighting is random and on top of the head. While younger people tend to like the wider, and more precise pale streaks against darker hair, some tend to want their highlights to appear natural, and the best way to pull of natural is to keep in mind how the sun hits your hair and keep your highlight shades in the family of your darker base color. For example, if you have chestnut brown hair, use caramel colored highlights.

Fair skin tones can also be washed out by pale, bleach blonde hair coloring. Darker skin tones can go blonde, but the important thing to remember is that darker hair must go through an orange phase before it ends in the blonde phase of coloring. The key is not to get scared when the hair looks orange and remove the colorant. Keep it on, and let it process. If you have very dark hair, it might be best to let a professional transform your locks into the shade of blonde you want.

Darker skin tones tend to have more play with darker hair coloring. A common mistake with darker skin tones is that like fair skin, not all darker tones can wear black. Black hair coloring should only be used if your natural hair color has black in it. Some darker complexions have a combination very dark brown and black natural hair coloring. To determine if you have any black in your hair, look at it closely in natural light with a magnifying mirror. The browns will pop out, but moving your hair strands around will allow you to see if there is any black hair in the mix. Black hair coloring can be broken up with dark brown random chunks.

Keep in mind, not all brands of hair coloring are designed to color over grey hair. If you have graying hair, read the box, and find out if there will be any coverage problems. You are not limited to just the brands designed to cover grey hair, as more brands are adding grey coverage to their products.

There are a number of kits on the market that have both a base color and a highlighting color in one box. The colors are matched to work well together, and give you a natural looking result. If mixing and matching coloring on your own seems to be a task you don't want to attempt, trying out one of these kits will take the guess work out of pairing a hair color with a highlight shade. L'Oreal makes Color Expert kits available at just about any store that sells hair coloring for under $20. Often times, a quality hair color and a highlighting kit purchased separately would be more than $20, and you might not get a combination that matches very well.

If you have black hair, and feel like a splash of unnatural color would be fun, there are kits for laying colors like stop sign red, gold, and fuchsia over dark hair. Lighter hair colors can use these kits, too, but they are designed to pop against darker colors, and the result is both dramatic and playful. Some of these kits are permanent, so make sure to check the label before purchasing if your workplace or school has a policy against unnatural hair coloring.

Before tackling a drastic change, consulting a hair stylist on color possibilities might work out better for you. If you want to stay within your natural hair color range, maybe going slightly lighter or darker, there should be no problem finding a shade that will compliment you. Many hair coloring products also have agents in them that will add varying shades of color to your hair so that you aren't stuck with a flat color. The pigment will leave some strands slightly lighter or darker than others, giving a more natural appearance.

Hair coloring should be fun and reflect your personality. Eye color can also be a factor when choosing a hair color. Green eyes tend to sparkle with reds, and brown or blue eyes stand out with darker browns. Some hair coloring aisles have swatches of colored hair under the products. To get a feel for how well a color will work with your skin and eye color, take along a compact mirror, and place the swatch under your eye and close to your skin. This way, you will have an idea of whether or not that color will be too much of a contrast to your eye color and skin tone.

The only real limit is your imagination. It shouldn't matter if anyone else loves your hair color, as long as you do. Experimenting with temporary colors designed to wash out with shampooing will allow you to change frequently or just long enough to find a shade you want to use with a permanent dye.