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There are two elementary rules when it comes to picking the best hair color for your hair –

1. Don’t deviate too much from your natural color range. Your hair will look better if you stay within 3 or 4 shades of your natural hair color.

2. Match your hair color with your skin tone. The two basic types of skin tones are warm and cool.

An easy way to tell if you have a warm tone is to look if the veins on the inside of your arms are tinged with green. Those with pink or blue skin undertones fall into the cool category and they have blue tinged veins.

Warm Skin Tones Can Consider These Colors:

Gold, Honey, Caramel, Copper, Red, Mahogany, Strawberry blonde, Chocolate, Ginger, Orange based reds, Dark browns, Rust

Cool Skin Tones Can Consider These Colors:

Platinum, Ash-blonde, Cream, Sandy, Coffee, Jet black, Fawn, Mid-level blondes, Flat browns, Wine, Mahogany, Burgundy

Some other basic rules of thumb to consider are –

Dark or olive skin tone work best with darker hair colors.

Yellow skin tones will look perfect with dark and rich colors, such as deep auburn or chestnut.

Pink skin is magnificent for neutral tones, but can look too pink with red and gold shades.

And almost any color suits pale skin.

Can You Go Blonde?

Some women look good in any color but most don't. If you had blonde hair as a kid, you'll likely look good with blonde hair as an adult. You'll also look good blonde if you have pink skin that burns easily, and blue or green eyes.

Go (or Stay) Brown

If you have super pale skin and brown hair, consider going lighter. Super dark shades can wash you out and even make you appear older.

Can I Go Red?

Almost everyone can go red, if it’s the right shade. Get a professional consultation to avoid hair that turns out orange.

To Color or to Highlight?

If you have a great base hair tone, you're better off with highlights. Don't want to mess with nature … enhance it!  Highlights look best when the stylist uses at least two different shades. More around your face can brighten your complexion. There are a few types of highlights: basic foil highlights, baliage or "hair painting," chunking or "piecing" and lowlighting.

Foil highlights add strands of color to hair. You can get up to 5 different shades in hair to make it look more natural.  Baliage, or "hair painting," allows the stylist to add natural stripes of color to hair in large or smaller swaths. This is best for women with a great base color who want to go just a couple shades lighter. You won't need to get roots touched up as much with baliage as you do foils.

Lowlighting allows the stylist to add darker shades to hair giving the color more contrast.

The main consideration in coloring your hair is to have a definite idea of what you want …your stylist can offer suggestions but ultimately it’s important that you have realistic expectation of the results!

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