Hair Color Wheel : Utilizing the Color Wheel For Hair
You've stumbled upon this website because you want to know more about the hair color wheel, haven't you? Well, you wouldn't believe how important it is to realize that a color wheel for hair can help you immensely when dying your hair.
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Main article: The importance of hair color wheel.
If you wanna change the color of your hair properly, understanding the color wheel is essential. There are some simple rules to be followed if you are about to dye your hair. Let's say that you want to go lighter or darker from your natural color; that's all fine and dandy, but there is a problem: you have to know how to get a right dyestuff shade before you pull it off. If you don't understand the hair color wheel, you will end up with discredited tresses. Not only that, your whole face will look like it's washed out. Luckily, we are here to help you.
Well, simply put, your hair color is always a combination of 3 primary colors which are red, yellow and blue. Combining these 3 colors will produce a secondary color : orange, green or violet. You can see the color wheel below. Please note that mixing the opposite colors will produce a result which is displayed in the middle. Let's say that your hair color is yellow; adding the red color will move your actual hair color towards orange. Adding a violet color will move it towards being brown/black. These are the basics of the hair color theory.
After you know the basics of the hair color wheel, you should also learn one more important thing: by knowing the underlying pigment of your hair (your natural hair color in fancy words) you will also learn how to use a swatch book correctly. I've seen so many people who simply choose the color inside of a swatch book, only to be disappointed by the result. The result might not be the one that you were looking for; exactly because of your natural hair color.
If you walk into any of the professional hair salons, they will determine the darkness level of your hair by a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being the darkest, and 10 being the brightest). The process of determining the darkness of one's hair is easily compared to the process of matching the skin tone with a color corrector. What the coloring experts do next is that they choose what tone or shade to apply with your underlying pigment in mind to produce the wanted result.
Keep in mind that because of the hydrogen peroxide (which is used in the hair coloring process), the natural color pigments will emerge on the surface of your hair. If you have a dark hair for example, you will have red underlying pigments. The tone of your natural hair, as it goes down to being brighter, ends with a pale yellow. I hope you are staring to understand why knowing the hair color wheel is so important for you and your hair.
All of the information above wouldn't be complete if it was left alone. The reason why hair color wheel is so useful is the fact that you should make those choices based on the color of your eyes and your skin. But before we go on, let me just stop for a moment here to give you some coloring tips that you shouldn't avoid at any cost. There are people out there who think that they can do anything they want to with their heir, but just because they can (no professional will ever stop you), it doesn't mean that they should.
If your hair has shades of ash blond, gray & white and blueish black, you're in luck because you can generally go into any part of the extreme - black as night, or white as ice (of course, not to the very end, as we discussed above).
What classifies you as being "warm"? Well, your natural hair color has to be: gold blonde, strawberry blonde, gray-yellow or red. This means that you should avoid violet and blue tones like a plague if you don't want your hair to look like it's worn out.
There are two formulas to determine which color should you be going for. The first one is for the virgin hair (the hair which hasn't been colored yet):
Underlying pigment color + artificial pigment color = The result color
If you have already colored your hair before, than this formula now looks like this:
(Underlying pigment color + the first artificial pigment color) + new artificial pigment color = The result color
Understanding the hair color wheel is essential for coloring your hair. But, we won't stop here, since in the following weeks I will be giving you advice on hair coloring and color care, so stay tuned for that! I hope you like this article, and I hope it will help you making your color choice easier.
1. Why is the hair color wheel so important?
Main article: The importance of hair color wheel.
If you wanna change the color of your hair properly, understanding the color wheel is essential. There are some simple rules to be followed if you are about to dye your hair. Let's say that you want to go lighter or darker from your natural color; that's all fine and dandy, but there is a problem: you have to know how to get a right dyestuff shade before you pull it off. If you don't understand the hair color wheel, you will end up with discredited tresses. Not only that, your whole face will look like it's washed out. Luckily, we are here to help you.
2. What is the color wheel for hair?
Well, simply put, your hair color is always a combination of 3 primary colors which are red, yellow and blue. Combining these 3 colors will produce a secondary color : orange, green or violet. You can see the color wheel below. Please note that mixing the opposite colors will produce a result which is displayed in the middle. Let's say that your hair color is yellow; adding the red color will move your actual hair color towards orange. Adding a violet color will move it towards being brown/black. These are the basics of the hair color theory.
After you know the basics of the hair color wheel, you should also learn one more important thing: by knowing the underlying pigment of your hair (your natural hair color in fancy words) you will also learn how to use a swatch book correctly. I've seen so many people who simply choose the color inside of a swatch book, only to be disappointed by the result. The result might not be the one that you were looking for; exactly because of your natural hair color.
3. Understanding your hair darkness levels.
If you walk into any of the professional hair salons, they will determine the darkness level of your hair by a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being the darkest, and 10 being the brightest). The process of determining the darkness of one's hair is easily compared to the process of matching the skin tone with a color corrector. What the coloring experts do next is that they choose what tone or shade to apply with your underlying pigment in mind to produce the wanted result.
Keep in mind that because of the hydrogen peroxide (which is used in the hair coloring process), the natural color pigments will emerge on the surface of your hair. If you have a dark hair for example, you will have red underlying pigments. The tone of your natural hair, as it goes down to being brighter, ends with a pale yellow. I hope you are staring to understand why knowing the hair color wheel is so important for you and your hair.
4. Making compatible hair color choices.
All of the information above wouldn't be complete if it was left alone. The reason why hair color wheel is so useful is the fact that you should make those choices based on the color of your eyes and your skin. But before we go on, let me just stop for a moment here to give you some coloring tips that you shouldn't avoid at any cost. There are people out there who think that they can do anything they want to with their heir, but just because they can (no professional will ever stop you), it doesn't mean that they should.
| Cool Category | Warm Category | |
| Eyes | Dark Brown, Black-Brown, Gray Blue, Dark Blue, or Hazel with white gray or blue flecks | Golden brown, Green, Green-Blue, Turquoise, Hazel with gold or brown flecks |
| Hair | Blue black, Deep brown, Ash brown, Ash Blond, Platinum Blond | Deep brown with gold or red highlights, Red, Strawberry Blond, Gray-Yellow, Natural Golden Blond |
| Skin | Very dark brown, True olive, Medium pale, Medium with golden undertones, Pale, Bronze | Brown with pink or golden undertones, Peachy or with peachy undertones, Pale with gold undertones, Freckled, Ruddy |
4.1. Never go from one extreme to another.
If your natural hair color is level 1 black, you will never be able to get it to level 10 bright (to become a blonde). Even if you try to do this, you will only damage your hair. Hair lighteners take a huge toll to the healthy conditioning of your hair. The chemical reaction that happens disperses the artificial pigment into your hair, never forget that. The key thing to remember here is not to push the natural color of your hair too far, ever.4.2. Consider your color type.
Stylists will categorize you as "warm" or "cool". They will base this upon your hair color, skin color and your eye color.If your hair has shades of ash blond, gray & white and blueish black, you're in luck because you can generally go into any part of the extreme - black as night, or white as ice (of course, not to the very end, as we discussed above).
What classifies you as being "warm"? Well, your natural hair color has to be: gold blonde, strawberry blonde, gray-yellow or red. This means that you should avoid violet and blue tones like a plague if you don't want your hair to look like it's worn out.
5. The exact hair coloring formula
There are two formulas to determine which color should you be going for. The first one is for the virgin hair (the hair which hasn't been colored yet):
Underlying pigment color + artificial pigment color = The result color
If you have already colored your hair before, than this formula now looks like this:
(Underlying pigment color + the first artificial pigment color) + new artificial pigment color = The result color
6. Conclusion
Understanding the hair color wheel is essential for coloring your hair. But, we won't stop here, since in the following weeks I will be giving you advice on hair coloring and color care, so stay tuned for that! I hope you like this article, and I hope it will help you making your color choice easier.