Can Natural Hair Colour Ever Be Wrong?
November 30, 2011 by Christine Scaman
First, it’s never wrong. Never. Nature does not colour anybody discordantly. You are always your best match. Your childhood and adult hair, your grey hair, your teeth, your tan, your eyelashes, veins, freckles, the colour you blush, all perfect, all consistent. You were painted with one palette and one brush to be one Season. 80% of the time, probably more, you will stay within that group of natural colouring. Everything was made to go with everything else in mind.
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Light Summer
Even if we are determined to ignore the stereotypes, uncertainty will creep in. How can a Light Summer grey early in life and to a medium dark grey? Wouldn’t that disqualify Light Summer? Let us call our model Linda, one of the many women of such sensitivity and emotional intelligence that colour has brought into my life.
For Linda, and she is far from alone, hair becomes our ‘self-defining monstrosity’. It’s never right. We’re subservient to hair stylists and their often-demented tastes, trends, and media, and our own dogged dissatisfaction with everything, most especially what we were given.
Bonaparte said “Good politics is getting people to believe they’re free.” Well, so is good marketing. The industrial revolution learned to create a prototype and then reproduce it as many times as possible with the least inputs. The plan worked rather well in the 20th century. Not so any more.
Bonaparte also said “History is just a series of lies on which we all agree.” Turns out you could substitute the word marketing for many other words in all sorts of contexts.
Linda’s PCA was done IRL with thanks to Sci\ART analyst Julia Dupps of Wish Wardrobe Consulting.
When we look together at your face changing with the drapes, we pay attention to the amount of shadowing under the chin. If there’s none, there’s no distinction between face and neck. They appear to be in the same plane, 2D, giving a heavy double-chin impression. If there’s too much shadow, the darkness bleeds up the sides and front of the face. It looks tired, severe, overly shadowed. On Linda, the lower half of her face is 10 years older than the upper half when she wears black. That’s not just a Summer effect, it’s very often a Light Season effect. Other Summer types handle darkness better.
What helped Linda to see the effect of black was to cover the lower half of the face in the photo wearing black. Let your eyes relax and take in the upper half of the face. Now take your hand away. Not the same, is it? You feel a step backwards, of tension, not the step-forward of relief.
She herself asked it perfectly: “Given that hair colors vary so widely in all the Seasons, why is it that two people are perfected by roughly the same colors but not the same hair color? Or does it have something to do with personal intensity levels and contrasts?”
Right! It’s a great thing when a question snaps straight to the issue. For instance, why can a True Winter who cannot look good in any orange in makeup or clothing get born with seemingly orange hair, as a natural redhead, and look magnificent? Even if we agree that hair colour is not tied to Season, only skin tone is, how can a person without orange in the skin wear an orange hat without clashing?
Short answer: Not sure but I’ve seen it so many times that I’m convinced. I have never once seen natural hair colour not work beautifully with the palette and the skin. It just looks more unique, more unexpected, more individual, a personal signature optical effect. It always looks breathtaking. Even if we agree that hair colour is extremely variable among Seasons, how can orange in hair work when orange in clothes doesn’t?
My longer answer is that there are many ways of using primary pigments (red, blue, yellow) to create colours. You can make the very same orange, say, using many combinations of red, blue, and yellow, as you vary saturation, warmth, and value. It’s the endless play between the 3 primaries and the 3 dimensions (warmth, darkness, saturation) that makes the variety. So perhaps the red-haired True Winter or True Summer got there with cooler pigments. When pure cool Seasons reach their 20s, if they got red hair, it’s not usually Ron Weasley red. There’s often a pink or purple cast, like cinnamon rose, or a lot of darkness. Below is my husband, a True Winter, with our daughter who is now an 18 year old Dark Winter with a million freckles. His eyes are warm amber brown. He ain’t no Autumn, the ruddiness in his skin is out of control in muted colour, warm or cool. He is mostly grey now and still absolutely needs True Winter coolness and saturation to calm his skin and slim his face.
The idea that you can make the same colour using many different pigment combinations isn’t new to us. We see certain swatches that are so very similar between Seasons. They were created using different combinations of the primary pigments, and adhere to the particular 3 colour dimensions of their respective Seasons, but the final swatches can look very alike. As one of Rachel’s recent comments reminded me, what makes the two similar dots ‘belong’ to their different Seasons is the colours you wear them with. Visually there is harmony because at a more fundamental level, all the swatches were created with the same colour properties in mind so they can make a visual connection when seen or worn together. That’s their reason for being together on your body, with your Season’s palette, in each outfit, and with your hair and cosmetic colours. They feel related to one another with a ring of truth and believability. We can perceive it better than we can describe it.
The graphic below was made for an article dedicated to helping True Summers select their best corals. There’s a similar article about choosing blue.
Dark Winter above, True Summer below.
Dark Winter and True Summer have some really similar cool corals. Not surprising since both are cool Seasons and both are slightly muted. The difference is how they’re muted, in that True Summer is muted by blue-gray. Dark Winter is muted by Autumn gold but there’s so little of it out here at Autumn’s outer limits that it just looks like a trace of cool grey in the colours, not unlike True Summer gray. Dark Winter is much more saturated colour but True Summer has some clarity too. Each version of coral belongs with its palette very naturally and easily. No swatch sticks out like a visitor because they were all made with pigments undeviating with the rest of the colours for that group.
Eye colour is more predictable than hair in a Season but there are still surprises. Some of you have taken close-up pictures and couldn’t believe the colours the camera found. Or you try to photograph a Catherine Zeta-Jones golden brown Winter eye and all this black comes out. My conclusion is that we just don’t know precisely how our pigments are combined, or if someone knows, I would be most grateful if they would tell me.
I think there are other variables than just colour. Skin thickness for instance. Summer skin really looks thinner to me, like a rabbit compared to a big dog, for those of you with a fascination for animal surgery. Maybe more venous blue is showing through Summer skin. Winter is thicker-skinned (in more ways than one), more rubber than paper. Fewer colours show through. Winter’s can be an almost colourless skin without makeup except that the red comes out…makes sense, red is a colour whose contribution we perceive more strongly. Munsell’s properties of colour were developed based on how we perceive colour, yellow less and red more.
Many, many True Summers have quite dark hair. Jaclyn Smith for one. Olivia Newton-John for another (who might be a Light Summer but I say True only because she isn’t a great blonde).
Dark hair can be found in Light Summer too. We could call her Lily.
She even looks like Jaclyn Smith. Round eyes, full lips, rounded cheekbones, this is a very Summer face. When I look at photos, first thing I do is make a hand window to block out the hair, natural or not. If you screen off the hair from the face, suddenly it’s a much softer look. The bold Winter drapes would be far too aggressive. The faintest, most gentle heat is here.
I can hear someone thinking “Wait a minute? What about Bright Spring?” This is when I start flipping makeup colours in my head. Let’s put near-neon-rose lipstick on Lily’s face. What do you see first? The lipstick or the woman? A Bright Spring could not only balance that colour but needs it for her makeup to rise up to meet her natural pigments. There’s always something a little crisp for me in Spring. Light Summer is crisp as in lettuce, so still soft. Light Spring is tissue paper. True Spring, hm, taffeta? Bright Spring contains Winter, it has more hardness. It has to snap when it breaks like a matchstick icicle. Bright Winter is a candy cane. Lily’s face has gentle, rounded features and watery (not intense) colours in her eyes. (Not that I do colour by these analogies, just that it’s interesting.)
And yet, Lily’s hair and eyebrows are darker than you’d expect on a Light Season. In Light Summer’s cool, fresh colours, only warmed exactly as much as her eyes and skin, her skin will be positively blooming, clean, and young. The mantle of darker hair makes a higher contrast than we usually see on the lighter-haired wearer of those colours, the most pleasant surprise. We want to keep looking. That’s her special radiance. Getting back to Linda’s original question, this is also why I don’t talk about contrast very much. There are too many versions of it in any Season. What looks real and right and makes sense for contrast is to repeat what you look like. Lily and Linda will balance more distance between light and darks than Michelle Pfeiffer, but all three women are working from the same Light Summer colour menu.
Our Linda looks perfect with radiant skin and distinctively beautiful eyes in her light, fresh colours. A weight seems to have been lifted from her, even in the expression in her face and eyes. Instead of the eye stalling on the dark colours, we look at her face and are aware of the light aqua in the same eye space and have a good feeling from that. Her hair that could look hard when repeated in Winter’s colours takes on a cool lightness of weight, and gives her face the composure, wisdom, and individuality that she has earned. Light, fluffy, soft grey hair could be lovely too but somehow the darker colour and texture give a self-possession that distinguishes her more, not less.
It sometimes seems as if younger women want permission to be every Season, desperately seeking proof that anything really does work. By the time we’re 45, many just want permission to be Winters. In our 60s, we seem to segue into True Summer. After years of ‘winterizing’ herself, Linda questioned her hair colour for her Light Summer (and she’s not fully winterized – saturate the jacket to full on royal purple and imagine fuchsia lips!). She’s more perceptive than overly sentimental about herself and was able to realize this : “…the underlying issue was that I did not want to be a Light Summer and was looking for a way out!! I focused on my hair as the reason why I just could not be a Light – not wanting to remember how lovely my skin looked with that palette. I pictured lights as Cate Blanchett and Naomi Watts – but more defining than how I pictured Lights is how I pictured myself. ”
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The Soft Seasons
A woman who has had every hair colour is very often a Soft Summer or Soft Autumn. As we said in Soft Summer Landscapes, the medium-ness of this colouring allows it to be swayed in many directions, though seldom with big success if it rocks too far. The owner of said colouring can feel restless and questioning, like “Is this all there is for me? Peacock everywhere and I’m fog? What am I supposed to do with that?” Hair and makeup advice is all over the map for these women because without draping, nobody can figure out the common denominator that knits every colour to the canvas.
If an industry can convince you there’s something wrong with you, they can destabilize you, which makes you buy more stuff. That’s easy to do. Just make everyone believe that if you can’t do peacock and your friend can, then you must have missed the boat. We forget how sensitive we all are to colour. One man in a room, one pink stripe in his tie, and every woman caught it. Being bashed over the head is less distinctive in our world than quiet self-assurance. Isn’t it quiet self-assurance we’re all striving to reach?
I won’t say a lot about Soft Season hair because it’s been covered. Ask me where if you can’t find it. Hold the faith that every colour is beautiful. Worn by a human being who contains those very same colours, it becomes miraculously beautiful. The person is elevated to a version of themselves that even their second best Season colour-analyzed swatch book can’t achieve, no matter how close you are between the two. A Soft woman’s best hair grows out of her head as a slightly warmed ash, maybe darker, maybe lighter.
The next four are photos of (let’s say) Micaela. She is a Soft Autumn, though to me, looks closer to Soft Summer than True Autumn.
Blonde (and wearing white):
Dark:
Red:
Natural:
Did you feel the relief when you got to the last picture? It takes an effort to go back to the first three. Micaela feels it too, you see the ease in her face when she releases the struggle and simply wears what she was made to wear. How could she possibly make herself more lovely to look at than in the final photo? Why would anyone be given so much pure beautiful light and proceed to conceal it? As she said, we all look back at past photographs and wonder “Why couldn’t I see it before?”
Once a colour analysis is done, it is undeniable to have seen your own face change with your own eyes. Many women keep the result to themselves for a few days. They feel a mental and emotional shift taking hold that feels quite precarious at first. It’s always vulnerable to come out of a hiding place. Eventually, you carefully give way to the delight of finding a secret garden in your interior, a cautious ‘hard to believe this could be as good as it looks’. Soon enough, the need to protect it and keep it private evaporates. Nobody is happier for you than me. Not because you’ll wear better lipstick. Everyone should find their garden.
Mr. Springsteen said “You can’t start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart.”
But this is more fun.
The name of the album is You Get What You Give. Very apt.
Listen to the song.
…change your geography.
…when you lose yourself, you find the key to paradise.
With great thanks to the women whose grace and generosity in allowing their photos to be shared helped us to see and learn. And with recognition of their achievement in having outgrown their hiding places.
Related posts:
- Hair and Eye Colour and Season
- How The 5 Autumns Add Brown To Hair Colour
- Jocelyn’s New Hair Colour
- True Autumn’s Best Hair Colour
- Wrong Colours Away From The Face
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40 Responses to “Can Natural Hair Colour Ever Be Wrong?”
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Micaela looks so cute in that last picture! Her hair color is very pretty, too.
SIgh. Lovely article, and the last picture of Micaela – breathtaking. It’s hard to believe that lovely woman is in all four pictures, I had to look at the earlier three to convince myself it really was her in all four. It also was very acute reading. I’ve been typed twice this year, once as a Bright Winter – yes, I could see the cool, yes I could see that muted and anything yellowed turned me beige and I had no cheekbones, but fuschia lips….. I can’t do them. Too hard. So then I was typed by a different analyst as Light Spring….. back to looking yellow and weighing 2000 stone, exactly what you say about the double chin and nothing between eyes and throat, I look like an eyes and hair lollipop on a beige stick. And I have the memory of the first analyst showing me how I looked in soft peach and cringing for me at how awful I looked in it – I can’t get past that! I have thick, heavy dark eyebrows – either very dark ash brown to black, and part of me screams HOW can I be light? For one analyst I let go my fear of bright, saturated colour and tried to be a winter, it was said to me at the time ‘no more hiding in the corner’. Now I feel like I’m being told to go back to my corner and my pale colours and my heavy beige face, and I know that is hugely in the way of me being able to give light spring a fair try. Sometimes I seriously wonder if everyone finds the magic Micaela has, particularly those of us who are so, so out of the ‘typical’ examples, like the dark, cool lights.
While I agree that the majority of people look better with their natural haircolor, I do think some women absolutely come to life when they color their hair lighter, darker, or red, as long as they choose shades that harmonize with their season. Some celebrity examples: The Italian model Mariacarla Boscono is a natural light brunette/dark blonde who colors her hair dark brown. Ditto for Winona Ryder. The auburn-haired Amy Adams is actually a natural blonde. And while I think Jennifer Aniston has gone too blonde at times over the years, I think her usual honey blonde is actually more flattering on her than her natural darkish brown color.
Amazing Christine. Can’t wait to read your book! Thank you for describing the ‘angst’ the Soft seasons can feel sometimes in their natural colors and how we buck and fight against them. For example, when I see one of the Winters in all their proper colors – I am wowed. It has taken me a long time to accept that me, (soft autumn)even in all my best colors, and done up to the nines, will never vibrate at that same level of intensity or be the Peacock.
Hi again, Christine:
Being a hairstylist, this article is near and dear to my heart. I see SO many women walking around with blonde hair down here in Florida that should NOT be blondes. And, look at how stunning the Light Summer model looks in her correct colors!! Just goes to show you……change your makeup and clothing colors first before embarking on a hair color change. You may find that a hair color change is not necessary!! However, I do have to admit on myself, I look much, much better with some highlights than my natural color.
Such wonderful comments you ladies always add.
Helen,
I appreciate the problem. It is much easier for those that look ‘average’ for the Season to accept that Season and learn to work with it. Although I’m no more able to be correct 100% of the time at anything I do than anyone else in the world, this aspect of the industry, where women have been told they’re 3 different Seasons and none are convincing, is absolutely the biggest problem. I can feel your distress when I read these stories. I think a lot about how to fix it. Even if the entire system were controlled, as in custom coloured drapes, consistent training, franchising the method, and having someone go around doing QC, you still can’t control the human factor. It’s not like Sci\ART Certified analysts don’t come up with different results. I’d love to hear anyone’s suggestions. One choice that could work but is entirely impractical, is to have 2 people weighing in on the analysis. As lovely as Micaela looks, she falls close to the median for this type of colouring. Blonde is uncomfortable on her, as on most Autumns, but not nearly as unflattering as it is on TA and DA. Also, your very honest comment is a reason why women should be analyzed by the time they’re 20-25 years old. They grow into their palette and it becomes a lifelong path-of-least-resistance. As life molds us inside and out, at least this remains a constant, a grounding cable.
Anna,
I am so glad that you added this very important comment. There are 2 points to be made on the whole topic. The article makes the first one, that natural hair colour never creates conflict with the rest of the colouring. It’s also probably the best base colour to work from, or a slightly lighter version. The second point is just what you said. Some Seasons can look fantastic with enhanced hair colour, same as face colour can be enhanced with makeup that harmonizes with natural colouring. The thing is to understand which qualities of colour elevate or detract from your own face. Many Lights have ash brown hair and look better that way, but no group can wear blonde highlights better depending on the individual. The Softs especially can look very complete and more interesting with hair colour play, again in keeping with what perfects the skin. The naturally dark Soft Autumn won’t go too light or too red, but she could often add some brown toffee. Some wear reddish gold or bronze brown incredibly well. Soft Summer can add a taupe or even honey light if they don’t overdo it and still respect their inherent medium-ness of colouring. Thank you for making that point.
Esther,
You won’t fatigue, challenge, dramatize, or demand as much as the peacocks either, I’m sure you know what I mean.
Tina,
If I had a dream, it would be that women could walk into salons and say “I’m a Light Spring.” and have that actually mean something to the stylist. If colourists could perceive that the legwork of divining what makes this woman most naturally stunning has already been done and then be able to make colour adjustments for the individual – now wouldn’t that be a salon that women would line up for? Much less pressure on the stylist and none of those very uncomfortable blondes or too-darks. And so many more beautiful greys who look younger that way than all processed, even if they’re Light Summers like Linda who just look so right, no chemical colour would make them look better!
Thank you for all these perspectives.
Wow, I wish I could press the “like” button on all these comments. Great article, Christine, and wonderful thoughts and perspectives in the comments also. Thanks!
I totally agree about the blonde. As a TA I tried blonde once, and I have never looked worse. I am tring to get back to my natural color now. I have colored my hair so many times in my life that I feel a bit sorry and regretful now. I wish I had embraced the beauty of what it was instead of trying to change it. Ah well, live and learn I guess.
Wonderful article so beautifully written, that I WANT to keep it natural!
Christine,
Your question, “What can be done about people who’ve been given 3 different seasons?” would make a great continuing education topic. Gather a few such women and analysts/trainers. Test and compare to discover what different analysts see. My guess is that different analysts look for different strengths and weaknesses in how colors change people’s appearance.
This could give some clues for improving teaching people what to look for.
Other questions I would explore are: are there people who are really best in only some of their colors and for whom other colors in the palette are a compromise? Or to put it positively I would love an analysis that said – here’s your category and these are your very best 8 or 10 colors. If you assume that flaws will be evident in even the best of the 12, which flaws detract from a woman’s appearance more (yellowish skin in one palette vs. more dark circles in another). A faded appearance which fades dark lines vs “snap into focus” appearance that focuses lines as well as the rest of the face? Whiter teeth and eyes but washed out pale skin. Also, what are you looking for to determine “best?”
A policy that if a second opinion reveals a second palette, the two analysts would invite another and the group would make a decision would be helpful. It could increase the cost significantly, but the cost of trying out 3 palettes is higher. I’d love to see some experimentation and publishing/teaching about why does this happen? Or, an analyst who specializes in people who’ve been put all over the map and figuring out both why and best. (Like a Dr. House for color!)
Something else I’ve wondered about is a more individualized approach – these are your best reds, these are your best greens, etc with the palette put together based on the woman’s appearance in the various colors rather than choosing from a prepared palette.
Well, I can dream, can’t I? (smile) I’m glad you’re asking these questions, Christine.
Christine – good questions you raise. I think your own policy of being willing to re-drape those who go home and simply can’t accept their palette is very professional. The fact that you realize that new eyes on a new day may offer new insights is proof of your humility and is something that perhaps sets you apart from other analyists who may have the ‘Ive said what I’ve said and I’m not wrong’ attitude.
Christine,
I do have a quick question. I remember reading somewhere (I can’t for the life of me remember where) that a TA should wait to go grey until they are mostly all grey. If that is true, what do you do until then? I want to get back to my true hair color, but I have a few grey hairs that really stand out. Is a glaze or rinse a good idea, or does it really depend on the person?
Thanks Christine!
Continuing ed may be one answer. The next article will be about 3 analysts – 3 Seasons. IDK the answer here. But you know, your individualized your-3-reds, your-3-blues – that’s what the system is now. Your other good Q about looking best in some vs all of a Season’s colours, that’s another upcoming post. Such good Q you ask.
Hair for sure depends on the person. Grey is inherently cool so the True Warms may feel really out of sorts when it appears. Once it’s fully in, on the very warm skin, it looks tremendous. Whether you colour it or not, really up to you. Autumn people are very natural and don’t feel good in fuss, so the personality is often one that prefers to just take it as it comes.
I love this article! It makes me feel so vindicated for returning to my natural dark ash blonde (looks brown) instead of continuing to have my hair highlighted. I was a light blonde in childhood, so the highlights looked natural, but they didn’t feel natural–I mean, the texture of my hair changed–and I returned to my natural color partly because my fine hair feels softer and looks shinier without artificial highlights. There’s much cultural pressure to go blonde if you look good as a blonde, so I’m very glad to see this article in praise of natural hair color.
I was wondering about the warm seasons and their graying hair. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person with gray hair look good in golden brown, for example. But maybe that has all to do with them not being warm in the first place and nothing to do with the idea that warm seasons have to cool down their palette once they start to go gray? Sci/ART seems to belong to the school that says you don’t change season when you get older; other systems say you have to change your palette and go cooler or lighter. I would love to see a True Spring or Autumn with gray hair wearing their warmest colors. I know it’s hard to find pictures of that, because so many women color their hair… But it makes sense that you would stay the same season throughout your life and I think it would be a great inspiration to see that your natural gray does harmonize with your palette, even if you’re a warm season.
Would a light season with dark hair stay within her swatches for lipstick or go a little darker to balance her hair? (or just wear the darkest of the lip colors?).
Same question about shoes – go with a darker color that matches the hair or stay within the swatches?
I do see the “special” look of these women. Thanks for exploring this topic.
I get that the stereotypes for seasonal coloring …. i.e. Light Summer (blue eyes, blond hair color, etc.) can be deceiving but the model Linda appears to be wearing a black top with a strong blue jacket. She looks great but these are not Light Summer colors… right?
The second model Lily also appears to be wearing an outfit of mostly black and looks great. Can some Light Summers wear black without having the ‘aging affect’?
That’s a good question about lipstick, Denise. If the lipstick is too dark or too light, too dull or too bright, it’s going to look painted on–but how can we be objective about ourselves when we try on these shades? One method worked for me–I was photographed wearing lipstick in a shade more intense than usual for me, and I put the photos away. Some time later, I pulled the photos out and saw immediately that the lipstick was wearing me!
I think you always stay with your swatches or as close as possible without losing the harmony of the whole outfit. If that palette perfected your skin and every colour you choose fits into that colour grouping, then shoes outside of the group won’t be a seamless part of the attire or appearance.
Linda’s photo was taken pre-PCA. I doubt she’d wear these colours today. It was put here to illustrate how she looked back when she was ‘winterizing herself’, as she put it.
Lily’s photo also came from the days before her PCA. She probably doesn’t own that top anymore. No Light Summer will wear black and do themselves a favor – or none that I’ve ever seen. There will always be better choices.
Kirsten, I agree that photos can be really good. When a cosmetic colour is right, you can paint it on heavy and it still will work pretty well, and better than any colour outside your Season. It’s really in the comparisons that the best decisions are made, not in the single picture.
Black has always been a total disaster to my face; I can´t wear even a black wig without looking like a witch. The more I lighten my natural hair (brown, dark blonde as a child), the better,and people tell me so. So I can change my hair colour, but only to blond.
But… can I be a light season, if my eyes are brown with dark eyelashes?
Daenerys,
Answer: Yes. Hair colour is only very loosely tied to Season. Eyes, IMO, are much more reliable but still not 100%, not even close. ANY Season can have ANY hair and ANY eye colour. If the Light Spring or Light Summer palettes make your skin most perfect, then that is your Season. Maybe you’re a Season that tends to be light to medium in darkness, though lightness isn’t the most important thing about it – say, True Spring or Bright Spring. Really impossible to know without being draped. There’s an article coming about True Spring with dark hair.
I do like Linda in the first photo! Maybe the second one it is a bit better, but the light conditions are so very different in the two photos. She must have seen herself in better and constant light during the PCA, though. Also, Micaela photos were taken in such different conditions, with various hairdos, that is difficult to see the colors only.
I would have the same question as Kristine. If any season can have any hair color, just imagine Linda’s hair on a soft autumn woman, and try to dress her in one of the cocktail dresses for soft autumn. Would this do?
Inge,
To say that photos are limiting to our perception of colour, shape, texture, overall appearance…so true as to qualify as Understatement of The Year. They are added to articles to illustrate certain points but your questions points out a truth, that photos may confuse as much as they clarify.
The Any Season Any Hair doesn’t mean that you can mix and match by moving wigs around randomly any more than we could move veins or teeth colour around. I don’t believe any of our colours is random. We are harmonically coloured. I think the issue is that we don’t always understand the pigments that went into our various parts. Linda’s hair on that SA woman might appear very blue against that SA skin though it doesn’t appear so on Linda.A colour that LOOKS the same on the SA head would probably contain very different pigments to accomplish that. A lipstick that looks like a beautiful nude will be very different between Seasons to mesh with those different background pigments. The other issue is that hair colour is not specific or reactive enough to measure to draw Season conclusions.
Christine, thank you so much for clarifications. So it is like this: Any season could have any hair or eyes colour, but that hair and eyes colour will have a touch of something that is linked to the season in question, because, for instance, one can get brown by mixing different colours, and the same brown- a bit transparent, like hair- looks different on different backgrounds.
That’s a good way of saying it, Inge. Whatever the hair colour, it will contain pigments found in skin and eyes and therefore becomes a logical part of a unified whole picture. We can’t always see those pigments obviously, but they’re there. As I see it (but cannot prove it scientifically without a spectrophotometer), my husband’s hair contains some purple as does his skin, so they both fit perfectly, though subliminally, with the True Winter he is. When we try to replicate such colours from a bottle, those subtle, unifying pigments are absent so it just looks like wrong hair colour.
My hair is light brown (darker in the back where a sun doesn’t hit) and it contrasts with my very pale skin. I can’t really describe my face’s color, it’s like so white that I have to pay attention to how much of the very light make-up base do I put on (and I never wear it a lot, I’m far from that) with a hint of an almost unnoticeable pink. I dye my hair medium ash brown (looks like brown-black) because I hate those dark blond highlights from the sun. They just make my hair look messy like when my hair isn’t dyed I have to brush it a lot and when it’s darker I have to do it only twice a day because the color is even. I used to have my ashy brown hair without any highlights but I moved to Chicago area and it gets really hot and sunny in July and August. Blond washes me out, at least my sister knows how to dye hair so I don’t have to spend so much money for a hairdresser:) All people say good things about my hair when it’s dark (even some around 50 year-old guys that I see first time in my life and they don’t mean anything else beyond that, no, nothing creepy), only one of my friends complains that I should tan to match up the hair color. Like, if I’d care much about tanning and like if I could tan without burning and drying out my skin… I feel best in medium and dark colors, light ones wash me out (with exception of white). I love cobalt blue, cold red, navy blue, purple, black, grey, and fuchsia (I could wear it every day), pink in general. Is it possible to be a summer who doesn’t feel well in light colors or a winter with light brown hair, brown eyebrows, and blue-grey not very bright eyes? I always look for a contrast so my face and rest of my body doesn’t “blur” into my clothes’ color. Pastels look terrible on me.
I always notice how somebody’s hair looks in compare to skin. The most common mistakes I see are warm very light blond highlights in ashy brown, dark brown, or black hair, dark red (like wine) shades with skin containing yellow and olive pigments, orange shades with pink skin, and black hair on clearly summer type people. Is it because cool colors are misrepresented in the stores and in the hair salons? There are all kinds of warm blond, warm brown, red, and there is always, obviously, black but where are cool blonds and browns?
Christine, i have a question for you. To begin with, i have medium brown hair with some natural golden highlights, it looks auburn with warm drapes, black brows, dark olive-brown eyes that change their colour depending on eyeshadows and clothes. My skin is white, very smooth and porcelain without imperfections. I took a lot of home tests with dif. color clothes with right conditions (lighting, background as you advise) and now it’s pretty clear that i’m not summer. Those colours make me look dirty, pinkish-grey, invisible like a grey mouse, contours blur and it’s funny bcos it’s my mom’s best colours! Lol
Winter. Skin looks even and clear, eyes become light clear green, but coolish grey-green, with warm colour surrounding they look dark moss green or olive green, almost black!
Brows also look much lighter, just mousy grey( remember, usually they are black!). Hair looks cool brown. But overall it’s much better than with Summer. Eyes look bigger, clearer but. White is absolutely not. Any white shade makes my skin look as summer – dirty pinkish grey, face looks fatter, contours blur and i’m invisible.
Overall face looks defined, with clear contours, cheeks are tight. Black looks good but i look cooler than warmer overall as being said.
In autumn drapes skin is white, smooth, tight contours, everything is perfect. Hair looks darker and warm, brows look even blacker than always, eyes are very dark green. The contrast level is the highest.
Spring. Light Sp pastels look insignificant on me, i’m brighter. In some BSp colors i look yellow, but a TSp never makes me yellow. Skin remains white, even coloured, contrast level is high, i always loved warmer colors more than cool.
What can you say about it all? Should i make conclusions based on winter or warm seasons effects? My skin looks pretty much as Valeria Chuba, so it’s much tougher, you know. I’ll answer any your add. questions. Btw, i look very similar to Maria Valverde, i look much younger than i am.
And i can’t get PCA in my country(
I’m 23 now but i look 18. And when i was 18 i made a few highlights but they always were reddish yellow, then my whole head appeard to be yellow blond. People’s reaction was different, some said flattering, some – it’s not. It’s true bcos i definitely looked even younger than 18 (oh my God, where younger!) and i looked like an angel, but due to my black brows the contrast was too high, it wasn’t believable.
Emily,
Hard to say. Summers are usually pretty happy in light colours and look great in pastels. Winters can look all sorts of ways. I think different colour companies do different versions of cool or ash in hair. Some are much greyer (Igora), others more neutral (Wella Koleston). And right, there’s many warms…you gotta get the right one.
Natali,
I’m sorry, I just don’t know. You could write me a 20 page book with the best description of your colouring ever and I still wouldn’t know. You’ve looked for some good points, it sounds like some kind of Autumn and/or Winter. Do you know Lynda at http://www.thatsyourcolor.com does a colour analysis online? Everyone including Lynda agrees that it’s not nearly as good as in person, but for women who can’t travel anywhere near an analyst, it’s an option. Lynda is very good at it. At least, she can very probably get you in the correct main Seasons.
Thanks for your response, Christine, very much! But then, if i can’t wear any shade of white, does that automatically rule out any Winter for me?
On that note: just like every season has its own black, does it also have its own white?
Natali,
To say you can’t wear any shade of white is a pretty big statement. I’m not sure how many types of white you’ve tried, but it comes to mind that the Autumns do not wear white well. All 3 of them.
Ashley,
Yes! Could you find them in stores? No! Unless you had nothing else to do in life.
What about when a person has a haircolor that is darker than the darkest of the colors in her fan? A soft or light with dark brown hair, for example. Would she add a color matching her hair to use with the book, or just use the colors in the book?
It depends on the person, Denise. Some people look great in their exact hair and many analysts believe this is an automatic way to look good and find your good colours. Me, I think that if the pigments that made your hair colour are what they appear to be, as in ash brown for T Su, then great, even if it’s darker than the fan. If the pigments are not what they appear, like a red-haired T Su or T W whose pigments are actually violets and NOT oranges, then you could go wrong. Eye colours are in the Book about 85%. Hair colour about 50%. You have to decide if wearing what the hair colour you and others see is flattering to the skin. Orange on TW is not, even if the hair looks quite orange. Darker colour is well tolerated by the skin for all but the Light Seasons.
Hi Christine,
An another tack..what is your advice for a TA (or even an SA) who is growing tired of dyeing her 50% white roots light brown every 3-4 weeks? Can a TA woman go white/salt and pepper successfully or is it better for her to go blonde or use a rinse of some sort?
Any advice gratefully received.. I am beginning to wonder whether this is the way forward!
Kate
Kate,
Please, please, don’t go blonde. The more women with gray hair I see, the less I believe that we change Seasons as we get older. I have a True Autumn client whose hair is salt and pepper gray. She looks strong, dignified, and fabulous. I have another whose hair is light blonde and it does not work. I really believe in being who you are instead of contriving yourself into a clone of some ideal that the fashion/hair/magazine industry invented to keep us spending money for them. I know many women who just went back to their natural grey or white and they never ever go back. At some point, you may just have to cut what you can and grow out the rest. Which of these women would look better messing around with hair they had 20 years ago? Not one. Joan Baez strikes me as a Dark Autumn.
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/hair/celebrity-gray-hairstyles#slide-1
Dear Christine,
I really resonate with your response!!!!
I have actually ordered two books written by women who went gray and who argue just as you do that in the end they got better responses (even at the romantic level from men on dating sites) when they were who they were rather than being dyed to the nines! It did take some time and was a big adjustment but worth it in the end.
You have really encouraged me. I want to look attractive but I also want to look like me.
Thank you!
Kate
Thank you!
I LOVE these pics in Good Housekeeping. Helen Mirren looks gorgeous for instance! Thank you. Joan Baez ..interesting that it suits her too.
I have always admired Diane Keaton and will probably end up with a look a little like hers. I loved her in Something’s Gotta GIve when she debuted this approach rather than her usual warm brown. At the time, I did wonder about a woman with warm colouring embracing her grey but I totally get why she would want to do it now!