CRACK THE COLOR CODE: PICKING YOUR BEST HAIR COLOR

Last month I put the call out for ladies who were seeking help determining their best hair color. It is often a really confusing topic, and one that many women ask me about when they are sitting in my chair at the salon.

After some great submissions on instagram, I picked three ladies to help me explain the steps to great hair color.

We had so much fun at the salon with these makeovers, and today you'll get to see the 'after' looks as well! But first, here are the guidelines for picking the right hair color for your skin tone:

Keep the hair color within two levels lighter or two levels darker than your naturally occurring hair at this given time. This may mean a harsh reality check for some women who claim to be blonde, because they were blonde as a child- but are no longer ACTUALLY blonde.

Remember that these levels range from 1-10. 1 being black and 10 being pale blonde. You fall somewhere along that spectrum, and should stay within two levels in either direction of where you fall.

Keeping within these two levels ensures that you won't have an exorbitant amount of maintenance time at the salon, and that you aren't messing with 'nature' too much. Nature is usually right, amirite?

Next, take into account your underlying skin pigments for the most flattering tone within your level. Here is a handy chart to help you determine your underlying pigments. This helps when buying foundation too!

By looking at your veins on your wrist, you can get a good idea of what tone you skin carries. Using these tones to determine which hair colors will look best on you will help ensure beautiful results.

Here are my suggestions for hair colors based on your skin tone.

COOL // PINK UNDERTONES

Beige Blondes
Neutral Browns
Mahogany Reds

NEUTRAL // YELLOW UNDERTONES

Honey Blondes
Warm Browns
Orangey Reds

WARM // OLIVE UNDERTONES

Cool Blondes
Ashy Browns
Violet Reds

Here are my beautiful new friends before we dived into color makeovers. They all had good hair to start with, but just need slight tweaks to make their locks really POP. To see their after looks, watch the video below.