It's Getting Hot In Hurrrr....

Wow that was a horrible joke for a title.

I've decided to do a bit of a post on haircolor. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm an addict when it comes to changing my hair. Only recently have I become a little more brave with the cut that I do where as usually I just play around with the colour. Given that I have literally been almost every colour there is to be, I feel justified in my approach on this topic. I don't like to toot my own horn either but I find I'm really good with picking colours that work for people... either that or I've just been lucky so far? Who knows...

There's a lot of people that go from light to dark, then back light again. This usually comes with the season change because it's just not cool to have bleach blonde hair if you don't have a tan to go with it... But what happened to having fun with your hair colour? So many people are SO afraid of doing something different. Sometimes it's because of a budget issue. There's a lot of people that just don't have that kind of money to spend on the maintenance of their colour and that is perfectly understandable but majority are just afraid of change in general.

I find that changing the colour of your hair is like getting a new wardrobe. All of a sudden you look entirely different even though you're wearing the same thing. I would like to know WHY people are so terrified of this change though. What is it about changing the colour of your hair that scares people?

Typically natural hair is boring and mousey. That isn't always the case as I know quite a lot of people with beautiful natural shades (Cough Danielle and Alicia, cough,) but if you've ever noticed those "beautiful" shades always belong to someone who's either naturally very blonde, very dark, or red.

I'm finding as I play around with colour that there are numerous factors into making that colour work for me. The most important factors I've run into so far are: Skintone, makeup, eyebrow colour, wardrobe, and personality. I think personality is the most obvious of them all. If you are a meek, quiet, shy person then don't go with a haircolor that will draw a lot of attention to you. I'm pretty sure the reasons are obvious on that one.

Skintone is also the main contributing factor to choosing the right haircolour. What I do for myself if I'm questioning a colour is I take the colour swatch and I hold it up on my forehead as if it's bangs. Works everytime. It sounds absolutely ridiculous and the colour going on your head isn't going to turn out exactly like the swatch (it will be in the same colour tone and level) but it will give you a good idea of whether or not that works with your skin.

Now, I would say the next most important factor is EYEBROWS. Match your eyebrows to your hair and you're golden assuming you've done the first two steps. The colour doesn't necessarily have to be the same, but just the depth of colour (aka the lightness or darkness of your eyebrows and hair) needs to be close. The tone can vary but try to get something in a close range.

Makeup is also incredibly important. I'm pale and while I had my dark brown/black hair I would play around with a lot of pinks to warm up my skin a bit so that I didn't look too much like death. Now I'm ginger-kid orange/red and I'm back to using bronzers and peach tone blushes. I'll also have x'd out my pink lipstick and will be going back to a brick red should I choose to wear lipstick. As for eyeshadows, I'll be wearing my browns again, as well as greens and purples (although lately I've just been wearing shimmery peachy/beige/champagne shadows with black liquid liners anyway.) I feel as though the cheek colour has been the most crucial in making my hair "match" with my skin. Consider the colour wheel while making cosmetic choices. It'll be your best friend by far!

Last but not least, wardrobe. I love to wear colours but I also own a lot of neutrals. I had red hair in the fall which was painful for me at times because I was obsessed with the colour blue and I didn't like how my hair clashed with what I was wearing. It literally knocked out about 30% of what I could wear! So if you do change the colour of your hair frequently take that into consideration while shopping. Ask yourself "what do I plan on doing with my hair in the next few months? Will this suit the colour I want to be? What other colours would this shirt go well with?" It's the same as if you're picking out a shirt to wear with other stuff you have at home. "Hmm this shirt could work really well with that one skirt that I have, but that's probably it."

It all seems rather obvious but there's a lot of people that ask me "how do you look good in every colour of hair?!" ... Trust me, it's all pre-meditated and a lot of effort goes into it. It gets easier as you do it more and more, but I definitely think a lot about other things before changing my colour.

I'm excited to have red hair again for the summer! It's a fun change. I also love that I can walk down the street and rarely run into someone with the same haircolor. I'm not the most fashionable person on the planet but I like that my hair makes me stand out a bit.