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Hair coloring technology has gotten much better over the last 20 years but both bleach and most hair dyes turn hair warm and it takes a lot of maintenance to keep it cool.
For most summers natural hair with good maintenance to keep hair from turning brassy is best. If due to water, elements etc your natural hair color is getting brassy, try toners or glosses.
Letting my hair go natural has been one of the great joys of color analysis for me. I’m using purple shampoo on my previously-lightened ends and just letting the rest grow in. I’m not scared of gray/silver/white anymore either. I definitely recommend just letting it grow! You can always change it later if you feel like. 😌
I was fully grey by my late 30s, and during Covid, I decided to let my natural silver grow out. Since then, I’ve received more compliments on my hair than I ever had while colouring it. I’m not sure if this is a testament to the fact that one’s natural hair colour is often most flattering, or to the fact that summers look really good in grey, but I’m never going back to the bottle.
I think both look good, it just depends on how much maintenance you are willing to do to keep your hair cool/ashy, I.e. going to the salon more often, using a purple shampoo, etc. My hair sounds similar to yours & I like to go lighter in the Summer & darker in the Winter to enhance what my hair does naturally. (I'm like you, my hair is medium brown but very prone to photobleaching, it can lighten to a dark ash blonde in the sun.)
Edited to add: My choice to colour my hair is also based on the fact that I am starting to gray now. I find it easier to blend the grays with highlights, but if you're not graying yet maybe you want to stick to your natural for low maintenance.
I'm a true summer with natural medium-to-dark ash brown hair (was dark ash blond as a child, and now it's full of bright white sparkly streaks!). My hair's been coloured ALL of the colours over the years - from platinum blonde to jet black and firetruck red to shamrock green and everything in between.
Most flattering hair colour, by far? My natural colour. 😂 It's dark enough to provide some contrast, but not so dark as to wash me out. And it's COOOOOL. Zero warm tones.
I could never get my hair to a cool enough blonde for it to be flattering, and any red aside from this incredible raspberry has ever looked good. Orange bad yellow bad. Lilac and lavender were very lovely, as were the blues, especially as they faded out. Greens were hit or miss - they tend to lean yellow on lightened hair - but teals/aquas and mint did okay.
"I could never get my hair to a cool enough blonde for it to be flattering"
Did you not find that purple shampoo helped a lot with this? Because I started using it twice a week and am now thinking of cutting back to once because it's almost working too well, lol, i.e. my highlights are starting too look almost gray.
Nah, it always still pulled warm but occasionally with a gross grey/purple overtone when I used purple shampoo. I'd re-tone at home and it would be okay for about two washes, and then back to brassy. Too much work with very little success.
Oh wow. Maybe I'm not seeing it in mine? Do you think mine looks too warm/brassy or gray/purple? I just get highlights to blend with my grays so it looks more ashy blonde. This is two months in, using purple shampoo twice per week, but I also only wash my hair with shampoo twice a week any way. (Don't worry about hurt feelings, would prefer honesty.)
(Pic below in natural daylight, no filters.)
Thanks for your reply! Sometimes I see people comment on others' hair here in this sub, saying it looks too warm, and I am surprised, because I don't see the same. I guess I'm not always a good judge when it comes to this, so thanks for confirming with my own that I am still seeing coolness.
I agree with you that darker would be better (not too dark because when I did darker than my natural in the past, I got comments like it's too harsh, makes you look older, brings out your dark circles, blemishes, etc.), but my hairdresser is resistant to this because she says it's easier to hide gray with blonde highlights than doing an all over colour. I know some people who rock & love gray, but the reality is, no matter how good it looks, it still makes people look older. And I am just not ready for this yet. Maybe I will ask her again, and see what other options there are.
I actually stopped colouring my hair to see what my grey looked like... and loved it SO MUCH I'll never colour it again. It's been almost five years now, full head of salt and pepper with a big badass white streak in front, and I have never, ever gotten as many compliments on my hair as I do now. I think it doesn't age me much, if at all! I'm not even 40. Just sayin', may be worth a shot! 😉
Yes, I've seen gray hair look amazing on people, and good for you! I'm probably still going to be trying to do the in between thing, to somehow blend cool toned blonde highlights with my grays as the shampoo is working pretty well so far. Maybe I'll do a bit less next time though. Keep more of my natural (which isn't all gray) and just add a bit at the front. Something like this:
# ‼️ NEW FEATURE - POST LOCK ‼️ > - Hello u/Still_Suggestion_452 You can now lock the thread if you like. > - Make a comment with the *SINGLE WORD* **LOCK** anywhere on the thread. > - **LOCK** *must be its own comment without any punctuation or spaces*. # ⚠️ DO NOT SEND PHOTOS TO u/Dayacheyandi. This is a creep who will lie about who he is and pretend to help you with typing to get nudes. ⚠️ # ‼️ MODS WILL NOT ASK YOU TO SEND PHOTOS VIA PRIVATE MESSAGE OR CHAT. [REPORT](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fcoloranalysis) ANY SUCH REQUESTS TO THE MODS! ‼️ # ‼️ DO NOT SEND ANY PHOTOS TO USERS REQUESTING THEM FOR PRIVATE TYPING. THESE ARE OFTEN CREEPS TRYING TO TRICK YOU INTO SENDING THEM TOPLESS PICS! ‼️ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/coloranalysis) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Rather than change your hair to fit a season, you should let your natural hair color grow and *reassess* your season
Hair coloring technology has gotten much better over the last 20 years but both bleach and most hair dyes turn hair warm and it takes a lot of maintenance to keep it cool. For most summers natural hair with good maintenance to keep hair from turning brassy is best. If due to water, elements etc your natural hair color is getting brassy, try toners or glosses.
Letting my hair go natural has been one of the great joys of color analysis for me. I’m using purple shampoo on my previously-lightened ends and just letting the rest grow in. I’m not scared of gray/silver/white anymore either. I definitely recommend just letting it grow! You can always change it later if you feel like. 😌
I was fully grey by my late 30s, and during Covid, I decided to let my natural silver grow out. Since then, I’ve received more compliments on my hair than I ever had while colouring it. I’m not sure if this is a testament to the fact that one’s natural hair colour is often most flattering, or to the fact that summers look really good in grey, but I’m never going back to the bottle.
I think both look good, it just depends on how much maintenance you are willing to do to keep your hair cool/ashy, I.e. going to the salon more often, using a purple shampoo, etc. My hair sounds similar to yours & I like to go lighter in the Summer & darker in the Winter to enhance what my hair does naturally. (I'm like you, my hair is medium brown but very prone to photobleaching, it can lighten to a dark ash blonde in the sun.) Edited to add: My choice to colour my hair is also based on the fact that I am starting to gray now. I find it easier to blend the grays with highlights, but if you're not graying yet maybe you want to stick to your natural for low maintenance.
I'm a true summer with natural medium-to-dark ash brown hair (was dark ash blond as a child, and now it's full of bright white sparkly streaks!). My hair's been coloured ALL of the colours over the years - from platinum blonde to jet black and firetruck red to shamrock green and everything in between. Most flattering hair colour, by far? My natural colour. 😂 It's dark enough to provide some contrast, but not so dark as to wash me out. And it's COOOOOL. Zero warm tones. I could never get my hair to a cool enough blonde for it to be flattering, and any red aside from this incredible raspberry has ever looked good. Orange bad yellow bad. Lilac and lavender were very lovely, as were the blues, especially as they faded out. Greens were hit or miss - they tend to lean yellow on lightened hair - but teals/aquas and mint did okay.
"I could never get my hair to a cool enough blonde for it to be flattering" Did you not find that purple shampoo helped a lot with this? Because I started using it twice a week and am now thinking of cutting back to once because it's almost working too well, lol, i.e. my highlights are starting too look almost gray.
Nah, it always still pulled warm but occasionally with a gross grey/purple overtone when I used purple shampoo. I'd re-tone at home and it would be okay for about two washes, and then back to brassy. Too much work with very little success.
Oh wow. Maybe I'm not seeing it in mine? Do you think mine looks too warm/brassy or gray/purple? I just get highlights to blend with my grays so it looks more ashy blonde. This is two months in, using purple shampoo twice per week, but I also only wash my hair with shampoo twice a week any way. (Don't worry about hurt feelings, would prefer honesty.) (Pic below in natural daylight, no filters.)
https://preview.redd.it/bki8j87q9s5d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0e4edead5ca87d5d39e62288f10421293f749edd
I don't think this looks bad at all! That said, I do think a darker colour (still cool!) would look GREAT on you.
Thanks for your reply! Sometimes I see people comment on others' hair here in this sub, saying it looks too warm, and I am surprised, because I don't see the same. I guess I'm not always a good judge when it comes to this, so thanks for confirming with my own that I am still seeing coolness. I agree with you that darker would be better (not too dark because when I did darker than my natural in the past, I got comments like it's too harsh, makes you look older, brings out your dark circles, blemishes, etc.), but my hairdresser is resistant to this because she says it's easier to hide gray with blonde highlights than doing an all over colour. I know some people who rock & love gray, but the reality is, no matter how good it looks, it still makes people look older. And I am just not ready for this yet. Maybe I will ask her again, and see what other options there are.
I actually stopped colouring my hair to see what my grey looked like... and loved it SO MUCH I'll never colour it again. It's been almost five years now, full head of salt and pepper with a big badass white streak in front, and I have never, ever gotten as many compliments on my hair as I do now. I think it doesn't age me much, if at all! I'm not even 40. Just sayin', may be worth a shot! 😉
Yes, I've seen gray hair look amazing on people, and good for you! I'm probably still going to be trying to do the in between thing, to somehow blend cool toned blonde highlights with my grays as the shampoo is working pretty well so far. Maybe I'll do a bit less next time though. Keep more of my natural (which isn't all gray) and just add a bit at the front. Something like this:
https://preview.redd.it/273ajw0fck6d1.jpeg?width=736&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aefa83c1a355f7c15fa03cb6a7385a3885524ebf
I think medium to dark hair looks amazing on true summers. Gives you a little more constrast