Your Best Hair Color: Multidimensional Warm Russet Tones
To enhance your eyes and medium skin tone, go for soft, light-to-medium brown base color with dark blonde highlights or choose a slightly contrasted, brown on warm brown hue, says Minardi. Don't go too dark, warns L'Oréal Celebrity Colorist Kari Hill. Ultra-dark hair that contrasts with your skin tone can look harsh and draw attention to things like dark spots and under-eye circles. You can also opt for something trendier, like babylights, which are essentially superfine highlights that look incredibly natural. "They freshen everything up and allow you to hold off on full highlights, which require more maintenance, for a little longer," says Redken Celebrity Colorist Tracy Cunningham.
Highlights are usually best done in the salon (they require more skill to apply than all-over color), but there are options that make it easy to replicate salon results at home, like L'Oréal Superior Preference Glam Lights, $11.99.
Help your color-treated hair look its best and last as long as possible by following these color-care tips courtesy of Minardi:
Tip 1: Enhancing the natural color of your hair and/or moderately highlighting your shade are the most durable types of color. To maximize the time between appointments or applications (and to save cash), opt for slight color tweaks to your natural shade of blonde, red or light brown. The further away from the natural tone you go, the more frequently your color will have to be touched up.
Tip 2: Sun, chlorine and high-alkaline shampoos ("clarifying" shampoos with high pH balances) are hair-color enemies. To protect your shade from the sun, use a UV protectant that's formulated for color-treated hair like Fekkai Soleil Pre-Soleil Hair Mist, $20. And if you swim in chlorine, rinse your hair before and after you hit the pool.
Tip 3: The hype is true, shampoos and conditioners developed specifically for color-treated hair really do work, so the short-term investment in quality color protectors like these highest rated color-protecting shampoos will keep your shade rich and vibrant.
