If you are having a ‘bad hair day’, literally or figuratively, what better than heading for the beauty salon to boost your spirits? And if you have the bucks to spare, why not get a complete hair makeover–while indulging in a colour that works to suit your Indian skin tones? You might even feel like going the whole hog and add some highlights as a bonus to pamper yourself some more.

Your hair, they say, is your crowning glory and even looking in the mirror on a mundane Monday morning before work the new colour and highlights will certainly put a spring in your step. Melanin is a pigment which gives the natural colour to your hair, eyes and skin. Subtle or outlandish, everything goes as one picks up on the trends of Indian women experimenting more and more with hair colours. Even the ladies with grey locks are bucking the system and going for blue or mauve rinses, while those few who have it, instead of hiding it are showing off their ‘now cool’ striking white Mallen streak, a natural phenomenon resulting from an absence of melanin in the hair! Hair colourists in big cities and small towns across India are revelling in the pleasure of catering to this new found freedom amongst both women and men, from all walks of life who are ready to experiment with their hair as another means of boosting their inner mojo.

Poring over the hair colour catalogues with your colourist is half the fun of this adventure. It’s like planning a pleasure filled holiday from those glossy brochures. To get the best results of your endeavours, it’s a good thing that you work out what are the colours which will give the optimum results for Indian skin tones. We have heard many stories of how things have gone really wrong when choosing a hair colour on the whim of the moment. What a waste of money and a pleasure-giving hair makeover! 

With skin complexions ranging from wheatish to dusky, from pearly white to brown, Indians can joyfully plunge into that expansive colour catalogue to find a hair colour that best compliments their skin tones. 

There’s a lot of chatter now in fashion circles about skin undertones, which can direct your choices for hair colour, makeup and even your apparel. While skin complexions are playthings in the hands of the weather and can change, your skin undertone, or the colour coming through from under the surface of the skin, remains constant. So there’s the ‘cool skin tone’ where you are prone to sunburn, and there’s the ‘warm skin tone’ if you just get tanned by the sun. Neutral skin tones are all about being just that- neutral, neither cool nor warm! When making a choice for your skin tone type, go for warm colours for a warm skin undertone, and cool colours for cool-toned skin. This rule of thumb goes well for matching hair colour with your skin undertone.

Indian skin, by and large, is quite partial to chocolate brown or natural brown or ash, complemented by highlights of copper, warm golds, and even certain kinds of red, which can be pretty tricky to work with. These shades work well for warm toned skin types. For cool skin tones types, intense browns, walnut browns, mahogany, chestnut and reds are good options. Black-brown and burgundy shades team well with honey, ash brown, wheat, or taupe highlights. That said; if you are pale-skinned, shun all gold hair shades and ash browns. Instead of looking like a pretty sunset watercolour, you’ll just look just plain washed out!

Do check your skin tone in natural light before you make your ultimate choice of colour and highlights. Electric or artificial lights can play tricks on the colour of your skin! To double check your skin undertone, if in the natural light the veins look blue or purple you have a cool skin tone; if they look green, you have a warm/dusky skin tone, and if the veins appear both green and blue, you have neutral toned skin.

Wheatish skin tones make merry companions with honey-blond hues, while those who are black-haired (naturally) and fair of face can experiment with ash brown highlights; even a toned down shade of auburn can make things happen for the fair-skinned beauty under the hands of a good colourist. Golden ombre with streaks of honey, gold and butter is trending strongly amongst my fair ladies. The brown girl in the ring can blow you away with those delectable walnut browns, mahogany, and chestnut with complimentary highlights.

Take charge of your colour coordination with a good hair colourist–which means choosing the colour that works best for your skin type; using a quality colour dye and taking good care of your hair later on to maintain that glossy, healthy, blow-you-away look.