Young Poor & Angry Press

Welcome back everyone! You can see we finally got that column title issue worked out, and I’m ready to take more of your great questions. This time we’re going to hear from Alexis in New Jersey, who asks:

I’ve had a tough time trying to figure out what hair color I should have.  Any suggestions?

Hair color is a bit of a tricky subject Alexis, so I am going to break the discussion down into parts.  This, part one, is an exploration of important hair color factors and part two is your coloration and choosing the best hair color for you!

First, you need to decide how much maintenance you will be willing to deal with.  Sure, platinum may be what you want, but if you don’t want to go in every 4-6 weeks for retouches, then it may not be the best choice.  Be honest with yourself!  Its okay if you don’t want to commit to a color that is going to take a lot of work and money to maintain, we all have priorities.

A rule of thumb here is that the more natural the color, the less the re-growth is going to bug you.  Highlights are a good option because there is natural hair in between the weaves of lighter color, so the re-growth is more diffused than with a full color situation.  If you were hoping for something less sun-kissed and more rock-n-roll, try peek-a-boo pieces of color underneath your top layer of hair.  You can get a stronger effect, but you won’t notice it growing out nearly as much.  There are so many more options than even these, so talk to you stylist!  Tell him/her what you are willing to spend and discuss the maintenance so you know you won’t be trapped with color you can’t maintain!

Second, hair color has repercussions, it is not like painting a wall!  If you decide to go darker with your color, it will not be nearly as simple to go lighter.  Once hair color has been applied to the hair it (almost always) requires lightener (salon speak for bleach) followed by a second color process to put color back into the hair.  It can be a potentially damaging process for your hair, is usually fairly expensive, and the result is always warm/golden.

I personally recommend a decent haircut as well, and if you aren’t willing to part with length, this is something you should really think about.  This goes for over-all tonal changes as well.  If you used a semi or demi permanent color will make this easier, but it will still be necessary.  Honestly, if you are really light naturally, you want to think long and hard before taking the plunge to go darker.  The maintenance is kinda annoying because light roots are completely unnatural, so you feel the re-growth rather quickly.

Finally, either talk to friends and family or resolve not to care what they think.  It can be hard to hear from your mom or your boyfriend that they don’t like your new hair color.  Sometimes people just need time to adjust to change.  You don’t want to spend good money for a color make-over, only to pay more to have it changed because your dad hates it.  If anyones opinion is make-or-break for you, I’d ask them what they think before!

Okay!  So, next time we will discuss warm vs. cool skin tones and what that means for the color you should shoot for.  Then we will start to delve deeper into the four main coloration classifications and the implications for the color that will flatter you the most as I’ve gotten tons of questions recently on this very topic. So until next week, stay classy, stay sophisticated, stay colorful!