hair

HAIR COLOR GUIDE (GOLD)

POST/GRAPHIC DESIGN: KRISTIN ESS

And the award for most desired tone on the planet goes to… you guessed it. Gold hues are at the very top of everyones wish list when visiting their colorist or buying a box. Gold tones are just plain flattering to almost anyone with any skin tone. Gold tones don’t give off any red or orange tones. They’re perfectly warm but never brassy. Look at the photos above– you don’t see “yellow”, you see sun kissed golden tones. It should look as though you’ve been on a long vacation or perhaps as though you surf a lot. Good gold tones look like what I like to call “kid color”. Children often have these golden, natural highlights that are uneffected by years of hair coloring. Here are some things you should know if you’re wanting to be a golden girl…

• Be clear on what you’re after. Everyone has a different idea of what gold means so if you’re going to the salon, take a bunch of photos for reference. Use words like “not brassy” “natural-looking” and “surfer girl hair”.
• Do some good research! Speaking of reference photos, try looking up kid hair color for gold tone inspiration. When you search “kid hair color” on Pinterest and scroll, you get images like THIS, THIS and THIS, all of which show perfect gold tones.
• Purple Shampoo once a week. You don’t want to cut all warm tones, but you definitely want to keep the brass out. If you generally shampoo every other day, then use purple shampoo once a week. If you’re a daily shampooer, do it every 3rd shampoo.
• Gloss it up! Keep it shiny by glossing in between colors. Gold toned hair should sparkle! It will reflect so much more light if you gloss or glaze in between.
• Who can wear it? Honestly, I’ve never met a girl who didn’t look great in gold tones as long as the color is not too light or dark for your skin tone.
• Box Dyes. This is tricky. I’m going to try to keep it simple. We all have warm tones underneath our natural color– even ashy girls (there’s yellow + orange under there even though your don’t see it). If you put a box of color on your roots that says “gold”, you’re probably going to get a brassy result. Instead try using a neutral box color. It will bring out those warm tones hiding inside and leave you with golden tones. Always account for the color that you don’t see inside the hair shaft. I think I should do a whole post on this…

Stay tuned for warm golds and then reds!