Lighter Skin Tone

Q: What type of hair colors would make my skin look brighter/lighter? And because I want to get rid of my black hair, is there a possibility that I could dye my hair in (dark) brown and some highlights that would make my skin look brighter/lighter?

A: Based on what you’ve described before, I would think that you could reasonably enjoy a nice change of pace by lightening your natural hair color one or two levels and using a rich chocolate brown as a base color with caramel colored highlights.

While I can’t say that this will make your skin tone look brighter, it shouldn’t make it appear any darker and will brighten/lighten your overall appearance. Plus, the rich, warm colors should bring out the glow of your skin.

As an alternative to traditional highlights, you might try “panel colors” where you have a few “panels” of hair below the upper layers that are highlighted as desired and allowed to “peek” through the upper layers as the hair moves. This usually works best on longer blunt and long-layered looks, but it is a very up-to-date technique and works for many hair types.

Another thing you could try (if you wanted) would be a “sheen” color. Basically, a dark berry or red tone that is applied to black hair to create a glow or shimmer of color when light strikes the hair. The color is only really apparent in the tone of the light reflected off the hair.

I’ve seen dark purple, garnet red, burgundy, and indigo blue to name a few options, and the warmer hair colors are great for those who have olive (golden) complexions.

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See also:

How to color your hair

How to choose natural looking highlights

How to match your hair color and skin tone

Targeted hair color and peek-a-boo panels