How to choose the right colours for hair contouring
If you have just wrapped your head around ombre and balayage, you would be forgiven if the appearance of another hair colour trend has sent your head into a spin! Hair contouring was inspired by the make-up trend which aims to accentuate the best features of the face. Similarly, it also seeks to bring out your best features by using well-placed highlights and lowlights around the face. Read on to learn about choosing the best hair colour shades for contouring, and how best to apply lighter and darker shades according to your face shape.
##What colour to use for contouring?##
Hair contouring is similar to balayage in the fact that it offers a natural-looking hair colour by painting freehand highlights and lowlights onto the hair, for a very blended effect. Where it differs is that hair contouring is more technical and precise in order to achieve the most flattering finish for each individual. It takes your skin colour into account to decide the best hair colour shades for you, as well as focusing on your face shape to then target where to paint those highlights and lowlights.
Which shades will best compliment your hair will, of course, depend on your existing base colour; for example, the hair colour shade for contouring brunette hair will differ vastly from the shade that you would use to contour blonde hair. As this colour technique favours a natural looking finish, the shades should be subtly different, rather than in stark contrast to your own hair colour. Whether adding lowlights or highlights, aim for colours that are no more than 2 shades away from your base colour for a softer look.
##Hair contouring colours for different skin tones##
As hair contouring aims to create a 100 per cent tailor-made hair colour for your features, your colouring plays a factor in which shades of hair colour you choose.
Your skin tone is categorised as either warm or cool. People with warm skin tones should look for complementary yellow tones, like warmer blondes, honey or chestnut shades. If your skin tone is on the cooler spectrum, you have blue undertones, which best suit cool blonde colours like platinum, darker chocolate browns and deeper reds. The Garnier Color Naturals and Garnier Black Naturals hair colour for women are perfect at-home hair colour kits that feature nourishing ammonia-free hair colour shades, to make achieving the look yourself super simple.
##How your face shape effects hair contouring##
Apart from carefully choosing your colours, to get the very best results from hair contouring it’s important to paint your highlights and lowlights on the hair based on your face shape. This is because the shadows and light it creates on the face work to accentuate your best features. If you have a square or round face, you can Elongate Your Square Face With Hair Contouring. Use a lighter colour at the top and ends of the hair and add darker tones at the side, which will slim the face. If you have a long face shape, here is how to use hair contouring - to widen the appearance of a long or rectangular face, keep the roots and underneath dark whilst weaving lighter highlights around the ears. For heart and triangular face shapes it is possible to soften the appearance of the chin by adding a dark colour to the crown of the head and some highlights from the mid-length to the ends of the hair.
Join celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Chrissy Teigen and Drew Barrymore in exploring the hair-contouring trend. The good news is, you do not need a Hollywood stylist. Get the look easily at home, and be red-carpet ready in no time!