How to Choose Your Best Blonde Shade – Picking the Perfect Blonde for Your Skin Tone

According to lore, gentlemen prefer them and they have more fun, so who wouldn't want to try blonde hair? Most women who change their hair color will try a walk on the blonde side at some point. Not all blonde shades are equally well-suited to their wearers, though. Pick the most flattering blonde shade by taking an analytical approach toward your natural skin and hair color palette.

Get used to your blonde before swimsuit season so you'll be used to your new hair color once it's time to strut your stuff in summer dresses and sarongs. Blonde hair requires more care regardless of its hue, so get used to wearing a beach hat or a scarf with your new blonde locks. The up side is that you'll look fabulously retro with your big sunglasses and covered coiffure.

Fair or Dark?
The natural color of your hair and skin should guide your choice of blonde. The lightest skin tones can pull off everything from a dark almost-brown blonde to full-on platinum, but the palest shades will leave you washed out without the right makeup. People with dark skin tones should look at richer shades like caramel and cafe au lait blonde. Too-pale hair looks over-processed and artificial with darker skin tones. Not sure where your skin tone falls on the spectrum? If you were blonde as a child, you can probably pull off a paler shade of blonde; if you've been a brunette for life, stay toward the deeper end of the blonde pool.

Regardless of which shade you choose, stay within three shades of your natural hue for your base color. If you've been gifted with naturally raven-black hair, “blonde” is a relative term for you; light blonde shades would require a professional two-step process and a lot of upkeep. Instead, try lightening to a deep chocolate brown and adding caramel highlights for a softer and more natural look.

Warm or Cool?
Place a piece of pure white paper against your inner wrist, the same spot where you apply your perfume. Look at the color of your skin as it contrasts with the white paper. If you're seeing a blue or lavender hue, you have a cool skin tone. Greenish or golden tones to your skin? Your coloration is warm.

Can't tell whether you're warm or cool? You might be neutral-toned. If you're one of these rare skin types, you'll have your pick of the middle range of blonde shades.

Best Blondes for Cool-Toned Skin
If you're cool-toned, you've probably noticed that you look your best in clear pinks, true blues, rich purples, emerald greens, and candy-apple reds. Your best neutrals are pure white and black. You may burn more easily than you tan and spend most of your summer days under a beach hat and dressed in a beautiful sarongs.

Choose blonde shades with the words “ash,” “cool,” or “platinum.” These are the classic Hitchcock blonde hues, frosty shades that flatter cool-toned skin. Your best blondes range from the palest Scandinavian flax to sophisticated fawns and beiges. If you pine for sunny golden blonde hues despite your cool skin tone, choose an ashy shade for your base color and highlight with golden tones just a shade warmer and lighter than your ash blonde base.

If your skin has strong pink overtones, avoid going too ashy with your blonde hair. The contrast will emphasize the pink in your skin. Instead, opt for medium blonde shades that make you look appealingly rosy, not ruddy.

Best Blondes for Warm-Toned Skin
People with warm undertones to their skin look their best in autumnal and earthy hues. Think of rich golds, vivid oranges, warm browns, salmon pinks, and mossy greens. Navy, cream, and bone are your neutrals of choice. When you tan, you look golden or bronzed. You rarely burn.

Your best blondes have names that include the words “golden,” “warm,” “caramel,” and “copper.” Yours are the sun-kissed shades that are a natural fit with a breezy summer dress or sarongs. Golden hair flatters your golden skin, but avoid matching your hair and your skin tone too closely. If you wish you could wear the cool platinum and champagne tones that cool-toned blondes wear, add cooler highlights to a warmer base color.

Fair-skinned peaches-and-cream complexions work with strawberry and wheat-colored blondes. Darker skin tones look beautiful with caramel and darker gold tones. Avoid going too yellow, though, if you have an olive skin tone. When trying to decide between two blonde shades, choose the cooler of the two; you'll keep your color free of brassy notes.

There's only one way to find out if blondes really do have more fun. Consult with your stylist or, if you're bold, start shopping the hair coloring aisle for your perfect shade of blonde. You'll be ready for summer with a sarongs at your hips, a cool glass of something refreshing in your hand, and a head-turning new shade of blonde as your crowning glory.

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