There’s nothing like the turn of a new season to do something new with your hair. Whether it’s the transition into winter or blooming of spring, it’s always fun to experiment with your hair as the weather changes. If you’re someone who's hesitant about color treating your entire head of hair, we have a solution for you: highlights and lowlights.

You’d be surprised at how much of a difference a few highlights or lowlights can make to totally change your complexion. It doesn’t require a complete hair color change to freshen up your look. Embracing your natural hair color with the help of a few highlights or lowlights can make worlds of difference for the dimension of your hair and bringing light to your face.

If you’re someone who doesn’t know where to start when it comes to deciding on which colors suit your skin tone, not to worry, we’ve got you covered! This blog post will guide you through all things highlights and lowlights and will help you determine what your skin tone is and exactly what tones flatter it best. Follow along for our full guide to choosing the right color of highlights or lowlights based on your skin tone.

How to Determine Your Skin Tone: Cool vs. Warm

The first step to discovering what color of highlights or lowlights will work for you is to determine your skin tone. There are different characteristics that help determine which skin tone you have, but the main and most important differentiating factor is whether your skin tone is warm or cool. If you’re unsure if your skin tone is cool or warm, these guidelines might help you get a clearer idea.

Examine your undertones

Generally speaking, the rule of thumb when it comes to skin tones is that warm skin tones will pull yellow and golden undertones, while cool skin tones will pull blue and pink.

Check your wrists

If you can’t immediately tell by examining your complexion which undertones you have, another place to look is your wrists. Often your wrists and veins will have a strong color pigment, whether it be pinks, reds, blues, greens, or yellows. If your veins appear blue or purple, your skin is likely cool-toned, but if your veins are green, your skin is likely warm-toned.

Check your eyes

A secondary physical indicator of skin tone is your eyes. If your eyes are warm or have gold flecks, you’re likely warm-toned. If your eyes have a lot of blues and greens, you’re likely cool-toned.

Try the jewelry test

Many claim that one of the easiest ways to determine whether your skin is warm or cold is to hold up jewelry next to your face. If gold highlights your skin tone better, you’re likely warm-toned, and if silver highlights your skin tone better, you’re likely cool.

Match yourself with a celebrity

Often it’s quite helpful to have a point of reference when it comes to skin tone, so it helps to match yourself up with a celebrity with a similar complexion. Check out the different hair colors they’ve tried and what worked best for their skin.

Get your skin tone professionally matched

Lastly, if you’re still unsure of what skin tone you have, another great option to determine this is to get your skin tone read in-store. Places like Sephora have tools that will scan your skin and determine exactly which shade it is and what type of undertones you have, which is super helpful when trying to select a flattering hair color.

How To Match Your Skin Tone With Highlights

Now that you’re educated and well versed with determining your skin tone, it’s time to learn more about what types of highlights and lowlights work the best to flatter your complexion. The rule of thumb when picking out a hair color is to choose tones opposite that of your skin. So for example, if you’re warm toned, you might opt for an ashier, more cool shade of highlights, and vice versa. Follow along for our breakdown of each different tone of highlights and who they look best on.

Ash Blonde

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Achieve Miley's looks with Seamless Blonde Balayage Hair extensions.

Ash blonde highlights are great for those that have cool skin with reddish or pink undertones. Adding ash blonde highlights, whether it be silver, platinum, ice or champagne blonde, works beautifully to counteract any ruddiness in the skin. Think Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani, Taylor Swift. If you’re thinking of using extensions to get the look, the Ash Blonde or Platinum Blonde Hair set would work beautifully.

Warm Blonde

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Achieve Gigi's look with Dirty Blonde Hair extensions.

Warm blonde highlights, on the other hand, look beautiful on those with olive or cooler skin tones with blue undertones. Whether it be honey, caramel or amber, these golden tones work perfectly because going too ashy with the highlights can sometimes wash out cooler complexions with blue undertones. Think Blake Lively or Gigi Hadid. If you want to use Luxies to get the look without dyeing, we’d recommend Dirty Blonde or Blonde Balayage to achieve this result. 

Cool Brown

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