Cool Winter · Hair color
Cool Winter hair color: what works and why
By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated
Cool Winter coloring is cool, deep and strong in contrast, and those three between them decide almost everything about hair. The cool undertone picks the direction, the deep depth picks the level, and the strong contrast decides how far Cool Winter hair may sit from Cool Winter skin before the face stops reading as one thing.
Most hair advice skips the middle one. It will tell Cool Winter to stay cool and stop there, which is true and not very useful, because the Cool Winter shade that goes wrong is usually the right direction at the wrong level. Here is all three.
The Cool Winter level
Level 2 to level 5 — near-black through to a mid brown, which is the Cool Winter band. Deep coloring carries dark hair the way nothing else does, and Cool Winter is one of the three seasons that can take a true black-brown without it taking over. Espresso and dark chocolate sit against a Cool Winter face rather than on top of it.
Going very light is where Cool Winter gets into trouble. A blonde three or four levels above a deep natural leaves Cool Winter features with nothing to sit against, and the usual response is more makeup to compensate for something the hair caused.
The Cool Winter direction: cool
Cool Winter leans toward ash, cool beige, mushroom brown, cool chocolate and true black-brown, and away from golden, honey, copper and strawberry.
Cool skin under golden hair goes ruddy, and on Cool Winter that shows up fastest around the nose and cheeks. The gold behaves like a warm light source held under the chin, and what it warms on Cool Winter is whatever redness is already there.
The part most people miss: contrast
Cool Winter runs strong on contrast, which means the hair is allowed to sit a long way from the skin. On Cool Winter that gap is part of the coloring rather than a fault to be softened, and highlights that blur it tend to make the face look less like itself.
For reference, Cool Winter coloring usually comes with hair that runs dark — deep brown through to near-black, eyes that read as bright and defined against the face, and skin that leans pink, olive or blue-toned.
What to ask for at the salon
- Cool Winter has to ask for a cool or neutral-cool tone in plain words, because most colorists default to adding warmth and silence on the point gets read as consent to it.
- Give the level as a number: level 2 to level 5 is the Cool Winter band, and a number is unambiguous where "medium brown" means whatever that particular colorist happens to picture.
- Have the swatch held against your jawline at a window before anything is mixed, because salon lighting runs warmer than it looks and will flatter a cool Cool Winter tone in the chair that stops flattering you at home.
- Ask where the fade lands. Cool tones fade warm, so a Cool Winter brown drifts toward red over about six weeks and wants a gloss before it gets there.
- Say at the start if you are covering gray, because it changes the formula and a Cool Winter tone chosen without that in mind arrives a level lighter than the one you agreed to.
The Cool Winter colors your hair sits next to
Whatever shade you end up with will be seen against these Cool Winter colors every day, which is a better test than any swatch book. Eight Cool Winter colors, the same eight the free result hands you:
- True Red
- Royal Purple
- Deep Emerald
- Deep Navy
- Black
- Royal Blue
- Emerald
- Fuchsia
All twenty-five Cool Winter colors grouped by how to wear them, plus the shades to avoid and the reason for each, are in your report.
Not sure you are Cool Winter?
Hair is the costliest thing on this page to get wrong, and everything above is only yours if Cool Winter is. The scan settles whether you are Cool Winter from one photo in about thirty seconds, free, with nothing uploaded and no account.
Questions
What hair color suits Cool Winter?
For Cool Winter, level 2 to level 5 — near-black through to a mid brown, which is the Cool Winter band, taken in a cool direction — so ash, cool beige, mushroom brown, cool chocolate and true black-brown. For Cool Winter the level matters more than the exact shade: a tone two levels away from where deep coloring sits will look wrong even when the undertone is right.
Can Cool Winter go blonde?
Yes, but not a pale one. Cool Winter going blonde does best with a rich, low blonde — dark honey or bronde rather than platinum — and roots kept near natural so the face still has something to sit against.
Does hair color change my season?
It moves two of the four — depth and contrast — because both are measured across the whole face with the hair in it, while undertone and chroma stay exactly where they are, so a big change can shift you off Cool Winter and onto a neighbor. The honest position is that a Cool Winter result describes you as you look now, which is also how everyone else is seeing you.
What should I ask a colorist for?
Cool Winter has to ask for a cool or neutral-cool tone in plain words, because most colorists default to adding warmth and silence on the point gets read as consent to it. Take a reference photo at a window rather than relying on the salon's own lighting, and ask for the Cool Winter level — level 2 to level 5 — out loud, because that is the half of the brief colorists most often fill in for themselves.
More for Cool Winter
Cool Winter makeup · Cool Winter outfits · Cool Winter colors to avoid · Cool Winter in full