Soft Autumn · Hair color
Soft Autumn hair color: what works and why
By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated
Soft Autumn coloring is warm, medium and soft in contrast, and those three between them decide almost everything about hair. The warm undertone picks the direction, the medium depth picks the level, and the soft contrast decides how far Soft Autumn hair may sit from Soft Autumn skin before the face stops reading as one thing.
Most hair advice skips the middle one. It will tell Soft Autumn to stay warm and stop there, which is true and not very useful, because the Soft Autumn shade that goes wrong is usually the right direction at the wrong level. Here is all three.
The Soft Autumn level
Level 5 to level 7 — mid brown through to dark blonde, which is the Soft Autumn band. Medium depth is the most flexible of the three, and Soft Autumn sits in the band where hair and skin stay in conversation with each other instead of competing.
Both extremes cost Soft Autumn something: very dark hardens the face, very light drains it, and a change of two levels lands where a change of five does not.
The Soft Autumn direction: warm
Soft Autumn leans toward golden, caramel, copper, chestnut and warm chocolate, and away from ash, platinum, cool-beige blonde and anything described as "smoky".
Warm skin under ash hair is the most common bad outcome in a salon chair, and Soft Autumn is squarely exposed to it: the ash pulls gray into the face and the skin answers by looking tired. On Soft Autumn it usually starts with a request to avoid brassiness.
The part most people miss: contrast
Soft Autumn runs soft on contrast, and this is the detail salons miss most often. On Soft Autumn, hair, skin and eyes sit close together in lightness; chunky highlights or a sudden darkening punch a hole in that, and the result is hair that arrives in a room before the person does.
For reference, Soft Autumn coloring usually comes with hair somewhere in the middle, usually medium brown, eyes with a slightly blended, dusty quality rather than a sharp one, and skin that leans golden or peach.
What to ask for at the salon
- With a colorist, Soft Autumn should ask for warm rather than for "not brassy" — brassy means orange that went wrong, warm means gold kept on purpose, and the two get treated as one request.
- Give the level as a number: level 5 to level 7 is the Soft Autumn 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 warm Soft Autumn tone in the chair that stops flattering you at home.
- Ask where the fade lands. Warm tones fade warmer still, so the real question for Soft Autumn is whether it settles on gold or tips into orange.
- Say at the start if you are covering gray, because it changes the formula and a Soft Autumn tone chosen without that in mind arrives a level lighter than the one you agreed to.
The Soft Autumn colors your hair sits next to
Whatever shade you end up with will be seen against these Soft Autumn colors every day, which is a better test than any swatch book. Eight Soft Autumn colors, the same eight the free result hands you:
- Deep Rust
- Deep Olive
- Burnt Orange
- Warm Burgundy
- Deep Mustard
- Terracotta
- Warm Muted Teal
- Soft Mustard
All twenty-five Soft Autumn 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 Soft Autumn?
Hair is the costliest thing on this page to get wrong, and everything above is only yours if Soft Autumn is. The scan settles whether you are Soft Autumn from one photo in about thirty seconds, free, with nothing uploaded and no account.
Questions
What hair color suits Soft Autumn?
For Soft Autumn, level 5 to level 7 — mid brown through to dark blonde, which is the Soft Autumn band, taken in a warm direction — so golden, caramel, copper, chestnut and warm chocolate. For Soft Autumn the level matters more than the exact shade: a tone two levels away from where medium coloring sits will look wrong even when the undertone is right.
Can Soft Autumn go blonde?
Yes, in the dark-blonde to caramel part of level 5 to level 7 — and the further above that you take it, the more Soft Autumn features need help from makeup to keep up.
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 Soft Autumn and onto a neighbor. The honest position is that a Soft Autumn result describes you as you look now, which is also how everyone else is seeing you.
What should I ask a colorist for?
With a colorist, Soft Autumn should ask for warm rather than for "not brassy" — brassy means orange that went wrong, warm means gold kept on purpose, and the two get treated as one request. Take a reference photo at a window rather than relying on the salon's own lighting, and ask for the Soft Autumn level — level 5 to level 7 — out loud, because that is the half of the brief colorists most often fill in for themselves.
More for Soft Autumn
Soft Autumn makeup · Soft Autumn outfits · Soft Autumn colors to avoid · Soft Autumn in full