Warm Spring · Hair color
Warm Spring hair color: what works and why
By the Skintonic team · SKINTONIC LLC · Updated
Warm Spring coloring is warm, medium and medium 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 medium contrast decides how far Warm Spring hair may sit from Warm Spring skin before the face stops reading as one thing.
Most hair advice skips the middle one. It will tell Warm Spring to stay warm and stop there, which is true and not very useful, because the Warm Spring shade that goes wrong is usually the right direction at the wrong level. Here is all three.
The Warm Spring level
Level 5 to level 7 — mid brown through to dark blonde, which is the Warm Spring band. Medium depth is the most flexible of the three, and Warm Spring sits in the band where hair and skin stay in conversation with each other instead of competing.
Both extremes cost Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring direction: warm
Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring is squarely exposed to it: the ash pulls gray into the face and the skin answers by looking tired. On Warm Spring it usually starts with a request to avoid brassiness.
The part most people miss: contrast
Warm Spring sits at medium contrast, which buys room to move a level or two in either direction before the balance of the face changes at all.
For reference, Warm Spring coloring usually comes with hair somewhere in the middle, usually medium brown, eyes that read as bright and defined against the face, and skin that leans golden or peach.
What to ask for at the salon
- With a colorist, Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring tone chosen without that in mind arrives a level lighter than the one you agreed to.
The Warm Spring colors your hair sits next to
Whatever shade you end up with will be seen against these Warm Spring colors every day, which is a better test than any swatch book. Eight Warm Spring colors, the same eight the free result hands you:
- Poppy Red
- Golden Amber
- Kelly Green
- Warm Fuchsia
- Deep Turquoise
- True Red
- Emerald
- Bright Turquoise
All twenty-five Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring?
Hair is the costliest thing on this page to get wrong, and everything above is only yours if Warm Spring is. The scan settles whether you are Warm Spring from one photo in about thirty seconds, free, with nothing uploaded and no account.
Questions
What hair color suits Warm Spring?
For Warm Spring, level 5 to level 7 — mid brown through to dark blonde, which is the Warm Spring band, taken in a warm direction — so golden, caramel, copper, chestnut and warm chocolate. For Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring and onto a neighbor. The honest position is that a Warm Spring 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, Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring 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 Warm Spring
Warm Spring makeup · Warm Spring outfits · Warm Spring colors to avoid · Warm Spring in full