How to Look Expensive: Respect Your Coloring

It's time for another How to Look Expensive! I hate to speak in negatives, but this one is actually more about what not to do (or at least give serious thought to before doing), specifically in the area of altering skin and hair color.

I'm a firm believer that God has created each of us with a beauty all our own, a beauty that mysteriously resonates with our own personality and individuality. As I've gotten wiser (which, funny enough, has coincided with my getting older), I've come to realize that we as women often do things that actually sabotage this beauty. We usually don't do it on purpose. We may not recognize that we have our own beautiful features to play up. Or we may see someone else and want to imitate her expression of beauty. Or maybe certain physical attributes have symbolic values that we have bought into (what, blondes really don't have more fun?!). Whatever the case, I'm here to tell you that to look the most polished version of yourself, especially while on a budget, you need to recognize what God gave you, and respect it.

The two areas where we get it wrong the most are altering skin tone and hair color. Let me explain. In our culture it is all the rage to be tan. And if you can get a tan, good for you, it probably looks great on you! But if you are very fair, and easily burn in the sun, embrace your light skin. It probably complements your hair color and your eyes. Repeatedly trying to get a tan naturally will just leave you...  red. Not a good look. And artificial tanners will more often than not leave you orangish, or at the very least an off shade of "darker."

Christina Aguilera. Hmm. I wonder if that tan is natural?
Images via here and here.

And now, the bigger issue, hair color. First of all, changing your hair color can cost lots of dollars initially and over the course of time. It is one of those things where upkeep is an absolute necessity to avoid looking raggle taggle.  I know some women who dye their hair at home, and it looks great. If you are one of these women, maybe you are in the wrong line of work (that's assuming you aren't a hair stylist!). In my own personal experience of many, many home dye jobs (I'm a glutton for punishment), the end result can be hit and miss. Why? Because with a box dye it's hard to achieve a look that is natural. To look natural, you need highlights and lowlights that mimic what occurs when hair is exposed to light.

And not just any color works for any person.  Each of us has either cool or warm undertones to our skin, and most people may be classified as a dark cool or warm or light cool or warm, depending on the  intensity of color that occurs in hair, eyes, and skin. It's very important to stay within either the cool or warm spectrum, and your range of intensity on this spectrum.

And finally, to get even more pessimistic on you, I have found (from personal use) that even many of the "cool" hair color box kits (ash blond, cool brown, etc, etc) eventually fade to... brassy. Brassy is a reddish "warm" color that flatters the skin tones of pretty much no one in the entire human race. So, just because you get the color right at the start, it may not last through very many washes and days in the sun.

I can hear you thinking, but what about... Yes, I know, there are some celebrities who can seemingly rock any color. Remember, these women have an entourage of hair, makeup, and lighting people (and dollars) devoted to making them look amazing. And let's not even get started on the use of photoshop. That being said, we do see the occasional celebrity flub that is either catastrophic, or just plain unflattering.

Courtney Cox is a dark cool naturally. The photo on the right is truer to her natural coloring. Looks better, don't you think?
Images via here and here.

So what am I going on about here? I guess just a long winded word of caution about how altering your coloring can effect your appearance. It can be done, and it can definitely be done well. Just make sure you take into account your budget and your starting point, primarily whether you have cool or warm coloring, and how light or dark your coloring is. Not sure what name to put on your natural look?  I wrote a post almost a year ago about coloring, but I think this post is better, both more exhaustive and clear on how to determine one's coloring.