Real Simple

Style

13 Best Natural Hair Colors, According to Colorists

 

Low-maintenance is always in.

While platinum blonde, vivid lavender, or cherry red are fun hair colors to rock, a natural hair color might be a more approachable option for many. Natural hair color is typically easier to pull off, is much more convincing, and should be easier to maintain, too.

When trying to figure out what, exactly, is your natural hair color, it’s a good idea to look back at photographs of yourself as a child. “Children’s hair color tends to be softer, more pastel-like, and usually shows a significant amount of color gradation,” explains Paul Cucinello, a celebrity hairstylist and co-founder of Cucinello Beauty. “Taking your skin tone and eye color into consideration might also help point you in the right direction. Natural hair colors complement and enhance your features, bringing out that extra something most people can’t quite put their finger on.  It’s the kind of shift that gets you tons of compliments about your overall appearance, not just your hair.”

While natural hair colors might be easier to maintain than super unnatural colors, they still require some level of maintenance to ensure that the hair color doesn’t oxidize to the point that it ever reads brassy or harsh. “These nuances are best maintained with acidic glosses, toners, or glazes to keep the pH of the hair low, which will soften and prevent oxidizing while boosting shine,” explains Cucinello. 

Other maintenance tips include using color-safe shampoos and heat-protectant products when using hot tools. “Also, putting a hat on while you’re in the sun helps immensely,” says Natalia Rojas, Senior Colorist at NYC THE TEAM. Below, we’ve rounded up the most natural hair colors to help guide you toward a shade that best suits you. 

13 Best Natural Hair Colors

 

Espresso

Choose a color like espresso if you have a very light or very dark eye color. It’s important to make sure not to have an overly saturated version of dark brown to avoid it looking too close to any kind of artificial black, which rarely occurs naturally and tends not to be very flattering or natural-looking, according to Cucinello. “If your hair is already on the darker side, this color is easy to maintain and can be achieved by using a demi-permanent color.” If you have a lot of gray, this dark of a color will be super high-maintenance as your roots will show in as little as two weeks and it will require permanent hair dye to cover stubborn grays.

Dark Chocolate

This shade of chocolate brown is classic, rich, and works with so many different skin tones because it’s pretty neutral. “People will recognize it as brown and never mistake it for black,” says Cucinello. “Think of it as an enhanced natural tone—it can be achieved using a demi-permanent gloss.” Choose this shade if your hair is what Cucinello calls “mousey brown” and you want to create a bit more impact without creating a look that’s in any way unnatural looking.

Milk Chocolate

Cucinello suggests this color for someone who wants to be a brunette but doesn’t want their color to look too saturated. “Lighter brown shades like milk chocolate are created by adding micro-lights to a neutral brown base color, which results in a more pastel, child-like color,” he says. 

Chestnut

“Chestnut is great for warmer skin tones and always makes me think of an end-of-summer brown,” says Cucinello. “The ends are a little lighter, but it never tips into actual blonde.” What's great about this shade is that you can achieve it with some balayage leaving out the roots, which keeps it ultra-low maintenance. Just make sure you get a gloss whenever the color starts to look too warm.

Caramel

The fine line between brown and blonde brings you to caramel. It's best achieved by adding lots of babylights to darker brown hair and glossing it overall with a rich caramel gloss to meld the tones together. You might have to make a few trips to your colorist in order to build up some saturation on the ends and keep a few foils lighter around your hairline, according to Cucinello. “But this color is perfect for brunettes who want to feel kind of blonde without completely losing the plot,” he says. 

Honey

Honey is a great choice for blondes who want that golden hour-flattering effect full-time. Honey is ideal on neutral and peach skin tones. It doesn't work well for people with olive or blue undertones in their skin, according to Cucinello. “You can get to this color a couple of different ways, but it's easiest when glossing over previously lightened blonde hair,” explains Cucinello. “You can also get to this tone by having your colorist break your natural light brown base color with a brightener, allowing all of the natural variation of tone to remain while pushing the lighter areas around the face for a little pop.”

Auburn

Natural auburn hair lives somewhere between medium brown and copper. Many skin tones can work really well with auburn and surprisingly, some brown-eyed girls rock it the best, according to Cucinello. “Auburn can be easy to achieve, but be warned that once you start to introduce any red tones into darker brown hair, it can be very difficult to remove should you find you want to reverse it,” he explains. “The best way to achieve it is to very gently pre-lighten brown hair just a touch (aka breaking the base) and then glossing over it with a rich copper gloss.”

Copper

According to Cucinello, doing a copper color right all comes down to letting the hair reveal as much warmth as possible with the least amount of damage. “Copper hair has to be super shiny and rich, so it’s best achieved by softening and lightening the base color enough to reveal the natural red pigment that is hiding beneath the cuticle, and then staining the hair with a really intense copper gloss,” he explains. “The results can be slightly shocking at first, but when it’s done properly on someone with the right coloring for it, no one will ever know it’s not their natural color.” Cooper looks best on fair skin tones with light eye colors.

Strawberry Blonde

Strawberry blonde is really hard for some colorists to get right. “Many times I will hear of nightmare experiences trying to get to it—it’s not red hair with blonde highlights added to it,” says Cucinello. “Real strawberry blonde is the palest copper hue overlaid on blonde hair. It gives the hair a shimmer that most blondes can only dream of.” It looks amazing on fair skin with pink undertones and light eyes. Regular glossing can ensure that you maintain that magic glow that keeps the compliments coming.

Strawberry Crème Brulee

According to Lorena M. Valdes, a colorist at Maxine Salon in Chicago, strawberry crème brulee is a gorgeous color on natural redheads that want to be a bit blonde but always pull very warm. “This look focuses on dimension and working with the soft copper undertones in the hair,” she explains. 

Golden Blonde

"Naturally, golden blonde hair is the color dark blonde turns after spending a lot of time out in the sun and it's got that certain something that just looks stunning on the right person,” says Cucinello. “I tend to call it Hollywood blonde—the biggest stars don’t go platinum because it simply doesn’t look natural and it lacks shine.” Golden looks rich and shimmers in the light. It’s flattering on so many skin tones and can easily be woven into any base color, or you can take your whole head to golden blonde and add subtle pastel nuances with some babylights.

Towhead Blonde

Super light colors definitely give that “wow” factor, but to give it a natural look, there has to be some depth and variation of tone. “I think if you were blonde as a child it will always feel great to revisit that color as an adult,” explains Cucinello. “This color is best achieved by starting with a high-lift neutral blonde as your base color and having lots of babylights woven throughout the interior, making sure to avoid the roots.” A harsh root is a dead giveaway that your color isn’t natural, so either a very soft shadow or a light smudged root is key in keeping it looking real.

Midnight Onyx

This is the shiniest dark tone that reflects so much light when properly taken care of, according to Valdes. “It is great for anyone who has naturally dark hair and loves it when it stays as dark as it can without losing its shine or being too faded, where it looks brown or red.”