Ultimate Hair Color Guide for Winter and Its Subtypes

Explore hair color dos and don’ts for Winter according to seasonal color analysis.

Seasonal color analysis is a popular technique used to identify hues and tints that complement your natural features and help avoid dull or overpowered look. In the hair styling world, this method is often implemented to determine what shades of hair suit you the most. Here is a comprehensive hair color guide for Winter types that will help you enhance your natural beauty effortlessly.

How to Know If You’re a Winter?

Color analysis chart typically incorporates four main seasons – Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Each season is further divided into three subtypes with specific color palettes and unique characteristics. The Winter palette is usually cool and high-contrast. So, if you’re a Winter, you’ll have a cool leading undertone in your skin, eyes, and hair.

A perfect example is a combination of dark hair color and cool skin tone accentuated by green, blue, or gray eyes. According to the professional hair color analyst Rachel Bilu, Winter types are best off with medium-brown to black hair tones, cool-toned highlights, dark red hues, platinum, silver, and gray shades.

True Winter

Eyes: dark blue, blue-violet, icy hazel, charcoal, brown

Skin: pale beige, light olive, rosy beige, black

Best hair tones: soft dark brown, dark ash brown, dark to medium brown balayage, cool chocolate, raven black

Shades to avoid: warm, golden

True Winter, aka Cool Winter type, is the most high-contrast subcategory that adds brilliance to your appearance and makes your eyes really stand out. Take, for instance, Liv Tyler with her deep blue eyes, dark brown locks, and fair skin.

The fusion of dark and light colors creates high saturation and contrast, putting you at the center of attention. You can always enhance your black hair color with highlights to create depth and dimension while also refreshing the natural hair tone.

Bright Winter

Eyes: bright blue, green, pale hazel, brown

Skin: milky white, light beige, pale olive, deep black

Best hair tones: soft black, charcoal, cool espresso, dark chocolate, ashy highlights, dark copper

Shades to avoid: warm, dusty, pastel

Bright or Clear Winter owes its name to the inner radiance and vibrancy of the appearance. The vivid eye color is the most prominent feature that defines the category. People with this seasonal color type have a neutral to slightly cool complexion with blue undertones that work great with dark hair tones.

Megan Fox is a Clear Winter type featuring pale skin with a blue undertone, bright blue eyes, and deep brown tresses. If you have similar features, consider trying cool brown hair shades like chestnut, and mushroom brown, or play with different hues by throwing in a mocha ombre look.

Deep Winter

Eyes: black, dark brown, dark hazel

Skin: beige, cool olive, rosy brown, black

Best hair tones: jet black, dark cherry, deep brown, steel gray, salt & pepper, cool-toned balayage

Shades to avoid: golden beige, warm earth tones

Deep Winter, commonly known as Dark Winter, sticks to the darker side of the palette, offering a slightly less contrasting combination of colors. Individuals with this type of appearance already possess a lot of darkness in their features, which makes them shine in a mysterious way.

Those willing to highlight their unique characteristics will benefit the most from dark red and brown shades. However, white and silvery accents might add a dramatic flair to the look. A great example is the way Kim Kardashian switches between her natural dark brown locks and platinum tresses to balance out her olive skin and brown eyes.

Should Winter Types Go Blonde?

The general color-matching rule says that Winters should keep dark hair tones to maintain the distinctive contrast. But what if you want to try something brighter and go blonde this time? In her TikTok video, Rachel Bilu explains that going fully blonde is highly unadvisable for Winter types. This hair color creates a lower contrast, damages your locks, and requires regular touch-ups to avoid yellow and brassy undertones. Alternatively, you can try bronde balayage or add ash brown or chocolate brown highlights to revamp your style.

Choosing your ideal hair color is all about knowing how to complement your eyes and skin tone. Our Hair Color Changer will help you find your ultimate fit and see which shades and undertones will work for you best.