Reddish but not red hair

A woman wrote a little rant about the lacks of seasonal color theory. She has a point, of course. The seasonal color analysis is created by white people for white people, and any effort to fit the rest of the world to this theory are just feeble efforts to be PC.

The truth is that white people are a minority, that behaves as if it was the majority. White people have the colonial mindset of elitism, arrogance and ignorance, best shown in the ways of Greece, Rome, Germanic people and USA. And in Christianity, which is practically the only European religion worth mentioning. Of course for me, a Pagan, the European paganity, Asatru and Celtic spirituality, are worth mentioning, but in comparison we are a "rat spit in the ocean" [a Swedish idiom my husband uses quite a lot :-D]. A piquant European oddity :-D

In truth the vast majority of world population has very dark hair, a color that can be called black. Most Asians, Africans and people whose ethnicity originates from the geographic area around Mediterranean Sea have "black" hair. But - what is black? There are several different shades of black, just as there are several shades of white and grey. Here's a little achromatic scale. In the middle is pure grey. Right to it I have added some yellow to it, on left is blue. First I added 5% yellow or blue, then 10%. When you see them side by side, you can see the changes, but if you look at them alone, you wouldn't see the difference. (Unless you have as keen eye for color as my husband. That's about 1-2% of humankind.)
On top is the different blacks. 

So - how does this apply to the hair?

This is Megan Fox. 

She is Caucasian.

She has a drop of Native American blood, 

but most of her coloring comes from her European ancestors. 

She is what is called "a black Celt". Black hair, blue eyes, fair skin. 

Now, her hair is black. It's not dark brown, it is black, as black as any black hair. 

But can you see the difference of tone in the following two pictures? 

In the right picture, the highlights of her hair are warm, brownish grey. 

In the left picture, the highlights are cool, almost blue.

Here's the same difference with Yukie Nakama.
Now, I don't think she has black hair, but that's just me.
Her hair is very dark, and could be called black.

And this beautiful lady is Wunmi Mosaku, a British actress.
See the difference? 

She would still be able to wear brown
if the picture in left was the correct coloring and she was Winter,
because brown is her skin color, and we all can wear the color of our skin. 

Now to something different.
The Selfish Seamstress, Elaine, posted this hair color lightness chart from "color me beautiful", and I of course wanted to see where my hair lands on this chart.

So - here's my hair on the chart. Quite precisely medium.

Now, I've been having fun here. I have the hair color that's really difficult to name. So I have taken some hair color charts and matched my hair to those, and here's the results:

So - what is this? Butterscotch, toffee, caramel, honey? "this silky shade that's richly decadent with deep golden undertones"?  Sounds really nice. Better than "mouse", "dishwater", "road dust" and "dirt", anyway...
Then there's that some say my hair is "chestnut", "pecan" or "acorn" and my eyes are hazel... I'm a nutty girl :-D Butterscotch pecan perfection :-D (And, yes, I'm totally nuts :-D)
Then there's "buttered toast" and "cool tea" :-D Add a bit of ginger marmalade, and the breakfast is all set :-D

Here's some other women with caramel brown hair.

Some color palettes

Well... apparently I'm lying.

You see, *I* see the green in my eyes very clearly. My husband wonders where I see the green, because there is no green in my eyes. Oh. Huh. Ok. He's entitled to his opinion, isn't he :-D

my lips didn't get in last post, so here they are.

This is my beautiful "every other hair silver, every other hair gold"

like the princess' hair in H.C.Andersen's fairytale. 

With other words; mouse-y, dishwater, country road greyish what-ever

And this is my lovely peaches-and-cream skin. Or rather greyish, I think

 

I suppose one should see the color of veins here, but I can't see much of them.

And apparently one cannot trust my color eye, so we go by what my husband says,

and he says the veins are green, or greenish teal.

About this color:

I'm OK with that. Love that color!

Ths is as I see my eye.

It's a color enhanced photo.

This is my eye as my husband sees it. Un-enhanced.

You can see the green, can't you? 

Apparently it's an optical illusion...

This is my eye today. 

Very dark today.

Maybe because I'm wearing dark indigo blue and white yukata.

Anyway... it seems to me that this is my Zyla eye colors:

The lightest is sort of green grey, the darkest is very dark brown, 

and the "ring around the eye" is pure grey. So "my black" is grey. Interesting.

More Adventures in the Color Land

So, I've been playing a little more with the Zyla colors.

I don't much believe that... you see, I don't have a darker ring around my irises. I took that "black" from the SHADOW my eyelids cast over the iris. In fact, the darkest part of my irises is almost black. So my "enery color" is practically black. 8-[

And "my black" is dark brown. Or dark sage green?

Also, my "tranquil" color, the soothing, calming color, is either that olive, khaki, military green or golden brown... I'm not feeling it.
And what about those people who have only one color in their eyes? Perhaps shades of one color... So their energy color is the same as their tranquil color?

Bah. Humbug.

Well... Jane found "color palette generator" and used it on her eyes, skin, hair and lips. So I followed the suit. I'm not really pleased with it, because it chooses the swatches by the largest area of colors, and some sort of color combination thing.

And these are the colors I find nasty. So I most certainly am not "summer" or anything combined with summer. And considering that cranberry has nice strength, but it's a bit too cold; that mauve would be nice if it had more depth, more brown in it, and that pinky beige is ALMOST ok, except that it has a slight greyness about it that I don't like.
I don't like greyness in colors - except in grey, and sage... and together with black, white and pink or yellow... but "taupe" is about the ugliest color there is. Taupe, rose beige and mauve. Yuk. The color of dishwater and rotting meat. So I assume the greyness of my hair and other parts is to be ignored. :-> If  I remember right, they said Autumns can look rather grey... My colors are definitely warm.

Shades of White

David Zyla says that one should get some paint chips and see which shade of white makes your skin look best. Both my husband and I agree on that it's these whites, with a little bit of pink or peach in them.

Snow is actually derived of pure red. It has only a hint of color in it, just a drop of blood one could say.

Sea shell is orange, almost in the middle of the pure red of snow and the muted yellow-orange of Old Lace.

Old Lace is the "dirtiest" of these whites, with most color and also the color there is in this is a bit dull, and not pure.

Don't you think that "Old Lace" and "Snow" are "summer" palettes, and not for "spring"? Old lace is actually very warm and more "autumn" than "summer", and the periwinkle in "Snow" palette is a "spring" color...

I might be an "autumn" anyway... but I kind of don't care ;-)

Experimenting with colors

I was inspired by "Snugbug" and her color portraits.

This is me, without make-up, with my natural hair color, some 15 years ago :-)  

My hair is dark ash blonde, honey blonde, caramel, light brown with a clear reddish tint in sunlight. And usually it has no color at all. It's pure grey. It's really interesting, actually :-D

Dishwater, mouse-y, dirt road color...

My skin has a grey tone too, I think. Certain pinkness... I think my skin is surprisingly light considering I'm a dark blonde with dark eyes and eyebrows, and also that I get olive green when I get tanned, not bronze-y, like most "Springs".  

My eyes are hazel, golden brown, amber (or topaz) in the middle and sage green on the edge.

 

   

I have tested this with fabrics and clothes of different colors myself when I was young (back at 80's, or when this thing came out :-D) and could only say one thing for certain. I'm warm, either "spring" or "autumn". I thought I was "autumn", because all the "springs" at that time were golden California blondes with blue or green eyes (or Irish strawberry blondes), and I don't look like that. My mother and sister do. 

Also, I love the "Spring" palette, and use those colors when I paint... I somehow thought that I couldn't possibly be "Spring", because I wanted to be "Spring" :-D Now I think that if I'm not "spring", I don't care, and use those colors anyway, because I love them :-D

Here's my Zyla colors (I'm a bit unhappy, because I came by this theory 20 years ago, I just didn't know it wasn't general knowledge... and now it's "Zyla colors".)

I am not OK with those hair colors, though... I think my hair is a bit different.

Spring Seasonal Color

I found Moda's suggestions on which colors go with which neutral colors, and first on the list was grey.
I am a "Spring", so my greys are very warm greys, but I can wear grey. Autumns can't, because the grey enhances the greyness of their muted tones too much.

I have talked about the greys earlier, when I talked about seasonal color theory.

These are the warm and cool greys - what you get when you mix some yellow or blue to neutral, middle gray, gray that is not cool nor warm. Those blueish greys are for "Summers", and warm greys for "Springs".

With grey Moda suggests you wear "sea green", "salmon", "chiffon", "lavender" and "navy".

 Sea Green is the blue-green sea water seems to be under the surface.

Salmon is, naturally, the color of salmon flesh.
Now, it can differ from greyish pale pink to bright orange, depending on what the fish has eaten and what it has done during its lifetime. The brighter, darker color, the better quality fish.

Chiffon yellow is the yellow from a lemon chiffon cake.

Lavender is not a "Spring" color, but there are shades of lavender - or light purple
 - that work for "Springs".
I put the navy in this palette as well.
Periwinkle is a very good color for "Springs", and works well with grey too.