Caramel, honey, gold, copper, and strawberry give a healthy brightness that makes us look and feel younger. (Framing your face with lighter shades draws the eye away from any complexion concerns, as well.)
If you aren't keen on light hair and want to stay true to the dark side, try a soft black tone for a youthful look. Harsher black tones can bring out a lot of contrast and wash you out. Soft black can help skin look smoother and therefore more youthful.
Lighter hair color makes you look younger – but the tone you go for is paramount. Stay away from cool, ashy tones and add some warmth to your look with golden highlights. Go for shades like honey to give your complexion a healthy, youthful glow!
Going too dark with your color creates the illusion of more fine lines and wrinkles, says Michael Dueñas, celebrity hairstylist and founder of Hair Room Service. Also, if you have gray hair, you can make the line of demarcation more apparent when your hair starts to grow in.
If you've been lightening your hair for years with highlights or single process, going darker will give the appearance of softer, shinier, healthier hair. The reason being darker colors fill in porous hair better making it look less, well, fried.
The study's authors describe their results: “…we found that lighter hair (blond and brown) compared to darker hair (black) is generally associated with perceptions of youth, health and attractiveness, and generally leads to more positive perceptions of relationship and parenting potential.”
Most women think brunette hair is the sexiest, as 25% of those polled favoured this option. Womens' second preference is blonde, which was voted as the sexiest hair colour by 19.6% of women. Again, red took third spot, accounting for 11.8% of womens' votes.
"A few highlights can add texture to the hair, although too many can have the opposite effect and make it look even thinner." She reiterates that darker hair can naturally look thicker, "therefore – if the skin tone allows – going brunette may help hair to appear fuller".
Loose waves are more younger-looking, while straight hair can be aging. Play around with face-framing layers to give your hair some softness and movement. Layers can also make your hair appear to be more luscious and healthy. Parra recommends asking your stylist for perimeter layers that are cut in a straight line.
Color your hair darker around your face. Highlights framing your face can actually make it appear rounder. "Lighter tones open up the face, making it appear wider, while darker tones are slimming," says Dubre.
Light skin: Black hair can make those with light skin look unnaturally pale. For the same effect with left ghost-i-ness, try a dark brunette shade instead. Medium skin: Again, a dark brunette might work better for you. If you're determined to try black, avoid red undertones to avoid yellow-looking skin.
Myth: Only Blonde Kids Make Gorgeous Adult Blondes
While it's true that adults who were blonde as kids would look natural as blonde adults, pretty much everyone can look wear blonde hair. That's right. You heard it here first. No matter your skin color or hair color, you can go blonde.
According to New York plastic surgeon Michael Sachs, blondes age faster than brunettes, and blue-eyed women age faster than brown-eyed women, because "dark skin has built-in sun-filtering mechanisms," and the darker the eye, the more the protection.
Also, darker hair tones tend to look longer than lighter hair tones! The most obvious way to add length is to use clip-in hair extensions!
Generally, the rule of thumb is the darker the hair the thicker it is. Individuals with black and brown hair typically have thicker hair strands but an overall lower density of hair. While blonde hair individuals usually have finer hair strands but a high density of those hairs.
What eye and hair color combination is most attractive? Blond hair and blue eyes are considered very attractive in women and men with black hair with hazel eyes are considered the sexiest.
A poll of 3,000 men by The Daily Mail in 2008 found that an overwhelming 43% of men preferred a long and wavy hairstyle. Second place went to long and straight with 13% of men choosing it as their preferred.
Natural red hair is the rarest hair color in the world, only occurring in 1 to 2% of the global population. Since red hair is a recessive genetic trait, it is necessary for both parents to carry the gene, whether or not they themselves are redheaded.
Some men consider women with black hair the most attractive. Technically, black is the absence of all colors, which sometimes makes women appear as outside-the-box thinkers, open to new things, and able to see beyond what other people see.
People with brunette hair are the most attractive.
By presenting pictures of the same woman with different dye hair colors, the researchers found that out of the population analyzed, 67 percent of men preferred the woman with brunette hair and 71 percent of women chose the man with brunette hair.
Here's what the poll determined: “60 percent of men found dark hair to be more preferred than light, with 33.1 percent picking brown hair as the most attractive and 28.6 saying black hair is the sexiest.”
Thick, glossy strands go a long way toward making hair look healthy—even when it's not. "Because the hairs are thicker naturally, dark hair is better at camouflaging damage than light hair; it weighs down flyaways and split ends," notes Adrian Wallace, senior colorist at Rita Hazan Salon in NYC.