How your colouring can change over summer

With the weather getting warmer and more sunshine about, I thought I’d address a question I’m frequently asked when people come for a colour analysis; does our colouring change in the summertime when some skins get deeper and some people’s hair becomes lighter? And does this require a different colour palette?

The quick answer is “no, our colouring does not change so much that we need a different palette of colours to choose from”. Having said that, those with an overall deeper colour palette may wish to use the lighter colours within their pallets to achieve a lighter, brighter, more spring or summery effect.

However our value contrast will change if our hair and / or skin becomes noticeably deeper or lighter. I’ll explain…

DEEPER SKIN IN SUMMER

For anyone who collects a bit of tan in the warmer months, adjusting the value contrast levels of your outfit can make a big difference.

So if you have deep or medium deep hair and your skin goes deeper in the summer, your value contrast will become lower. What I mean by this is that there is less difference between the two; the hair and skin will be more similar in depth than without the suntan. Therefore wearing colours that are more similar in depth will work better than wearing something very light with something very deep. This principle holds regardless of the initial skin depth.

For those with lighter hair who attract a tan over the summer months, the opposite applies. While the hair remains lighter the skin becomes deeper, resulting in more difference in the value (depth) of each. Therefore wearing outfits that have greater value contrast in them will work better over summer.

LIGHTER HAIR IN SUMMER

A number of people report that their hair goes lighter as it catches more sun (or they choose to make it so for summer months). This also impacts value contrast.

For those who go from medium deep hair to lighter hair and who naturally have a medium deep or deep skin tone, the lighter hair brings about a greater difference in value contrast. This means that introducing greater difference between the deepest and lightest elements in their outfit will look better while the hair remains lighter .

For fair skinned people, lightening their hair so that it is almost as light or lighter than their skin tone lowers their value contrast. This means they may want to reach for pieces with less contrast between the lightest and deepest colours.

I hope this helps, and as always, get in touch if you have any questions.

NB: I created this image using AI to show clear examples of high and low value contras, which is why they look like models (lol! I don’t think AI can create regular looking faces)