Blonde shades of hair

Strawberry blonde hair [1]

Blonde is a diverse hair colour, and there are blonde shades of hair to suit just about everyone. Not only can you choose from the more typical shades like beige and gold, but there are even many exciting fashion shades that are trendy and more unusual than your average hair colour.

The many shades of blonde

Blonde shades of hair fall into the regular two families of warm and cool colours. Warm blondes are built on warm tones like gold, copper, and red. Cool blondes on the other hand are built on tones like violet and blue. This means it is easy to match them to your skin tone to choose a hair colour that will look natural.

The different shades available include:

Ash blonde
Pearl blonde
Natural blonde
Beige blonde
Golden blonde
Caramel blonde
Strawberry blonde
Fashion shades

[2]

Warm blonde shades of hair

Warm blonde shades are best matched to warm skin tones. You can tell if you have a warm skin tone by looking at the colour of your skin if you have a keen eye. Warmer skin looks golden, peachy, or olive toned. If you find it hard to tell, one of the easier ways is to simply look at the veins of your wrist. If your skin is warm toned, this will cause your veins to look more greenish than blue.

Golden blonde

Golden blonde is the ubiquitous blonde hair colour that everyone associates with blonde, and it is also the most typical warm shade of blonde encountered. This shade is, as the name suggests, a strong gold tone and will usually look best if you have golden toned skin, and brown or hazel eyes.

Beige blonde hair [3]

This blonde colour is easier to achieve, easy to maintain, and can be improved with the addition of highlights and lowlights to add in extra dimension and customise your shade to suit your own individual taste.

Beige blonde

Beige blonde is a blended shade that is somewhere between a natural blonde and a golden blonde. A beige shade contains subtle ash tones and this softens the golden hue to make the colour look cooler. As it is softer than a true golden blonde, it is a better shade to try if you find golden blonde just doesn't work with your skin or eyes.

Caramel blonde

Caramel blonde is a warmer shade of colour than golden or beige blonde. If you're a natural redhead and you want to try blonde, this is a good shade to try first because it contains copper tone as well as golden tone. This blonde shade also suits people with darker skin, compared to a shade like beige that is better suited to paler skin.

Strawberry blonde

Strawberry blonde is an interesting colour because it is a light copper or red blonde. This makes this colour also very suitable for those who have natural red hair, because it is in the same subset of tone. However, it can sometimes even work nicely on those with pale or cool toned skin, so some experimentation may be required to know if it will suit you.

Golden blonde hair [4]

Cool blonde shades of hair

Cool blonde shades are blonde colours that incorporate violet and blue tones. This means that they are best suited if you have cool toned skin and eyes. If your skin has a blueish or pinkish tinge to it, it is likely cool toned. You can also easily determine this by looking at the veins of your wrist. If your veins look blue, you likely have cool toned skin.

Natural blonde

Natural blonde, like other natural tone colours, is a neutral blonde. This means that it is not strongly cool or warm. These tones do generally sit slightly to the cool side of the fence though, and will easily suit anyone with cool toned skin, but they are also a great option if you have a more neutral skin tone.

Lightest ash blonde hair [5]

As these shades are not strongly cool, you may also find you can wear this colour even if you have warm skin.

Pearl blonde

Pearl blonde generally refers to a soft ash dye. These shades are between an ash and a natural in that they are a cool toned blonde, but they aren't as cool as a regular ash dye. Depending on how light your hair is, a pearl blonde can look white, slightly silver, or in the case of darker blondes, very slightly greyish. True ash looks slightly blueish, silver, or grey.

Pearl blonde shades are best suited if you have pale, cool toned skin, and green eyes, because the violet tone that is prominent in pearl blonde shades really boosts the appearance of the green colour in green eyes whilst also improving the right complexion.

Ash blonde

Ash blonde is the coolest tone available out of the different blonde shades of hair. These shades look silver or greyish, depending on how dark your blonde hair is. If you have cool toned skin and blue or green eyes, this can be a beautiful shade, but it's definitely not suited to anyone with warmer skin. Only those with the palest cool tone skin will benefit from an ash blonde colour.

Levels of blonde hair

Ash blonde hair [5]

As well as the different shades of blonde, blonde hair also varies in how dark it is. A level 6 blonde is a dark blonde and is only slightly lighter than a light brown hair colour. A level 10 blonde however, is a white, pale silver, or pastel shade when toned correctly, and the lightest colour available.

The different levels of blonde hair include:

Dark blonde - level 6
Medium blonde - level 7
Light blonde - level 8
Very light blonde - level 9
Lightest blonde - level 10

To put this into perspective, platinum blonde hair is a level 9 on the scale. All of these levels can also be dyed in any of the different tones above, meaning that you can not only choose your preferred tone, but also how dark it will be. If you have darker skin you will suit a darker blonde better, whilst the paler your skin is, the better a lighter blonde will look.

Caramel blonde hair [6]

Fashion blonde shades of hair

Fashion shades are less natural colours that are meant to be interesting and fun. They are often inspired by cultural trends and can vary a lot. Some of the fashion shades you might encounter include:

Mahogany blonde: A red-violet shade of blonde.
Pastel blondes: Pale blonde hair with a pastel tone like violet or lavender.
Rosewood blonde: Pinkish blonde hair.
Violet blonde: Bright violet shades.
Red blonde: Bright red shades.
Copper blonde: Bright copper shades.

These colours can be matched by following the same rules as in the above sections, matching the specific tones of the shade with your skin and eyes. They are high maintenance colours that draw attention and require care to continue looking spectacular, but when they are looked after properly, they are absolutely beautiful colours.

How to dye your hair blonde

Found a blonde shade and want to know how you can dye your hair blonde? Find out how to dye your own hair blonde...

Wondering which of these blonde shades of hair will suit your own features best, or have a picture of a colour you like and need to know what shade it is? Leave a comment and find out how to choose the best colour to fit your style...

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