So, you have gone ahead, taken the plunge and dyed your hair a red hair color? Now what? There is a very good chance, particularly if you have gone from having brunette colored hair to a red brown hair color, or from blonde to strawberry blonde, that you may need to also change your makeup. Not so long ago red hair colors were not popular. In fact, my daughter, who has a gorgeous natural deep auburn head of hair, spent years trying to bleach it, dye it black, dye it brown and dye it just about any color she could. She despised her dark red hair color, as well as the fact that it was almost impossible for her to tan because of her very fair skin!
Finally she came to terms with the fact that she was born a redhead and she realized that she may as well enjoy the fact, as no matter what color she tried to dye her hair, it seemed that red was there to stay. She has done a fantastic job of adapting her makeup and her wardrobe, and today she turns heads wherever she goes!
There are many different shades of red hair color, and each group of coloring looks better with slightly different makeup styles and coloring. While this is not meant, in any way, to be a comprehensive look at makeup trends and style by any means, hopefully you can get some idea of what type of eye shadow and other makeup looks best with red hair color.
Let’s start at the beginning, with foundation. No matter how ‘fair’ or light you think your skin should look, now that you are sporting the hair color red, stick to using a foundation that closely matches your skin color. However, you should try to avoid foundations that have a red or a pink color to them, as that will be a little overkill on your face. You don’t want to have a ruddy complexion do you? Yellow, gold or peach based foundations may help to bring out the best in you, just match the actual darkness or lightness of the foundation to your actual skin tone.
Traditionally, it is recommended that a redhead choose neutral or earth tones when it comes to eyeshadow. This is pretty much always a good choice. If you want to experiment with color, rather than sticking to what some consider the more ‘boring’ earth or neutral tones, feel free to experiment with shades of deep plum or green. It is generally not recommended that redheads were blue or pink eye shadows, as that can tend to clash with the hair color.
You may want to consider bleaching or dyeing your eyebrows as well, as generally true redheads have light eyebrows and eyelashes. If you have very dark eyebrows, they may look out of place with your red head of hair.
When it comes to lipstick, again the pinks and reds are usually best avoided with the exception of brick or toast lipsticks (and blushes). Try neutral colors or peaches, or gold-based shades of red–think apricots! Again, you really may have to experiment to see what best suits, though usually you will find that the more neutral or gold based colors look the best. You should generally try to match your blush to your lipstick color. Whatever shade looks great on your lips will most likely be perfect on your cheeks.
If you are not sure what color choices you should make, take some time to look online at different redheads and see what they have chosen. You can really get a lot of good ideas from looking at photos of models and seeing how they applied their makeup.