Does light or dark hair make you look younger? There's no defined hair color that is more youthful. However, consider going for a more multi-dimensional hair color with lighter and darker pieces overall. Typically, a safe bet is to ask for balayage highlights that are around two shades lighter than your natural hue.
Golden Highlights
Warm tones do an exceptionally good job at making us look younger. If you're a brunette, add some warmth to your look by asking your stylist for golden highlights. This way you'll be ready for the summer plus ensure that your hair is making you look younger, not older!
Generally, these colours will make anyone appear older: black, cool dark brown, fiery red, yellow blonde, mousy blonde and dark grey. There's a common opinion that platinum blonde and silver hair dye age you, but we don't believe so.
Lighter hair can make you look younger, as long as you use the right tones. Add some warmth with golden highlights and go for shades like honey to give your complexion a healthy, youthful glow!
If you're looking to stay true to your aging roots, a light blonde shade is always the way to go. This color blends seamlessly with ashy browns and grays.
Our skin gets more sallow with age and a few highlights a shade or two lighter around your face can refresh your complexion, but going too light can be just as aging as going too dark. It's important to maintain a contrast between your hair color and your skin tone.
“I always say that going too light can be just as aging as going too dark,” Samra adds. “It's important to maintain a certain level of contrast between your hair color and your skin tone.” Otherwise, your hair loses depth and you'll look washed out.
Shoulder-length hair (or longer) with layers
Forget what you thought about long hair past the age of 40—thick hair actually looks more youthful and polished when it falls shoulder-length or longer. Shorter hair has a tendency to expand at the ends, leaving you with an unflattering triangle effect.
Typically, children with dark hair will keep their dark hair into adulthood. But some children with light hair, including towhead blonds, strawberry blonds, dishwater blonds and redheads, see their hair go dark brown by their 10th birthday.
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.
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.
If you're in your 50s and are indecisive about going lighter or darker, always opt to go lighter. Hair naturally lightens as you age, and lighter colors like ash blonde, honey, and platinum are sure to blend into your natural gray hair better.
The hottest styles on the spring runways centered around one thing: textured waves. And whether you wear your hair short, long, up, or down, "natural movement always looks more youthful than stiff straight styles, and you start to lose it as you get older," says celebrity hairstylist Paul Norton.
This warmer, yellow-based blonde brings out the Goldilocks-esque tones of your natural hair shade for a brighter complexion overall. The smooth-as-butter color adds a young softness to the face as well, which perfectly counteracts the way that aging can cause loss of natural fullness and fat in facial features.
Here's what we found: Average age redheads start going gray:30. Average age brunette women start going gray:32. Average age blonde women start going gray:35.
"I think we do get more attention, but not just because our hair color is brighter," Veronica said. "Blonde stereotypes have been deeply ingrained in society. We are perceived as fun and bubbly, but also dumb and easy. The extra attention isn't necessarily a good thing."
Our Designers at One Salon concur that it's usually flattering to lighten your hair a bit as you age. Furthermore, going blonder makes it easier to conceal gray new growth. However, going too light can be as unflattering as going too dark.
White's rule of thumb is that light skinned, light eyed girls will look more natural with lighter shades, while dark skin and dark eyes work better with darker shades. Your colorist should be able to help you determine your skin tone.
We spoke to the experts to get the lowdown on when it's safe to dye your child's hair. "I really don't think it's safe to dye or bleach a child's hair until after puberty, and ideally not until their late teens — at least 16," advises Dr. Sejal Shah, M.D., a New York-based dermatological surgeon.