Cool Summer hair color
The best Cool Summer hair color is smoky and soft, with not a trace of red or gold.
Best hair colors for a Cool Summer
- Medium ash brownkeeps your skin looking clear without adding any brassy warmth
- Dark ash blondesuits natural blondes who want a cool, smoky tone
- Cool mushroom brownblends soft grey and brown tones to match your cool undertone
- Deep ash browngives darker hair depth without the harshness of jet black
- Cool beige blonde highlightsbrightens ash brown hair gently when kept soft and blended
- Silver greynatural grey and silver hair flatters your cool skin right away
Hair colors to avoid
- golden blonde or honey highlights that make your skin look pink and blotchy
- copper, auburn and warm red dyes
- warm chocolate or chestnut brown
- flat jet black that overpowers your medium contrast
Picture a medium ash brown, a mushroom brown with a chill to it, or a silver grey. Colors like these sit close to what your hair does on its own, so your skin stays clear and fresh.
- Other name: True Summer
- Runs cool
- Medium in depth
- Soft in clarity
- Silver and white gold are its best metals
What does True Summer hair look like in nature?
This palette is medium-deep and stays cool and soft. Its blues, roses and plums are all gently muted, and none of them carries warmth. Your natural hair follows suit. It grows in cool and a bit muted, never fiery.
If you have this coloring, your starting shade was likely something like:
- ash blonde, medium to dark
- cool mousy brown with the red left out
- dark ash brown
- cool charcoal brown, or a soft black
That soft, smoky look matches your undertone. An undertone is the constant tint hiding just under your skin's surface, and yours runs cool. When your hair color shares that coolness, your skin and hair look like they were made for each other.
Tone words on the dye box
Dye boxes describe tone as well as lightness, and 3 of these words show up over and over.
Ash is the cool, smoky family with the gold stripped out. It's your direction.
Golden is honey or yellow warmth. On cool skin it works against you, so it's one to leave behind.
Neutral lands between them. It's not as warm as golden, though it's not truly cool either. Ash and mushroom shades fit you better.
Best shades for this season
Every shade here holds on to the cool, soft feel of your palette. The easiest way to pick is to stay near the depth your hair already has.
| Shade | Best on | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Medium ash brown | Medium brown hair | Lets your skin stay clear with no brass creeping in |
| Dark ash blonde | Natural blondes | Adds a smoky coolness |
| Cool mushroom brown | Brown hair that wants softening | Blends grey softly through brown to echo your cool undertone |
| Deep ash brown | Darker hair | Brings richness with none of jet black's bite |
| Beige blonde highlights, kept cool | Hair that's brown with an ash cast | Lifts softly when kept well mixed |
| Silver grey | Hair that's already grey or silver | Flatters cool skin instantly |
Cool mushroom brown also sits nicely beside palette clothes such as slate (your top neutral) and dusty rose.
Highlights and balayage
When a single solid color feels flat, cool beige blonde highlights over ash brown hair bring in light without any warmth. They look best when kept soft and well mixed, so the whole head still reads as a single gentle shade at a distance.
Balayage is one route to that blend. The lighter pieces get painted on by hand, so they land more loosely than tidy stripes would. The rule for your season doesn't change: keep those lighter pieces cool and beige; honey and gold are off the menu.
Shades to steer clear of
Hair with warmth fights your cool skin the way warm clothes do. Orange and warm yellow in your palette leave skin looking sallow and tired, and hair behaves no differently.
- Golden blonde or honey highlights can make skin look pink and blotchy.
- Copper, auburn and warm red shades import the fiery heat your coloring simply doesn't have.
- Warm chocolate or chestnut shades lay a warm film over skin that runs cool.
- Flat jet black is too much for your medium contrast. Contrast is how far apart your hair, skin and eyes are in darkness, and yours falls in the middle. Pure black outweighs it and can wash the color right out of your face.
What to request at the salon
At the salon, simple words go a long way. Any colorist will understand these lines:
- "I'd love a cool ash or mushroom tone, nothing golden or red."
- "Please stay close to the depth my hair already has."
- "Any highlights should be a cool beige blonde, soft and well blended."
- "I want to skip honey, copper, chestnut, and anything jet black."
A picture of one of this season's shades helps as well, since tone words don't mean the same thing to everyone.
Letting the grey grow in
Grey and silver hair, left natural, suits you from the first step. Silver already tops your list of metals, and silver jewelry sits smoothly against your skin while gold looks separate and brassy. Grey hair follows the same logic, so growing it in keeps you inside your palette rather than beyond it.
Questions people ask
Is platinum an option over dark ash brown hair?
Platinum doesn't appear on this season's shade list. Cool Summer's lighter choices are dark ash blonde plus cool beige blonde highlights, and both stay soft. Your clarity is soft, which points you toward muted colors rather than anything very bright or stark.
Can you use a neutral dye on this palette?
Neutral lands between warm and cool, so it isn't fully in step with your skin. It's a closer fit than golden or copper would be, but ash and mushroom shades line up with your cool undertone more completely.
Are Cool Summer and True Summer the same thing?
They are: the 2 names describe one season. It belongs to the summer group, and there are 4 such groups, each splitting into 3 seasons. Among the summers, its name comes from the trait that leads: cool, with soft as the runner-up.
How do I confirm I'm a Cool Summer before coloring my hair?
A quiz is a starting point. A few signs give it away: cool rose pink wakes up your face, and dusty blue or slate grey bring out your eyes more than navy does, while silver suits you better than gold. You can confirm these in a mirror by daylight, or book an in-person draping session. Phone cameras and indoor bulbs both shift how skin reads, so daylight tells you more than a selfie will.