You want to give your hair a burst of colour but you’re wondering which hue will best suit your skin tone? I could tell you what the best bright hair colours are for black girls, but your options really are unlimited. Purple, blue, pink, green, orange and yellow all look amazing on brown skin.
I’ve dyed my hair pink, purple, red and blue – and, they all suited the colour of my skin. I really believe that our brown skin can suit absolutely complement any hair colour and, if you really want to get technical about it, it’s just about getting the undertones right.
Picking the Right Bright Hair Colour for Your Skin Tone
I do a quick little application of colour theory – just like I would when picking out an eyeshadow look or buying a new foundation. I have yellow undertones in my skin, so I look for hair colours the suit that.
So, you want to pick the right hue of any colour you’re thinking of. I’ll use red as an example, because it’s a pretty complicated colour.
If you have yellow or red undertones, a warm red colour will suit you best. This look on Rihanna is a great example of a warm red:
For cooler skin tones, you’ll go for a more blue-toned red like Porsha Williams:
Inspiration for Bright Hair Colours on Brown Skin
These are some of my favourite looks I’ve collected over the years of the most gorgeous colourful hair looks on brown skin:
Hair rings are a fun and easy way to dress up any hairstyle. I recently ordered a pack of rings and looked up inspiration, but I couldn’t find many examples on black hair. So, I wanted to put together a post of hair ring styles for afro textured hair to help out anyone else who might be in the same position as I was.
Just One Row
A single row of hair rings can go a long way to making your hairstyle pop:
Add some chains to your hair rings for a really fancy look. More editorial looks tend to combine both of these types of hair jewellery, and they’re great for a music festival or photoshoot.
If you’d rather not spend the time weaving the rings into your hair, a great option is to wrap them around your braids. It’s a unique look that jazzes up your hair.
For lots of styles with hair rings, it’s as simple as opening the rings up, sticking them in your braid, and closing them back up. However, if you’d like to weave them in, it can be a little bit tricky so here is a very helpful tutorial:
A still from Louis Vuitton’s F/W21 Men’s fashion show – a stunning showcase of black artistry.
Earlier today, I watched the Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall/Winter 2021 fashion show for Virgil Abloh’s collection “E B O N I C S”. Featuring a beautiful array of black artistry in music, poetry and dance, the video had me floored.
It opens with Saul Williams reciting a poem:
The construct of purity is sullied with every step. The evidence I carry The hidden sun in every breath. My blackest self whose whitest death Is luxury. I am no stranger anymore. The world is love to me. The snow will melt. The ice will flaw And make it up to me.
Then, there’s jazz, there’s modern dance, there’s incredible fashion, there’s Mos Def performing original songs. It’s a lot, and it’s amazing. You really just have to see it for yourself:
Watching this stunning display of black culture left me speechless. It also made me curious, wondering if there are any other maintstream, high fashion brands out there that aim to celebrate black beauty in the same way.
Since this is Black Hair Magic, I was more focused on brands that showcase a variety of black hairstyles. While we are seeing more black models on the runway, what about natural hair? Sure, we see lots of models with shaved hair and flat ironed styles – but, how many brands highlight natural styles like twists, braids and locs?
The answer is – not many. However, the ones that do have quite an impressive array.
Fashion Brands With Great Black Hair Representation
Basically, I scrolled through the Instagram feeds of all of the high fashion houses could think of. The brands that required me to scroll for a while before coming to at least three diverse black hair looks didn’t make the list.
So, that’s not to say that any brands that didn’t make the cut don’t feature black models or models with natural hair. There are plenty that do. This list is simply highlighting the fashion houses that make the effort to include models with a wide range of natural hairstyles.
Of course, there are plenty of black-owned fashion brands out there that you can support. However, it’s important to see diverse representation of black hair in the more mainstream brands who have the furthest reach in the media.
In the high fashion world, showcasing models who wear their naturally or in protective styles shows that black hair can be luxe. It is a symbol of acknowlegement – that you can have locs or cornrows or twists and wear haute couture and look like you belong in it.
There really is still a long way to go in the world of fashion, but this is a good start. Black hair is beautiful, a gorgeous accompaniment to any type of clothing, and we’d love to see more brands sending this message in the future.
Black Hair Magic 