Home Color analysis Deep Winter Deep Winter Hair color
Deep Winter · Hair color

Deep Winter hair color: espresso, blue-black, and icy highlights

Blue-black at the bottom of the range and icy balayage at the top - but only one of those ends is a whole-head color. Your palette names its all-over shades at levels 3 to 1, and its lighter ones, icy and graphite at 7 and 6, only as pieces over a dark base. Most Deep Winters (Dark Winter in some systems) are born at level 2 or 3, so the salon work is keeping that depth cool and glossy and putting light in where it moves. Below: the codes, how light the lights can go, which reds work, gray, and what to avoid.

  • Levels 3 to 1, lights to 7
  • Cool depth, never gold
  • What to say at the chair
Find my color season The full Deep Winter palette →

Your range, in salon levels

  1. Icy balayage hair color for Deep Winter
    Lights only Icy balayage
  2. Black cherry ombre hair color for Deep Winter
    Cool red Black cherry ombre
  3. Cool espresso hair color for Deep Winter
    Natural Cool espresso
  4. Blue-black hair color for Deep Winter
    Deepest Blue-black

Start here

Two numbers, and one shape to your palette

A colorist reads hair color as two numbers. The first is the level: how light, on a scale that runs from 1, black, to 10, the palest blonde. The second is the tone, the digit after the point, which says whether the color leans ash, violet, gold or copper. Ask for something cool and dark and you get the colorist’s idea of it. Ask for a level 3 ash and you get yours.

Your palette has an unusual shape. Its four whole-head shades - blue-black, cool espresso, violet black, bitter chocolate - all sit at levels 3 to 1. Its two lighter shades, icy balayage at 7 and graphite at 6, are named only as lights painted over a dark base. Nothing is named at 4 or 5. So a Deep Winter appointment almost never lightens the whole head. It keeps the base where it is, cools and polishes it, and puts any light in as pieces.

The whole page in one line

Keep the base within a level of your natural color, or a shade deeper, and keep it cool: ash, violet, or a black cherry paired cool, never gold. Put any light in as fine pieces - at most three levels above the base, and never past level 7.

The salon scale, and your part of it

  1. L10
  2. L9
  3. L8
  4. L7 lightest
  5. L6
  6. L5
  7. L4
  8. L3
  9. L2
  10. L1 deepest

Two groups of rungs light up, with a gap between them. Levels 3 to 1 are where your palette names its all-over shades. Levels 7 and 6 are where it names its lights, and only as pieces on a dark base. Levels 5 and 4 stay dark on purpose: taking the whole head there is the move that costs the contrast between your hair and your skin. Above 7 the lights turn blonde, and platinum and sand blonde are on your avoid list by name.

What is on this page

  1. What to ask for The sentence for the chair, the four cool tone digits at level 3, and why the lights go in as pieces.
  2. How light? Not blonde all over. Lights, yes: up to three levels above your base, and level 7 at the very most.
  3. Red and burgundy Black cherry and violet black are yours. The line is which way the red leans, and copper is past it.
  4. Going gray Silver is a winter color. The hard part is the line between it and dark dye, and four ways to handle it.
  5. Keeping it A cool dark color does not fade lighter. It fades red. What slows it down, and why blue beats purple.
  6. Colors to avoid Twelve shades on an ordinary face, including four cool ones that fail anyway.
  7. The level list Eight shades, their levels and the tone digits - one block to show a colorist.

What to ask for at the chair

A Deep Winter appointment is mostly about what does not change. The depth stays. The job is to keep it cool, give it shine, and decide whether any light goes in - and if it does, where. That usually means booking a gloss or demi-permanent color, not a lightening service. One sentence covers it; below it, the three choices the sentence is made of.

Find my levels

Scrolls down to the board, where picking your natural level highlights your stretch of the ash column.

For example, 4.15 is classed as a cool colour, whereas 4.56 would be a warm colour.
Hair & Makeup Artist Handbook, International Colour Charts for Hairdressing
Say this

I am about a level 3 naturally. Keep me at a level 3, cool - a 3.1 - as a gloss or demi, even and glossy, with no gold in the formula. If you add light, make it fine icy pieces around my face, no lighter than a level 6.

Put your own natural level in place of the 3; the rest works for any Deep Winter as it stands: a cool digit, a formula checked for gold, and light kept to pieces. On near-black hair those three decide whether the color looks polished or heavy.

Three choices inside the sentence

  1. How deep

    Your whole-head shades sit at 3, 2 and 1. If your own hair is already there, and on most Deep Winters it is, the level stays put or goes one step deeper. A gloss or demi at your natural level does the whole job for the base; nothing needs lifting.

    “I am a 3. Keep me at a 3.”
  2. Which cool

    After the point: .1 ash, .2 violet, and .5 mahogany when it is paired cool. With two digits the first leads and the second tips the temperature, so a 3.52 is black cherry with violet behind it and a 3.56 is the same mahogany turned warm. The one to rule out is gold: dark browns are often mixed with it to look natural, which is what your palette means by check the formula for gold.

    “Ash, a 3.1. For wine, a 3.52.”
  3. Where the light goes

    On a dark cool base, light belongs in pieces: hand-painted balayage or fine babylights of icy ash or graphite, no more than three levels above the base, densest around the face. Or no light at all, and color hidden underneath instead - your palette’s sapphire underlayer shows only when the hair moves.

    “Fine icy pieces around my face, no lighter than a 6.”

Reading the number on the tube

Every tube is labeled level.tone. The four frames below keep one woman at level 3 throughout, so depth is fixed and the tone digit is the single change. At this depth the tone is what shows in daylight, and what the hair turns into as it fades.

  • Level 3 cool ash brown hair, a 3.1, on a Deep Winter woman 3.1 Ash Bitter chocolate. Her skin looks clearer and the whites of her eyes brighter.
  • Level 3 violet brown hair, a 3.2, on a Deep Winter woman 3.2 Violet Violet black at the same depth: near-black indoors, plum when she moves.
  • Level 3 cool mahogany hair, black cherry, on a Deep Winter woman 3.5 Mahogany Black cherry - mahogany kept cool. Wine-red with no orange in it.
  • Level 3 golden brown hair, a 3.3, on a Deep Winter woman 3.3 Gold Gold at the same depth. The hair softens, and her skin turns sallow beside it.
  • 3.1 Ash The center of your palette: the chip is your bitter chocolate, named at level 3. Ash cancels the red-orange that dark hair carries underneath, so the brown reads smoky and cool instead of warm.
  • 3.2 Violet The chip is your violet black’s level 3 value. Violet in most brands, a green-leaning matt in a few - so say violet as well as the number.
  • 3.0 Natural No direction added. The chip is your cool espresso’s level 3 value: at this depth a clean natural sits close to ash, and on your palette it is a real option. Ask whether the brand’s natural carries gold.
  • 3.5 Mahogany Red with some violet in it, neutral on its own, so the second digit settles it. The chip is your black cherry, named at level 3. Ask for a 3.52 or a 3.51; a 3.56 or a 3.54 takes it warm.
  • 3.13 Ash gold Ash with gold behind it - the nude, beige result trade charts describe for a .13. It softens dark hair toward muted, which is the direction your avoid list runs. The chip is made from dusty mushroom at your depth.
  • 3.3 Gold Warm, and the usual hidden ingredient in a “rich” dark brown. Next to a Deep Winter face it reads yellow. The chip is the avoid list’s toffee at your depth.
  • 3.4 Copper Orange-red. On you it looks like dye that has faded rather than a color you chose. The chip is the avoid list’s copper red at your depth.

Four chips are your palette’s own level 3 values: bitter chocolate and black cherry named there, and the violet black and cool espresso ramps at that rung. The other three are built to the same lightness from three avoid shades - dusty mushroom, toffee and copper red - so the digit is the only thing that moves. The cool chips sit close together at level 3; the photographs above separate them better than the squares do.

The salon board, and your column in it

Colorists pick shades from a board that crosses depth with tone. Strip it down to the Deep Winter squares and it shrinks to its dark bottom rows and its cool edge, with a thin run of lights climbing the ash column.

How to read it
  1. Down the side: how light. Salon depth, lightest row at the top. Find your own hair first - for most Deep Winters it is the level 2 or level 3 row.
  2. Across the top: which tone. Columns are the tone digit: ash and violet at the left, gold and copper toward the right, mahogany at the very end. A 3.1 sits where the level 3 row meets the ash column.
  3. The column is the season. The row is you. The outlined column belongs to every Deep Winter. Your base is the square on your own row; the squares above it, up to three rungs, are for lights, and the column stops at level 7.
What is your natural level?
Tone · the digit after the point  —  cooler → warmer
Level .1Ash .2Violet .0Natural .3Gold .4Copper .5Mahogany
L10lightest blonde
L9very light blonde Sand blonde
L8light blonde Ash light brown Honey gold
L7medium blonde Icy balayage Dusty mushroom Toffee
L6dark blonde Graphite lights
L5light brown Graphite lights Copper red
L4medium brown Graphite lights Violet black Cool espresso Milk chocolate Black cherry
L3dark brown Bitter chocolate Violet black Cool espresso Gold Copper Black cherry
L2darkest brown Blue-black Violet black Cool espresso Black cherry
L1black Blue-black Violet black Cool espresso Black cherry

This is the ash column for every Deep Winter. Choose your natural level to see your slice of it.

  • The Deep Winter column. Ash, from your base up to your lights.
  • Filled: a measured value - from your palette ramps in the cool columns and mahogany, from the avoid list or a salon code elsewhere.
  • This palette publishes nothing at that combination.

Outlined: ash, from level 7 down to level 1 - icy balayage at 7, graphite from 6 to 4, bitter chocolate at 3, blue-black at 2 and 1. Violet, natural and mahogany are yours too, from level 4 down. The warm side carries avoid shades and salon codes only.

These squares are measured from your palette, not copied from a manufacturer, so a brand’s own 3.1 will differ a little - use the word ash alongside the number. Two shades are not on the board. Sapphire is a direct dye with no level.tone code, and platinum, from your avoid list, would sit above the top of the ash column. Above level 3, the ash squares are lights, not whole-head colors.

And how it is placed

Your palette is split into two halves, and these two frames are one of each: deep, even color and dimension, kept cool. Same woman, same brown, only the light moving. Underneath, a second woman with a near-black natural, photographed from above three weeks after coloring - which is where the case for pieces over a whole-head lift is made.

  • Level 3 cool dark brown as one even color from scalp to ends One flat block Deep, even color - the first half of your palette. Glossy and correct, and the lowest-upkeep option on this page.
  • Level 3 cool dark brown with fine icy ash pieces around the face and through the ends Icy pieces Dimension, kept cool - the second half. The root stays dark, the light sits where the hair moves, and a regrowth line has nowhere to form.
  • Level 5 cool ash brown grown out flat, a solid band of natural level 2 regrowth along the parting A hard regrowth line A cool ash-brown taken flat to the scalp, three levels above her own. Three weeks later, a near-black band.
  • Level 5 cool ash brown with a soft root smudge, the natural level 2 root melting into the length A root smudge The same ash-brown with her own depth kept at the root and melted downward. No band forms.

And what the distance costs you

Why the light stays in pieces. How loud a root looks depends on the gap between the colored length and the new growth, and from a near-black natural the gap opens after very little lift. One natural level 2, two gaps, three weeks each.

  • Level 2 near-black regrowth against a level 4 cool brown, a faint shadow along the parting Two levels from natural A cool brown two levels up. The regrowth is a shadow you have to look for.
  • Level 2 near-black regrowth against level 7 icy ash all over, a stark dark band along the parting Five levels from natural Icy ash over the whole head, five levels up - your lightest shade used as an all-over color. Same three weeks, and the parting is a stripe.

The phrasebook

Say this

“A gloss at my own level, cool”
Shine and a cooler cast with no lightening at all - the service most Deep Winters actually need.
“No gold in the formula, please”
Many dark browns are mixed with gold to look natural. Asking outright keeps it out.
“Black cherry, paired with violet”
A wine-red that stays cool: a 3.52, not a 3.56.
“Fine icy pieces, my root left dark”
Light where the hair moves, and no regrowth line to book around.

And what these get you

“Something warmer for the winter”
Usually gold or copper stirred into the brown. Warm shades are the first group on your avoid list.
“Lighten it all over, just a bit”
A whole head at level 5 or 6 - the gap in your palette, where the contrast goes.
“Burgundy, like the photo”
Many burgundies are red-copper underneath. Ask for the digits: 3.52 is yours, 3.56 is not.
“Make it jet black”
Often a flat 1.0 with no shine. Blue-black is yours, but ask for it cool - a 1.1 - and glossy.

So the brief is about keeping: your level, a cool digit, and light only where the hair moves. The base hardly changes on a Deep Winter, which leaves one real question - how light those pieces can go.

Can a Deep Winter go blonde?

Not all over. The lightest shades your palette names - icy balayage at level 7 and graphite at 6 - are named as lights over a dark base, never as a whole-head color, and platinum and sand blonde are on your avoid list. So the useful question is narrower: how light can the pieces go? Two women, two starting levels, the base held and only the lights getting lighter.

The answer

Not all over. In pieces, up to about three levels above your base and never past level 7 - icy, never golden. Whichever limit you reach first is your ceiling. Beyond it the lights stop reading as shine in dark hair and start reading as stripes, and the contrast that makes this coloring striking goes with them.

A natural level 4, the lighter end of Deep Winter. Three levels up is level 7, the top of the palette.

  • Deep Winter woman with her natural level 4 cool brown hair and no lights Her natural, L4 Her own cool brown, no lights. A little quiet, and a fine place to start.
  • The same woman with level 6 icy ash pieces, two levels above her base Lights at L6 Icy pieces two levels up. They show as movement more than as color.
  • The same woman with level 7 icy balayage, the top of the Deep Winter range Her ceiling, L7 Level 7 icy balayage, the lightest shade on the palette. Silver-brown and still cool - the edge.
  • The same woman with platinum balayage, past the top of the Deep Winter range Past it, platinum Platinum pieces, from your avoid list. Bright on their own, and they turn her dark hair into stripes.

Now a natural level 2, near-black. Her ceiling sits two levels lower.

  • Deep Winter woman with her natural level 2 near-black hair and no lights Her natural, L2 Her own near-black brown - the natural most Deep Winters start from.
  • The same woman with level 4 graphite pieces, two levels above her base Lights at L4 Graphite pieces two levels up. On hair this dark, that is already visible light.
  • The same woman with level 5 cool ash pieces, her ceiling Her ceiling, L5 Cool ash pieces three levels up: as light as this start carries before the pieces part company with the base.
  • The same woman with level 7 icy balayage, five levels above her natural Past it, L7 Level 7 icy pieces, five levels from her base. On her they look drawn on.

Set the upper row’s third frame beside the lower row’s last. They share one hex: level 7 icy balayage, the top of your palette. Three levels above a natural 4 it looks like light in her own hair. Five levels above a natural 2 it looks applied. The shade is identical; the distance between the pieces and the base is what changed.

Why not all over? Your palette names nothing at levels 4 or 5. A whole head there is neither the deep, even color the palette starts with nor light set against dark - it is the middle ground that flattens a high-contrast face. Go lighter still and a cool brown turns into ash light brown or dusty mushroom, both on your avoid list.

The chemistry points the same way. Lightener lifts dark hair through red and orange long before it reaches anything icy, so every cool light on a dark base is lifted first and then toned. Pieces keep that practical: a few strands lifted and toned silver, not a whole head pushed through orange.

If you want more light anyway

  1. Keep the lights fine

    Babylights or hand-painted pieces, densest around the face and through the top layer. Thick sections turn into stripes on hair this dark.

    Fine pieces, no chunky foils.
  2. Tone them silver

    Lifted dark hair stops at orange unless it is toned. Ask for an icy or graphite toner on the lights at every visit, and a clear gloss over the base.

    Tone the pieces icy, please.
  3. Leave the brows and the root dark

    Dark brows and a dark root are what make light pieces look intended. Lighten neither of them to match.

    Leave my root and my brows alone.

So the lights have a lid and the base hardly moves. Red works differently: this palette carries it right down to near-black, as long as it leans the right way.

Can a Deep Winter wear red or burgundy?

Yes, and it is one of the few ways to get real color into hair this dark. Your palette names two reds - black cherry and violet black - and both lean blue. So the question is not how deep the red goes but which way it leans. Two women, one depth, only the lean changing.

The answer

Yes - as long as it leans blue. Violet black and black cherry are on your palette. A true red is the edge; copper and auburn, the reds that lean orange, are past it. Depth hardly matters here: at level 3 the wrong red is still wrong.

Olive skin with a cool undertone. Level 3 in every frame, the red leaning from violet toward orange.

  • Level 3 violet black hair on a Deep Winter woman with olive skin Violet black, L3 Plum at the cool end of red. Near-black until the light moves.
  • Level 3 black cherry hair on a Deep Winter woman with olive skin Black cherry, L3 Black cherry, the red your palette names. Deep, cool, and plainly red.
  • Level 3 true red hair on a Deep Winter woman with olive skin True red, L3 A red that leans neither way. Wearable, but her skin starts taking on its warmth.
  • Level 3 copper-auburn hair on a Deep Winter woman with olive skin Copper, L3 The same depth, leaning orange. The warmth arrives before she does.

Deep skin with a cool undertone. The same four reds at the same depth.

  • Level 3 violet black hair on a Deep Winter woman with deep skin Violet black, L3 Plum at the cool end of red. Near-black until the light moves.
  • Level 3 black cherry hair on a Deep Winter woman with deep skin Black cherry, L3 Black cherry, the red your palette names. Deep, cool, and plainly red.
  • Level 3 true red hair on a Deep Winter woman with deep skin True red, L3 A red that leans neither way. Wearable, but her skin starts taking on its warmth.
  • Level 3 copper-auburn hair on a Deep Winter woman with deep skin Copper, L3 The same depth, leaning orange. The warmth arrives before she does.

Read each row left to right. Every frame is level 3; only the direction of the red moves, from blue-violet to orange. Violet black and black cherry carry chips because your palette names them at level 3. The true red and the copper are built at the same depth and carry none. The rows agree: the line falls between the true red and the copper on olive skin and on deep skin alike, because what fails is the warmth in the red, not a red on one particular complexion.

The Warm Autumn page walks the same hue wheel, and its verdict runs the other way: there, the orange-leaning reds work and a cool mahogany fails. Here black cherry works and copper fails. Same wheel, opposite half.

In salon codes, mahogany is .5 and neutral on its own; the digit beside it decides. A 3.52 or 3.51 keeps it cool, a 3.56 or 3.54 turns it warm - the trade chart’s own example is 4.15 cool against 4.56 warm. Ask for the numbers, not only for burgundy.

Tired of burgundy? Your palette has one more color, and it is not a red: sapphire, placed as an underlayer beneath blue-black so it shows only when the hair moves. It is a direct dye, usually semi-permanent, so it has no level.tone code and no square on the chart.

Dark reds are also where gray shows first - a silver root is loud against wine. That is the next question.

Going gray as a Deep Winter

Silver is a winter color: cool, clear and bright, the qualities your palette is built on. What makes gray hard on a Deep Winter is not the silver. It is the line where silver meets near-black dye, the widest gap hair can have. Four ways to handle it, on two women.

The answer

Silver suits you. The line between silver and dark dye does not. Covering with near-black shows a white root within weeks. Blending - fine cool lowlights that let the silver read as light - is the calm way through, and full silver is a strong result on light skin and on deep skin, for different reasons.

Light cool skin, late fifties, her own dark hair about half silver.

  • Gray hair on a Deep Winter woman with light cool skin, fully covered with a cool near-black Covered Near-black over the gray. It matches her old hair for two or three weeks, then a white line opens at the part.
  • Gray hair on a Deep Winter woman with light cool skin, blended with cool dark lowlights Blended Cool lowlights through the silver. The gray reads as graphite light instead of as a root.
  • Silver regrowth against near-black dye on a Deep Winter woman with light cool skin Growing it out Silver root, near-black length: the widest regrowth gap hair can have, and the stage to keep short.
  • A Deep Winter woman with light cool skin and fully gray hair Full silver Soft and even. On light skin silver narrows the contrast, and her dark brows and eyes keep the face defined.

Deep skin with a cool undertone. The same four choices.

  • Gray hair on a Deep Winter woman with deep skin, fully covered with a cool near-black Covered Near-black over the gray. It matches her old hair for two or three weeks, then a white line opens at the part.
  • Gray hair on a Deep Winter woman with deep skin, blended with cool dark lowlights Blended Cool lowlights through the silver. The gray reads as graphite light instead of as a root.
  • Silver regrowth against near-black dye on a Deep Winter woman with deep skin Growing it out Silver root, near-black length: the widest regrowth gap hair can have, and the stage to keep short.
  • A Deep Winter woman with deep skin and fully gray hair Full silver Bright silver against deep skin - the strongest contrast in the row, and exactly the kind a winter carries.

Look at the two final frames side by side. On light skin, full silver brings the hair closer to the skin, and the face keeps its edge through dark brows and eyes. On deep skin, silver does the opposite: it becomes the widest gap on the face, and on a winter that reads as intent. Both work, for different reasons. In both rows the frame to get through quickly is the third.

In the study quoted above, researchers digitally grayed the hair on one set of faces. The gray versions scored older and less attractive, but not lower in status. It set plain gray against plain color - no blends - and used edited photographs rather than people going gray.

Your palette already contains the blending technique. Graphite lights - fine, sparse gray-brown strands on a dark base - is what dark hair turning gray looks like when it is done on purpose. Ask for it by that description while the gray comes in, and let the balance tip toward silver over a year or two.

Results showed that gray hair did not impact assessments of social status or aggression.
Nutt, Thorstenson & Yorzinski, Frontiers in Psychology (2025)

Silver has no pigment left to protect it, so it yellows; dark cool dye has the opposite problem. Either way, the tone is what you are looking after between appointments.

Keeping it, between appointments

A cool dark color does not fade lighter. It keeps its depth and loses its coolness, and on dark hair the warmth that replaces it is red.

What is actually happening

Nothing is getting lighter. The color is warming up. The cool tones in a dark dye are the first to wash out, and what sits underneath dark hair is red-orange warmth, which shows through as they go. By week ten it is exactly as deep as on day one, just redder and flatter. The fix is to put the cool back, not to go darker.

Ten weeks of one level 3 cool brown, shot at the same close crop each time. It never gets lighter; the smoky cast warms toward red and the shine goes.

  • Level 3 cool dark brown hair on the day it was colored Day one Bitter chocolate, cool and glossy.
  • The same cool brown three weeks later, a little warmer Three weeks A first warmth in daylight. Just as dark.
  • The same brown six weeks later, clearly red-brown Six weeks Plainly red-brown now. Same level.
  • The same brown ten weeks later, a dull warm red-brown Ten weeks A coppery milk-chocolate brown - an avoid shade. Still level 3.

Every chip in the row has the same lightness. The hue slides toward red-orange and the saturation doubles. By week ten the hue sits within a few degrees of milk chocolate from your avoid list. Since nothing got lighter, calling it fading misreads it, and going darker treats the wrong problem: more dark dye over warm red only stacks up at the ends.

The fix is a color-wheel one. Red-orange is cancelled by its opposite, and the opposite of orange is blue - which is why a blue shampoo or mask suits dark hair turning red, and the purple ones sold for blondes do little here. Purple cancels yellow; your problem is orange.

Sun is the other thief. In the study quoted above, lamp and sunlight changed the color of every hair type tested, and changed the lighter hair most. That study used undyed hair, but the pattern fits your lights: they are the lightest hair on your head, and their toner goes first.

Significant color changes were also observed in every hair type, after lamp and sun irradiation, being more pronounced for the light colored hairs.
Nogueira & Joekes, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B (2004)

Four things that keep it cool

  1. A woman working a deep blue conditioning mask through her dark brown hair Blue, not purple

    A blue color-depositing mask or shampoo once a week puts back the cool that washing takes out. Purple is for yellow in blonde hair; dark hair turning red needs blue.

    Blue mask on Sundays, five minutes.
  2. A woman rinsing her dark hair under cool running water Cooler water, fewer washes

    Dye leaves hair mostly by dissolving into water, so every wash costs a little. Wash less often, and rinse cool rather than hot.

    Every other day, a cool rinse.
  3. A woman in a wide-brimmed hat, her dark hair shaded from the sun Shade the lights in strong sun

    Sunlight shifts the color of every hair type, the lighter hair most. A hat on long days outside protects the icy pieces, the part of your color that costs the most to redo.

    A hat on any long day outside.
  4. A clear cool gloss being combed through a woman's dark hair in a salon A clear gloss at week six

    A clear or cool demi-permanent gloss at your own level resets the tone and the shine without lifting anything. Have the toner on the lights refreshed at the same visit.

    A clear gloss and a toner refresh, no lightener.

Upkeep keeps a good color good. The next section is about the colors that were never going to be - twelve of them, on an ordinary face.

Hair colors to avoid, and why

Two problems first: they look alike in a mirror and need opposite fixes. Then twelve shades, photographed on one ordinary woman outdoors under flat cloud - daylight shows what a color does to a face in a way a studio never will.

The two mistakes

It went flat

How you can tell
The hair is one dark shape with no shine. In photographs your face looks smaller and a little gray, and people ask whether you are tired.
Why
One dense dark color at one level - often a flat black chosen to cover gray - with nothing reflective in it. Near-black swallows light unless something in it is glossy or cool.
Fix
Add shine and a cool reflect, not lightness. A clear or cool gloss, a violet or blue-black tone, a few fine icy pieces around the face. Lightening the whole head only trades one flat color for another.

The hair wears you

How you can tell
Strangers comment on the color first and on you second. It is the lightest or warmest thing on your face, and your dark brows suddenly look drawn on.
Why
The color has drifted too far from your own depth or temperature: a whole head at level 6, a honey blonde, a copper red. Deep Winter contrast comes from dark hair against the face, and a light or warm head takes it away.
Fix
Close the distance. Come back to within a level of your natural depth and cool it down again. A different light shade at the same level fixes nothing.

The twelve shades, on a real face

Eight of these come straight from the avoid list on your palette page, hex for hex, kept in its two groups. Four are added here: cool colors from your own palette, used the wrong way. The same ordinary woman on the same gray street in every frame; only her hair changes.

Warm and golden

  • An ordinary woman outdoors with copper red hair Copper red warm
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with honey gold hair Honey gold warm
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with toffee hair Toffee warm
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with milk chocolate hair Milk chocolate warm

Gold, copper and caramel. Each one puts yellow or orange beside cool skin, and the lighter two also lift the hair far above your brows.

Light and muted

  • An ordinary woman outdoors with platinum hair Platinum hard
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with sand blonde hair Sand blonde hard
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with ash light brown hair Ash light brown clean
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with dusty mushroom hair Dusty mushroom clean

Too light, too soft, or both. Platinum and sand blonde sit far above your range; ash light brown and dusty mushroom are cool enough and too muted for a face with this much contrast.

Cool, and still wrong

  • An ordinary woman outdoors with icy ash, all over hair Icy ash, all over hard
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with graphite, all over hair Graphite, all over clean
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with chunky platinum stripes hair Chunky platinum stripes hard
  • An ordinary woman outdoors with cool brown, faded red hair Cool brown, faded red warm

If you have read this far, these will look familiar: each begins with something cool that you own and fails on placement, amount or upkeep.

What the tags mean

warmWarm
Gold, copper, caramel, bronze - and a cool brown faded until it turned red. On a cool season the tag means exactly what it says, as it does on the makeup page.
cleanToo muted
Grayed, beige or dusty: ash light brown, mushroom, graphite over the whole head. On muted seasons this tag marks color that is too pure; a winter needs clarity, so here it marks color with too little.
hardToo far
Several levels from your own hair: platinum, sand blonde, icy ash over the whole head, platinum stripes. This tag reads the same on every season.

Five warm, four too far, three too muted. Warmth is the commonest failure, as on every cool season; distance comes next, because a Deep Winter starts so dark that any lightening crosses a lot of levels. The third group is the one to study. Icy balayage is yours as pieces at level 7 and wrong as a whole head at the same level; graphite is how gray gets blended well, and looks like early gray when it covers everything. Those four swatches are taken from your palette ramps and from the upkeep row, not the avoid list. The shades that do work are all in the next block.

Your shades, and the numbers to say

Your eight shades, split into four for the whole head and four for light and color on top, each with its level - then the seven tone digits a colorist is likely to use. Screenshot it before the appointment.

The shades, with the level to ask for

Deep, even color
  • Blue-black L1 #14161C
  • Cool espresso L2 #3E2A25
  • Bitter chocolate L3 #4C3A34
  • Violet black L2 #3D2236
Dimension, kept cool
  • Icy balayage L7 #7E8C9B
  • Sapphire underlayer L3 #0F2E80
  • Graphite lights L6 #7A7572
  • Black cherry ombre L3 #68303B

The numbers

Tone digits
  • Ash 3.1 #4C3A34
  • Violet 3.2 #4A2A43
  • Natural 3.0 #4B3832
  • Mahogany 3.5 #68303B
  • Ash gold 3.13 #494037
  • Gold 3.3 #55412B
  • Copper 3.4 #5C3F24

Ask for 3.1 (your bitter chocolate), 3.2, 3.0, or mahogany paired cool as a 3.52. Say no to 3.3 and 3.4, and to a mahogany written as 3.56; 3.13 leans beige. Keep the first number as your own natural - on a Deep Winter it rarely moves. Lights are the exception: fine pieces, at most three levels above it.

The whole thing as one sentence: “I am about a level 3 naturally. Keep me at a level 3, cool - a 3.1 - as a gloss or demi, even and glossy, with no gold in the formula. If you add light, make it fine icy pieces around my face, no lighter than a level 6.” The full Deep Winter palette →

Deep Winter hair color

Questions people ask

What is the best hair color for a Deep Winter?
Cool, deep color between level 3 and level 1, with any light added in pieces. Blue-black at 1; cool espresso and violet black at 2; bitter chocolate and black cherry at 3. Icy balayage at 7 and graphite at 6 go in as lights over that base, not all over. Stay near your own level - usually 2 or 3 - and choose the tone.
Is Dark Winter hair color the same as Deep Winter?
Yes. Dark Winter and Deep Winter name the same subtype, and everything here applies under either one: dark and cool, black cherry and violet for color, icy pieces for light, and never gold.
What hair colors should a Deep Winter avoid?
Anything warm, and anything light or muted over the whole head. Copper red, honey gold, toffee and milk chocolate are too warm; platinum and sand blonde are too light; ash light brown and dusty mushroom are too soft. Your own shades can fail too: icy ash all over, graphite all over, chunky platinum stripes.
Should a Deep Winter get highlights or balayage?
Yes - fine, cool ones, painted over a dark root. Icy or graphite pieces up to three levels above your base and never past level 7, densest around the face. Silver, not gold: ask for the lights to be toned icy, and keep the base dark and glossy.
Can a Deep Winter be blonde?
Not all over. Your palette names its light shades only as pieces on a dark base, and platinum and sand blonde sit on the Deep Winter avoid list. Pieces can go about three levels above your own natural, with level 7 as the hard stop: level 7 icy balayage if you start at 4, level 5 if you start at 2.
Can a Deep Winter have red or burgundy hair?
Yes, if the red leans blue. Black cherry and violet black are on the Deep Winter palette. Ask for mahogany paired cool - a 3.52 or 3.51 - rather than warm, a 3.56. A true red is the edge; copper and auburn lean orange and belong on the avoid side.
What hair colors suit a Deep Winter besides burgundy and brown?
Blue-black, violet black, and color hidden underneath. A sapphire underlayer beneath blue-black shows only when the hair moves. Violet black reads black indoors and plum in daylight. For light rather than color, icy or graphite pieces over a dark root.
How should a Deep Winter handle gray hair?
Blend it, then let the silver take over. Near-black dye over gray shows a white root within weeks. Fine cool lowlights through the gray - in effect, your palette’s graphite lights - let it read as light. Full silver suits a winter: it is cool and clear, on light skin and on deep skin alike.
What should I ask for at the hair salon?
Your level, a cool digit, and light only in pieces. For most Deep Winters the booking is a level 2 or 3 gloss or demi-permanent color in ash - a 3.1 - with no gold in the formula, plus fine icy pieces if you want light. Word for word: “I am about a level 3 naturally. Keep me at a level 3, cool - a 3.1 - as a gloss or demi, even and glossy, with no gold in the formula. If you add light, make it fine icy pieces around my face, no lighter than a level 6.”
Why does my dark hair color turn red?
The cool tones wash out first, and the warmth underneath shows. The hair stays just as dark and turns redder and flatter. Do not dye it darker. Put the cool back: a blue mask or shampoo once a week, a clear or cool gloss around week six, and fewer, cooler washes.
Which box dye is best for a Deep Winter?
No single brand - formulas change faster than we could keep track of. On this palette home color is about keeping rather than lifting, which suits a box. Pick a shade number ending in .1, .2 or a cool-paired .5, at your natural level or one below, and pass on anything labeled golden, warm, caramel or copper. Book the lights with a colorist.

Where this came from

The sources behind the factual claims on this page: salon numbering and how mahogany is paired, the pigments in hair, what lightener does, why one color cancels another, how dye fades in water and in sun, and how gray hair is read.

  1. International Colour Charts for Hairdressing (opens in a new tab) Hair & Makeup Artist Handbook, 2023

    The level-and-tone numbering in the salon section, the beige reading of a .13, and the pairing rule behind black cherry: the source classes 4.15 as cool and 4.56 as warm, so the digit beside mahogany sets its temperature. That is why this page asks for a 3.52 and not a 3.56. Brands do not all follow the convention, so say the word as well as the number.

  2. Diversity of human hair pigmentation as studied by chemical analysis of eumelanin and pheomelanin (opens in a new tab) Ito & Wakamatsu, Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 2011

    Background for the red and keeping-it sections. Hair color comes from the ratio of black-brown eumelanin to reddish-brown pheomelanin, and the study finds that the chemistry matches the visible color. That reddish pigment is the warmth dark hair keeps under any cool dye.

  3. Mechanistic insights into the bleaching of melanin by alkaline hydrogen peroxide (opens in a new tab) Smith, Garrett, Naqvi et al., Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 2017

    Behind the blonde section. Alkaline hydrogen peroxide bleaches hair by breaking its melanin down. Lifting a near-black base far enough for icy lights means taking out most of its pigment, which is why this page keeps those lights to a few toned pieces.

  4. The Art of Color: the subjective experience and objective rationale of color (opens in a new tab) Itten, Reinhold (Internet Archive), 1961

    Behind the rule that neutralizing works on color-wheel opposites. Blue sits opposite orange, which is why a blue mask cools dark hair that has turned red - and why a purple one, opposite yellow, does little for it.

  5. Protection of oxidative hair color fading from shampoo washing by hydrophobically modified cationic polymers (opens in a new tab) Zhou, Foltis, Moore & Rigoletto, Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2009

    Behind the washing advice in the keeping-it section: the study finds that oxidative dye leaves hair mainly by dissolving in water, so every wash takes some with it.

  6. Hair color changes and protein damage caused by ultraviolet radiation (opens in a new tab) Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology, 2004

    Behind the sun advice. Lamp and sunlight changed the color of every hair type tested, and the light-colored hair most. The study used undyed hair, so applying it to toned icy pieces is our inference, and the page says so.

  7. Gray hair influences perceived age and social perceptions (opens in a new tab) Nutt, Thorstenson & Yorzinski, Frontiers in Psychology, 2025

    Behind the gray section. 120 participants rated the same faces in their own color and edited to gray: the gray versions were rated older and less attractive, with no effect on perceived status or aggression. One study, using digitally changed photographs and no blended gray.

  8. Dedifferentiation maintains melanocyte stem cells in a dynamic niche (opens in a new tab) Sun, Lee, Hu et al., Nature, 2023

    Background for the gray section: hair grays when the stem cells that supply its pigment stop doing so. This is research into the mechanism, not a treatment - which is why the page treats gray as a choice about what to do next.

  9. Color Me Beautiful (opens in a new tab) Jackson, Ballantine (Internet Archive), 1980

    Background on the seasons. Color Me Beautiful (1980) brought four-season color analysis to a wide readership. The twelve-season split that separates a Deep Winter (Dark Winter in some systems) from a Cool or Bright one is later, but Winter as cool, clear and high in contrast begins with it.

The numbering, the chemistry, the color theory, the fading and the gray-hair study are sourced. Which shades suit a Deep Winter, where the lights stop, which way a red has to lean, and how silver sits on light and deep skin are our own analysis, drawn from the parent palette. The measurements - lightness, hue and saturation - come from this site’s own swatches. Three statements are colorists’ practice rather than measured findings: that the cool tones in a dark dye wash out first, that lightener lifts dark hair through red and orange before anything icy, and that blue products cool hair that has turned red. We have not found studies that measure them, and say so rather than dress an opinion up as a citation.

Find my season