Avoid Aging Unattractive Hair and Lipstick Shades
Your hair color and choice of lipstick should enhance your appearance and always flatter your skin tone. When you dye your hair the wrong shade it can look unnatural and make your appearance older, and the same goes for lipsticks. Certain hues highlight our best features, while others accentuate fine lines, wrinkles, and signs of aging. Here are some hair and lip colors that it’s best to avoid.
1. Silver/Gray Hair Hues
If your hair has gone gray and you are happily rocking the silver fox look like Dame Judi Dench, that’s very chic. If your grays are patchy or your hair has excessively gray tones this can age your overall appearance. Opt for brighter silvery tones for a more youthful appearance by using a silver hair toner or blue or purple pigmented shampoo and condition to neutralize those yellow undertones.
2. Mousey Brown Locks
Dull shades of brown or dirty blonde hair can look flat and unattractive and age your appearance. If your hair is a mousey brown shade either go a shade darker or liven up your look with soft golden highlights or lowlights.
3. Bad Shades of Blonde
Achieving the perfect shade of blonde can be tricky and generally golden blondes are the most flattering. If your blonde strands have too much yellow it can wash out the skin and make your hair look unnatural. Opt for brighter platinum tones for a more modern and youthful look. Overly bleached hair also looks unnatural, dry, brittle, and straw-like. It can also turn brassy fast so use products specifically formulated for chemically-treated and blonde hair.
4. Jet Black Hair
Jet black hair can look severe and create a harsh contrast on the skin, especially when you’re older, exaggerating wrinkles, fine lines, and aging signs. It’s better to for a softer dark brown that isn’t too far from your natural hair color and add some soft highlights or lowlights in a slightly lighter shade for a naturally blended, youthful, flattering look.
5. Intense Reds and Bright Hair Colors
We love a natural redhead, but experimenting with red shades, especially vibrant ones can look tacky and fake. If the shade doesn’t suit your skin tone it will create a harsh contrast and highlight skin imperfections and face aging. Warm copper highlights on brown hair are a more natural way to embrace red. It’s also best to leave bright pink, blue, and green shades to the kids.
6. Snow White Strands
Unless you are Scandinavian sporting very pale white shades can look harsh, dull, and very aging. Go for a softer honey blonde for a younger more flattering look.
7. Excessive Streaks
Streaks if they don’t complement your natural hair color can look fake and tacky, especially in contrasting highlights and if you overdo them. Overly-streaked hairstyles are dated and you’ll look more natural and youthful with soft perfectly blended highlights and lowlights.
8. Dark Chocolate Brown Lips
Dark chocolate brown lipsticks can look heavy and draw attention to fine lines and wrinkles around the mouth. Go for softer paler shades of brown or neutral as they are more flattering on all skin tones.
9. Matte Red Lipstick
Firstly, matte lipstick finishes look heavy and dry out the lips emphasizing an aged appearance. As for reds, these can also be tricky to get right. Always go for a hydrating satin texture and beware of these red mistakes. Intense vivid red oranges can clash with skin tones especially if you are prone to skin redness. Dark red wine shades with a blue undertone and reds with heavy brown undertones instantly age your appearance and make the lips look thinner. Your best bet is a classic vibrant true red shade, which Taylor Swift is famous for.
10. Shimmery Frosted Lip Shades
Frosted and overly shimmery lipsticks in any shade are outdated, will wash out your complexion, and show fine lines and wrinkles around the mouth fast. Go for creamer textures or glosses with a slight shine instead.
11. Vampy Purples Lipsticks
Leave deep purples, dark berries, deep plums, burgundy, and black lipstick to the goths. These dark purple shades look unnatural on almost all skins as they create a harsh contrast that will add years to your look. Go for a soft pink or sheer coral instead.
12. Pale and Taupe Lip Shades
Pale lipsticks can wash out your complexion, and make you look tired and older and your lips thinner. Muted taupe shades are also unflattering as they make skin look lifeless and emphasize an aged appearance.
13. Neon Bright Lipsticks
They might sound fun, but bold neon shades like hot pink can look childish (hello Barbie) and overpower the lips making them appear thinner. For a more classic look that won’t make you look older than you are, go for softer more natural tones.
14. Metallic Lip Shades
Sparking metallic lipsticks are outdated, not to mention tricky to pull off. They come and go as a fashion statement but it’s always better to stick to more classic colors like red, coral, or soft pink, especially when you’re older.