The secret to finding a flattering hair colour

Before changing your look, you must take into account your natural shade alongside your complexion and eye colour. By Annabel Jones

The ability to switch up our hair colour is one of the most transformative tools we have at our disposal, yet it’s easy to get wrong – and tricky to correct when you do. I don’t mean to put you off, but you shouldn’t make a big change without plenty of planning and consulting a trusted expert.

Ideally, you will have access to a talented colourist who will put honesty before creativity. Senior colourist Cetera Lamb, from John Frieda’s Mayfair salon, has both qualities in equal measure. I know this because I paid handsomely for Lamb to fix my teenage daughter’s dalliance with a cheap bottle of black hair dye, gently returning her to mid-brown locks without destroying its condition in the process. Having had my own war with a bad bleach job in the past, it was worth every penny.

Before changing your colour, you need to know where you sit on the colour spectrum, taking into account your natural shade alongside your complexion, eye colour – and, perhaps most crucially – the level of maintenance you’re prepared to put in.

As it happens, there’s a palpable shift towards bolder hair hues of late, as seen on a number of famous heads, including Dua Lipa, Julia Roberts and the Princess of Wales. Thus the time feels right to flesh out the possibilities should you be considering a departure from the status quo.

From “pearly” blonde to glossy brunette and all the nuanced hues in

Top row, from left: Julianne Moore, Julia Roberts,

Dua Lipa,

Hannah Waddingham, Elizabeth Debicki, Carey Mulligan

Bottom row, from left: Rita Wilson, Jane Seymour, Shailene Woodley, Natalie Portman, the Princess of Wales, Juliette Binoche

between, these are the colours you might want to opt for now:

There are natural redheads such as Julianne Moore, then there are the ones who made it so, such as Dua Lipa and Kristin Stewart. The latest red tone having a moment is copper, which, Lamb says, is generally tolerated by many skin tones as it has a youthful pinkish thread running through it.

Whereas Lipa’s tone of red is reminiscent of an early 1990s plum, which Lamb says is less forgiving (but will suit olive complexions, such as Lipa’s, best), Moore’s milky skin lights up with a red that’s steeped in orange and golden undertones, suggests Lamb. Deeper skin tones, she says, look good with both ends of the red spectrum, especially vivid shades.

Stewart has highlighted her hair in copper, which Lamb recommends, as a clever way to dip your toe into the trend without forsaking a full head of hair to the chemical process. “To go from dark to copper you would need to tint the hair light first, then apply the colour,” she explains, adding: “A base of dark hair with flashes of copper tends to be a more flattering and modern way to work in such a bright colour.”

If you’re toying with a full head of copper, then take inspiration from actress Julia Roberts, who graces the cover of this month with a blanket of supersized copper curls. Roberts, 56, is of course an outlier, but nonetheless a shining example of how warming up a brown-haired base can boost a winter complexion.

If I were to pick a shade of blonde that best epitomises the 2024 take on the colour, it would be Daenerys Targaryen’s long pearly mane in

variations of which were seen on Elizabeth Debicki and Julia Garner at the recent Golden Globes ceremony. If your roots are lightish – and this includes grey – you can experiment with pearlescent tones like Debicki’s that most likely, says Lamb, involve an application of cool pearlescent toner at the end of the colouring process to counteract brassiness and amplify reflection.

This type of blonde is not for everyone and tends to suit those with blue eyes and pale skin best, because cool hair tones can wash out a warm complexion. “If you have very delicate hair that’s prone to breakage, then steer away from bleach and use gentler solutions that will lift the hair two or three shades without compromising on its condition,” says Lamb, who cites honey blonde Kate Winslet, one of her clients, as the perfect example of someone who prefers a subdued shade.

Fine, fragile hair is one reason to err on the side of caution when going lighter, but complexion is another. Take

actress Hannah Waddingham, whose green eyes and sunkissed skin complement her champagne highlights,

The generous friend

This is someone who wants to prove their love through purchasing drinks. “Have a double!” means “join me in a world where money counts for little and life is lived in rich colour”. The key is to speak like someone who loves them back but in a firm way. Your order of a single or small glass is not an opening bid but definitive. Smile, but say it with the kind of voice you’d use or Gillian Anderson, who has admitted she is not a natural redhead (she dyed her hair red for years on the set of

but a “very boring mousy brown”. To liven up the mousiness, Anderson mixes warm and creamy tones that provide what colourists refer to as a “face halo”.

Actresses Carey Mulligan and Florence Pugh, who both have brown eyes and a warm undertone to their complexions, better suit a mid-toned golden blonde, as does green-eyed actress Margot Robbie and

star Rosamund Pike.

Amber, the fiery pigment reflected in the stone or in runny treacle, is the brunette’s blonde. Richer and deeper than golden blonde but with the same skin-brightening outcome, amber gives life to brown hair, and is best mixed with one or two more shades, as proven on Jane Seymour, Shailene Woodley, Rita Wilson and Penelope Cruz.

“Amber is usually achieved by tinting the hair brown first then using balayage to paint on lighter pieces where the sun would naturally shine,” Lamb explains. Amber, otherwise known as “bronde” (in between brown and blonde) suits Mediterranean and latina skin types beautifully – just think of Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lopez – as well as deeper skin tones. You want to avoid looking stripey, however, which Lamb suggests is done by applying a glaze at the end of the colouring process, to with a small child: “Just a SINGLE is perfect, thanks.”

The round is a strange financial arrangement that has largely been rejected by the young. To wrench your money’s worth means moving to the standard of the hardest drinker. “It’s about negotiating with friends,” says Tyrell. “You can be in a round on a low-alcohol product, you can choose not to be in the round. If that’s a trigger for you, talk to people in advance about your drinking intentions.”

Tyrell advises counting your glasses and being more conscious. “We measure our steps every day, we measure our blood pressure, why not our drinking?” Our obsession with personal data should extend into the bar area. Drinkaware has an easy calculator on its site. Once you know, you cannot unknow and it really helps those in-the-moment decisions.

Cocktail bars

You think of a cocktail as one drink when in fact they typically contain multiple shots. Educating yourself about how much alcohol is in every drink you consume will change your evening. We live in an age where our supermarkets frequently tell us which farm our lamb comes from and yet many of us have no idea how our old fashioned compares with our glass of bordeaux or our bottle of craft ale.

The promise of “as much as you can consume” is often taken as a gauntlet thrown down by the forces of dining and entertainment. A fairly new tradition, often with a strong connection to female customers, can be “confusing” for anyone who likes to wring value out of every moment. Tyrell has news for women sitting down to eggs benedict and a case of prosecco. “Women metabolise alcohol differently to men. A binge for a woman is six units, that is two large glasses of wine, according to the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines.”

The one area where full equality is something of a trick on half the population. However, “drink like a man” does the male consumer no favours at all.

The availability and visibility of booze have a tremendous effect on how much we consume. Think about how much more fruit you eat when there’s a bowl of grapes on the table. “If you do store it, keep it out of sight, not on a surface,” says Tyrell. If you know that any booze in the house will call to you with its siren song, then signing up for a wine club may not be the choice. Having a bottle of red always hanging around with its cork loosely hammered into the neck is like having an enthusiastic bar person in your own kitchen. Think about how much less you consume when a walk through the cold is required.

“bring the whole thing together”. Glazes are a quick semi-permanent solution applied at the backwash that give hair a glassy sheen and come in a variety of shades, from clear to pastels, and warm tones like caramel or amber. Amber is also a great way for brunettes to cover greys, as silver roots blend with lighter tones seamlessly.

Despite the temptation to turn the brightness up a notch when the weather’s bleak, a block of deep brunette is increasingly being asked for in salons, says Lamb, who suspects the call for “expensive brunette” is inspired by the Princess of Wales. While Kate has experimented with both copper and amber throughout the years, as her role has been elevated, so has her hair.

The key to her classic brunette, however, is the finish, says Lamb.

“To make darker shades pop you want a high shine effect, otherwise it will appear flat,” she adds.

Nevertheless, the glassy look that is also seen on a number of actresses, including Natalie Portman and Juliette Binoche, is easily achieved. The secret is simpler than one might assume. Lamb recommends using conditioning hair masks once or twice a week at home to infuse moisturising properties deep into the hair shaft, and to have regular glazing treatments in the salon every six to eight weeks, making sure to blow dry hair in a sleek but buoyant way that will bounce the light beautifully.