Platinum Primer Part III: Choosing the Right Hue

You're cool and determined about your future platinum hair color. What's next: Choosing the right hue for your skin tone, budget, love of makeup and wardrobe. Here's some advice on choosing the right platinum category for your needs and desires!

• White Platinum looks amazing on cool to neutral skin tones. Because it's a demanding color in terms of maintenance, seriously consider your decision to go white. As every white platinum maven knows, it's important to wear a full face of makeup every day—if you don't, you'll look washed out—and to always dress the part. Can you picture yourself looking platinum fabulous with a plain face and the fuzzy gold sweater that you paid a fortune for? No? Neither can we. Platinum white is for the fashionista who wouldn't dream of going outside to retrieve her mail without wearing makeup and indulging in a major shopping spree to bag the perfect clothing to enhance her hair color. Depending on your natural hair color and the type of white platinum color design you choose, you'll also need to budget enough time and $$$ to pay for a color service every two to four weeks.

• Silver Platinum also looks amazing on super-cool skin tones, but tends to make neutral skin look washed out. Needless to say, on warm tones it's a disaster. Think long and hard about going Silver Platinum. There's a lot of maintenance involved, including frequent trips to the hairdresser for regrowth touchups and toning. Regarding the latter, toning needs to be done by a salon professional to ensure even results, as well as home maintenance to continually refresh your color. The same advice regarding makeup and clothing also applies platinum beauties. If you're willing to do everything that's necessary to pull off this color, be prepared for a rush of attention!

• Pastel Platinum hues are the easiest to maintain. They're also more forgiving in terms of wearing makeup and, in general, give you more options with your clothing choices and the time and money spent in the salon. Pastel Platinum also flatters all cool skin tones and looks fabulous on neutral skin tones. Of course, there are still maintenance issues to consider. If your natural hair color is dramatically darker than your color of choice, you need to either be able to afford frequent trips to the salon or ask your stylist to create a color design that's more forgiving in terms of regrowth and fading.

Have you read Platinum Primer Part ! and Part II? If not, click on the bolded Part I or II links to learn more about going platinum.