How to Select Clothing Colors That Complement Red Hair and Dark Eyes

By eHow Fashion, Style & Personal Care Editor

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Enhance your beauty by dressing in clothes that best complement your coloring. Discover colors that celebrate your features and facilitate your wardrobe coordination.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Men's Casual Pants
Men's Casual Tops
Men's Dress Shirts
Men's Dress Sweater
Mens' Dress Pants
Women's Casual Tops
Women's Dress Coats
Women's Dress Pants
Women's Dress Shirts
dresses and skirts

Step1

Begin your journey into personal color by divorcing yourself from your favorite colors and whatever colors currently reside in your closet.

Step2

Look at your hair in the mirror. Are you a strawberry blonde? A true redhead? Or do you have coppery or auburn red hair?

Step3

Remove all traces of makeup.

Step4

Look at your eyes in the mirror. Are they deep brown or do they have a golden cast?

Step5

Check your skin's undertones. Do you see more golden, peachy or beige hues?

Step6

Choose earth tones if you are a true redhead or have coppery or auburn red hair, and if you have dark or golden brown eyes and golden undertones to your skin. Look for coffee browns, moss and olive greens, rust oranges, dark tomato reds, golds and camels. Grays, navys, taupes, purples and pinks will make you look lifeless. Wear black for pants or skirts only.

Step7

Choose ivory, apricot, tans, beige, medium browns, violet blues and golden yellows if you have strawberry blonde or light auburn hair, golden brown eyes, and peach or golden undertones to your skin. Marine blue and warm grays will work well for you, but black and wine will render you sallow.

Step8

Go shopping. You're armed with personally empowering information, so get out there and use it!

Step9

Try on colors that you've determined to be well suited to your coloring. Step out of the dressing room into light that is as close to daylight as possible, and ask a friend or sales associate for a second opinion.

Step10

Look at yourself against a white or off-white background for an undistorted view of the color.

Tips & Warnings

Experiment. There are a million colors out there; if you're unsure which one is right for you, try it on and get a few opinions.
Color blind? Find someone you trust, give her your list of colors and have her help you select the shades most complementary for you.
If you find a color you like that is outside of your range, consider it for pants or a skirt. Keep it far away from your face.

Comments

Anonymous said

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on 9/24/2006 I have dark auburn hair and dark blue eyes and pale skin, but in the past few years I've started to wear dark blues, light blues, really all shades but I look very striking, especially with dark mascara!

Anonymous said

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on 1/16/2006 I have dark, auburn hair, dark brown eyes and tan skin, and have noticed that a dark or bright green or emerald green complements my red hair and makes it look ever redder, and it makes your brown eyes look even richer!

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 I have curly, strawberry blonde hair and light brown eyes. I used to hate this, so in the past I tried to ignore my coloring and wear what everyone else was buying. But, I've come to terms with my genetics and realized I should be proud of my red hair.

I've found that greens, purples, maroon, brown, and black all look amazing on me. But if you want to try other colors, go for it, it really depends on how you feel in the color!

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Redheads can wear many colors; the secret is to choose a color that has been toasted (one that has had at least a small amount of brown added to or mixed with it). The warmer your coloring, the more flattering you'll look in a shade that has warm brown added. For cooler coloring, look for shades with cool browns added. Many of Europe's Renaissance painters toasted their colors.