How To Find Your Personal Contrast Level And Why It Matters
A reader wrote in with a question. I get more than you’d think. She’d gone gray and noticed that some colors in her seasonal palette were suddenly working better than others. She wanted to know if there was a formula she could use to sort it all out.
There is, and it starts with contrast.
Most people focus on finding the right colors for their complexion, which makes sense. But your personal contrast level is just as important, and it’s often the missing piece when an outfit feels a little off, but you can’t quite put your finger on why.
Before we get into how to find yours, it helps to understand how color actually works. Every color has three components. Hue is the color itself, think red, yellow, blue. Value is how light or dark that color is. Saturation is the intensity or purity of the color. All three play a role in whether a color combination flatters you or flattens you.
Our hair color, skin, and eyes all have a value (light to dark) on a sliding scale. Our personal contrast level is the difference between them. Wearing contrast levels that match your own contrast levels is as important as whether the undertone is warm or cool. In some instances, it’s more important!
High contrast is when there’s a large difference in the lightness of one or more colors. For example, if you have very dark hair and light blue eyes, you have a high-value contrast. However, if your dark-colored hair has gone a medium grey, it will lower the difference (contrast) with your eyes. As our hair goes gray or silver, our personal contrast level will shift.
If you have light silver or blonde hair, fair skin, and pale eyes, you have a low contrast value and will look best in low-contrast outfits. Medium value contrast is when there’s a difference, but it’s not extreme.
Contrast levels that are too strong overpower and wash you out. Conversely, wearing a contrast that is too low reduces your visibility. Knowing and wearing outfits that echo your personal contrast levels keeps you looking vibrant and visible at a time when society often overlooks midlife women.
How to find your personal contrast level
The easiest way to see your inherent color contrast is to take photos of your face and hair. Then, use the settings on your phone to change it to a grayscale, monotone image. Now you’ll see the difference in the intensity of your hair, eyes, and skin. I have makeup on in my photos, but you can still see the difference.
The black and white have a strong contrast that overpowers me. The red lipstick attempts to make it flattering, but falls short in the monochrome image. The black jacket is intense against my complexion. Its contrast with the white shirt draws your eye to the garments rather than to my face.
In this photo, I have highlighted pale ash blonde hair. Along with my fair skin and medium eyes, I have low-to-medium contrast values that match the chambray shirt and denim jacket. My eyeglass frames and lipstick are also a low contrast, which doesn’t overpower my coloring. My low intensity is also why I am flattered by monochromatic outfits, as they are the epitome of low contrast.
Since I’ve let my hair go natural (silvery), the contrast between my hair and eyes has become even softer than when I was highlighting it. This black shirt looks even starker against my low contrast coloring, so my head looks like it’s floating.
Below is another example using outfits. The same sweater with different-wash jeans is a great example. High contrast is when there’s a big difference between one or more colors. Low contrast is when they’re very similar. Medium contrast is when there’s a difference between them, but it’s not extreme.
When we remove the color, you can see the contrast levels. The light sweater and deep-wash jeans have a high contrast, which would flatter someone with equally high contrast. If you have white hair and deep brown eyes, you can wear a stronger contrast.
Now let’s try a deeper sweater with the same jeans.
Now here’s a sweater with a medium value and the same jeans.
Try this yourself. Do all the grays meld softly, or do your eyes stand out? Is your hair noticeably darker than your skin tone? The comparison is what shows your personal contrast level. With practice, you’ll learn to recognize the contrast levels in outfits so you can wear ones that match your own. These will be the most flattering, so you’ll look the most vibrant and visible.
Hair that changes from black to pale gray lessens your personal contrast level, so you will look better in color combinations with lower contrast. You may also look better wearing the lighter colors within your palette. Remember, you will not change seasons, just the colors that flatter you most within those seasons…unless you were mistyped in the first place.
Do you pay attention to contrast levels in your outfits?
Thanks for reading, and remember to wear what makes you feel confident.
I learn so much about color theory reading your posts. I especially like that you remind is to wear what makes us feel confident and comfortable in our clothes. Thank you.
Fabulous post Jennifer. Made me stop and consider how I have been dressing. Thanks a million, you are super!
Linda
Glad you enjoyed it Linda
I have been dealing with contrast subconsciously as my hair goes gray.
Your piece helps so much making the contrast issues real! thank you
That was so enlightening. I’ve also gone silver gray, but have dark eyes. Now I realize why my favorite “royals” have not been as flattering. Thanks for always sharing with us. Sandra
Very interesting and informative ❤️❤️
Contrast is a fairly new concern for me. As my hair goes from dark ash blond with highlights to natural silver highlights, I started to notice changes. I was doing med to high contrast now I am finding the med to low is better. You did a great job explaining it. I highly recommend doing a quick b&w picture when ever a person feels their outfit is off somehow. It really helps. Take colour out of the equation and you can even see proportions better.
I totally agree about it helping with proportions too.
Great information! Contrast levels explain what I have been trying to figure out since my hair went gray. Now I have a plan. Thank you!
Awesome!
Fascinating discussion and examples. Two of us were just discussing changes in our color palettes based on having white hair now. However, I actually think you look beautiful and vibrant with the red lipstick and the high-contrast jacket. My hair is white, my skin is pale, and my eyes are medium blue to green, and I love wearing intense blue and some black and intense green…with scarves that pick up those colors. I also like those colors with both high- and low-contrast pants. And when I wear those colors, I get many compliments during the day. Maybe there are variations that I don’t notice but in any case, I love your making me aware of contrast as an issue. Thank you.
I’m glad it was helpful.
Everyone, I went back and read all of the comments on the color post and I learned a lot! I always connected my love of color to being a winter, not so much to being an extrovert, which I totally am. ENTJ 😉. One thing I learned from Covid was to understand and respect introverts. I think introverts, HSP and some neurodivergent folks have a different and higher level of consciousness that is not served by the modern capitalist competitive society. Thank you for a peek into your world! As someone mentioned, how boring it would be if we were all the same!
The contrast information was very helpful. It explains why one of my favorite blouses (navy blue and white) isn’t the most flattering on my light grey, light blue eyes and light skin tone. Thank you for your articles. I also try your recommendations for skincare.
What a shock! My contrast level has changed since I last tried this. It’s probably a good idea to do this every year while you’re going grey. I have low contrast now, so this is where I’ll stay.
No more black or navy clothes for me. I bought new eyeglasses this year. My previous frames were low contrast. The new ones are medium contrast. Somehow that works better. I won’t go back to the intense color frames I had five years ago, though.
Thanks, Jennifer!
Mine has changed a lot too. I agree, it helps to redo as we go away.
Thanks for the refresher as I’m looking at my fall wardrobe. I just bought a lightweight long coat in black and was planning on wearing light colored scarves to lessen it’s severity (I’m low contrast) but, I think it will be going back after all!
Very interesting post , thank you. My colouring is so similar to yours , but I never seem to get my eyeshadow mascara right . I love your eye make it’s so soft and flattering never overdone. Please would you be so kind as to share what colour eyeshadow , liner and mascara , and foundation you wear, I would be very grateful. I have recently had shingles ugh painful so
I could do with some new eye make up and foundation, I find a rose pink lipstick suits me now but it’s eyes I am in need of getting right. Thanks Jennifer take care .
I’m so sorry you’ve have shingles! I am due to get the two new boosters. I find eye makeup a challenge too. I recently stated using this Navy Mascara and cool taupe eye shadow and really like them. I’ll do a more extensicve post on my newest makeup soon.
I’m a low medium contrast now that my ash blonde hair has gone mostly white. My eyes are blue with dark teal rings around the iris like yours. My complexion has gotten paler. My best look is in medium to light blues. Now I know why. This is the best explanation of color and what works and why that I’ve seen. Great job Jennifer!
So glad you found this helpful Sydney.
Thanks for this post! So interesting and helpful.
I have enjoyed your enlightning comments RE: colors. I am now white haired after being a redhead. I miss my Autumn colors and find myself ordering some due to not remembering I am white and old. (91) Green eyes now stand out almost too much with my faded skin.
Green eyes are so fabulous! Thanks for reading Macel
Super helpful tutorial! Thank you. I recently changed colorists and she took my greying hair back to it’s original dark brown. Wow immediately my blue green eyes popped. And now I know why. I think as much trouble as it is I will continue to color it for the foreseeable future. I will try to develop outfits that have a relatively high contrast to complement my new old look. Keep sharing your anti thinning journey please. Thank you again for the post.
I often wonder about adding back some highlights because my hair isn’t going silver fast enough and it feels really drab.
Thanks for this information. I never thought about contrast till my ash blonde highlighted hair went gray to silver during COVID years. Now that I understand why I like how I look in certain colors I will be more aware of the contrasts.
As a redhead-blue eyes, pale skin…I really struggle with color. I stick with blues, white, greens. I am not sure what color to wear!
I often find our intuition about color is very good. You may be low contrast but need some brightness.
This is brilliant and explains why some outfits that used to work for me before I stopped coloring my hair no longer work the same. I went from high contrast to low! This will help me put together outfits in the right contrast like how pair a sweater with the right wash of jeans. Thank you.
Awesome! I’m glad it’s helpful