Sam Muses: Redheads Shouldn't Wear Pink? How to Evade the Colour Police

Friday 26 June 2015

Redheads Shouldn't Wear Pink? How to Evade the Colour Police

I'll admit, I thought one of the unavoidable costs of going red would be a rack of unwearable pastels... until, in a "what the hell, I don't have to leave the house today" moment, I decided to pull on last year's candy pink playsuit... hmm, clash-a-rama alert... but what would happen if I added a red belt, tying my new hair colour into a nice little tonally-colour-blocked package? Eureka! No more fear of eyestrain for innocent onlookers, and way more of a statement than I could ever have made as a blonde. And orange shoes... well, why the hell not?

If you're struggling with a colour clash quandary of your own, check out a few of my tried-and-tested tricks, illustrated with a little help from my fellow redheaded rebels - which, with a few tweaks, you can apply to your own colour concerns, whatever your hair shade.

Choose the right shade for your colouring. For example, rich, berry-toned pinks (as seen on Ms Hendricks, below), along with lighter, nude-type hues, à la Nicola Roberts, tend to suit redheads' warm colouring better than acid brights, candy tones and dusky lilac shades.

In the Pink: Redheads Rebel...

But, if you really want to wear a shade which jars with your natural (or not so natural) colouring, you still have a few options available...

Block with another colour which does work for you - echoing your hair colour (with a belt like mine, a sweater like Emma's, or even just a bold lip) "brackets" the deviant shade and draws attention back up to your gorgeous face (whatever you may have been told about redheads in red!). Blonde? Try rocking a sunny yellow scarf, like my lovely male model...
Pair with patterns in shades which complement your colouring and pick out the tones of the scary shade, like Florence's fabulous florals.
Put your hair up. Simple, painless, effective.