How to find out your hair colour
Determining the colour of your hair requires the use of some scientific equipment. If you are interested in discovering your precise hair colour and lustre, then HairKnowHow can help you. HairKnowHow’s Compete Hair Analysis package includes colour and lustre measurements to help create your hair analysis and recommendation report.
There are two main ways of analysing your hair colour. Both involve using a spectrophotometer. The first method evaluates your hair’s reflected light (at the incidence angle) as a pure spectrum. The second method is similar to the first but includes attributes that the human eye naturally incorporates in the real world, for example, surface reflection artefacts, namely defuse reflection things like that. These optical phenomena arise from light interacting with your hair’s surface texture or internal structures.
Hair possessing a disruped cuticle and increased hair porosity appears duller in colour, to the scatter of light away from the incident angle, reducing apparent gloss and lustre to the human eye.
Hair colour perception is also affected by the type of light (natural or artificial) and the time of day. This is because the intensity and wavelengths (colours) of light that travels through the atmosphere from the sun change subtlely throughout the day.
HairKnowHow can accurately determine your hair colour by simulating natural light at different times of the day and mimicking artificial light sources. Mimicking different light sources is useful if colour-matching your hair to a particular setting.
Six factors that influence the colour of your hair
The amount of total melanin within your hair.
The relative abundance of pheomelanin and eumelanin (your hair’s natural colour molecules).
The surface texture of your hair’s hair fibres.
The texture and volume of all your hair together.
The porosity of the interior of your hair.
The nature (wavelengths and brightness) of the light in the immediate environment.
Get Expert Hair Analysis and Help
If you are interested in learning about your precise hair colour hair type or getting your hair expertly assessed, check out one of our HairKnowHow analyses.
Contact the HairKnowHow Team if you have any questions.
