Self Care: The 1980s season palette is back — but the rules have changed

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I recently reunited with my friend Lori who, unlike nearly everyone else I know trying to hide their greys, was wearing her hair a few shades darker than usual. There wasn’t a speck of black in her outfit either. What’s more, she was wearing mauve. Something was definitely up.

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“I got my colours done,” she announced, like we were back in the 1980s.

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If you were around then, you may remember the fad. You could take a course, buy the Color Me Beautiful book or visit a consultant who would drape you in fabric swatches and declare you a Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter.

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The idea was simple. Certain colours were supposedly better suited to your natural colouring. Once you knew your season, shopping became more precise.

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Fast-forward 40 years and the idea is still around. The system, however, has been revamped.

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Your season has become more specific

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The biggest change is the original four-season system has expanded into sub-season categories, such as Soft Summer, Deep Autumn and Bright Spring.

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Francesca Cairns, a colour analysis expert with nearly half a million followers on Instagram uses a 12-season system that considers undertone, value and chroma.

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This means whether your skin leans warm, cool or neutral, whether your overall colouring is light or deep and whether you suit brighter or softer shades. Instead of simply being told you’re a Winter, for example, you could be a Bright Winter, True Winter or Deep Winter.

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The modern approach also puts less emphasis on ethnicity or how light or dark someone’s skin is.

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“Today we look at actual undertone, contrast and how colours interact with the skin, not ethnicity or depth of skin,” Cairns says.

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Colour analysis has gone digital

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The fabric swatches haven’t disappeared, but you don’t necessarily need to sit under a ring light while someone holds 47 scarves against your face.

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Cairns does much of her work online. Clients send photos taken in natural daylight, which she uses to assess skin tone, undertone and overall contrast before determining which palettes make the complexion look clearer and features brighter.

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In-person draping has advantages, she says, but the quality of the analysis depends on the stylist rather than if the consultation happens in a studio or online.

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Your season can change with you

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Seasons aren’t necessarily forever, though. Take my sister. With dark brown hair and eyes, she was classified as a Winter during a colour analysis course in the 1980s. Nowadays her hair is considerable lighter, threaded with grey.

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“I was a Winter, but I think now I’m more of a Summer,” she says. “I can’t carry those vivid colours so much anymore.”

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The undertone generally stays the same, Cairns says, but hair that has gone grey or lighter, along with changes in skin, can affect which shades are most flattering.