Does your color season change?
The card on your phone describes the coloring you had the day you took the test.
By Ximena · 6 min read · Updated Oct 22, 2026
It can, because your season is a reading of the coloring you have, and coloring moves.
The rest of the answer
Gray hair is your natural color now, so gray is the reading. A dye you are growing out gets two readings, your roots and today's color. A tan changes your skin for a season, and hair that is very short can be skipped, since hair counts for less than your skin, eyes, lips and brows. The fix is the same each time: take the free test again by a window, with the hair and skin you have this month, and put the new card beside the old one.
What your card is a reading of
- Depth
- Clarity
- Temperature
Your card is a reading of your skin, natural hair and eyes on the day you took the test.
Tradition
Why, and how solid
It reads depth, clarity and temperature from them, so when one of them moves, the reading can move with it. I found no study that follows color seasons over time, so I don't know how often a season changes. What I can do is show what each kind of change touches.
Treat your card as the coloring you had that day, and take the test again when your hair, skin or light has changed.
Why: the test measures what you hold up to the strip, so when what you hold up changes, the reading can change with it.
Tradition Measuring again after something changes is standard. Whether a home test finds your season is Tradition, and this test has not been validated yet.
A card is a reading of the coloring you had that day.
Gray hair counts as your natural color
- Step 3, light
- Step 5, mid
- Step 7, deep
Gray is your natural color now, so gray is what the hair step reads.
Tradition
Why, and how solid
Hold the strip beside your hair as it is and pick the step closest in lightness. Gray can land anywhere from light to deep, and salt and pepper can sit between two steps. When it does, write the half step, like 4.5, and move on.
Hair carries less weight than your lips, brows and eyes in the contrast reading, where it counts half. In your overall depth it is read together with your skin and eyes, so hair that has lightened can shift depth a little while your skin and eyes keep their own readings.
Match the gray hair you have today, as it is, to the strip. Skip the color you remember.
Why: gray is your natural color now, and the test reads what is in the mirror this month.
Tradition Reading natural coloring is how color consultants work. This is my own rule and it is not validated yet.
A hair color that grew in different
#6B5039Reading one#C9A24BReading twoA dye job you are growing out has two colors, and the test reads both.
Moderate
Why, and how solid
Write your natural root color on your sheet, then today's color beside it. Your card then says what your contrast reads with your natural color and what it reads with your current one, because hair is a secondary part of contrast and dye can move it a little without changing your natural coloring. If you cannot see your roots, skip the hair step.
If your color grows back toward natural, your current color moves toward your baseline and the two readings come together, so write one reading again. If you changed it on purpose, lighter hair with the same brows drops your hair gap, and a lip or a brow one step deeper puts definition back. Darker hair does the reverse, and a lip one step deeper adds balance, or you can leave it as a look. Both are choices, and neither is wrong. Highlights alone do not move the reading, because the strip reads the root. To pick a new color, start with what hair color suits you.
Measure your roots and your brows before you change your hair, then measure again after.
Why: your hair frames your face. Changing it changes the steps between your features and what surrounds them, and the strip shows by how much.
Moderate The measuring is simple arithmetic. What suits you is your call.
A tan, a baby, hair that is very short
- Skin, for a season
After a baby, or a treatment that changed your hair, the steps are the same: measure what is there this month, and skip what you cannot read.
Tradition
Why, and how solid
A tan deepens your skin for a season, so tell the test if you are tanned and take it again when it fades. Makeup moves your lips and brows against your skin, so wash your face and wait ten minutes if you can, and say so if you cannot.
If your hair is very short, covered, or not something you want to hold up to a strip right now, skip the hair step. It counts for less, so you lose little, and the card still has your skin, eyes, lips and brows.
Skip any step you cannot read, and write down what you wore.
Why: with fewer readings the card does not invent a position. It asks for two of lips, brows and eyes, plus a step back, and it asks you to repeat in daylight if you have less.
Tradition My own rule, not validated yet.
Match what is in the mirror this month.
How to run the test again by a window
Use the same steps as last time, and change only what has changed.
Tradition
Face a window
Stand facing it in daylight with a mirror in front of you.
More
Cloudy or sunny both work. Avoid direct sun on your face, colored walls close behind you and warm lamps.
Say what is on your face and in your hair
Tell the test if you are wearing makeup, and which hair line is true today.
More
If you can, wash your face and wait ten minutes first. The hair options are natural and uncovered, dyed or highlighted, extensions, covered, or very short, and gray counts as natural. For dye you use your roots.
Match the strip
Hold the gray strip beside your cheek, hair, eyes, lips and brows, one at a time, and pick the closest step.
Compare the tops
Clear against soft, cool white against warm ivory, pink against coral, one change at a time.
gray hair is a step on the strip.
so match it as it is, then try again by the window.
Why, and how solid
Then read how sure the card is. If it says low or mixed signals, repeat on another day. If you kept the link to your old card, open it beside the new one. If your season moved to a neighbor, tap "Hold it to your face" on the card and compare the two colors under your chin.
Take the test twice, on two different days, before you decide your card has moved.
Why: light changes from day to day, and a result you get twice is worth more than one you get once.
Tradition Repeating a measurement is standard, and this test has not been validated yet.
Questions people ask
Do I have to retake it when my hair goes gray?
No. A card from before is the coloring you had then. If it still looks like you by the window, keep it. If the colors on it stop looking like yours, take the test again with your hair as it is.
Does my season change as I get older?
I found no study that follows color seasons over time, so I don't know. The test reads skin, natural hair and eyes, and those can change, so I treat a card as a reading of this year.
Will a new card make me look younger?
I can't say that. I found no study where a clothing color changes how old a face reads, so I do not promise it. A card tells you which colors sit well beside your coloring as it is now.
My result is between two seasons now. Which do I wear?
Both. Neighbors share a border, your card shows both, and "Hold it to your face" lets you compare them by a window.
Sources
- Dressed on Purpose, my manual: page 7, "When a step is hard," on gray, dyed and covered hair, and page 14, "Changing your hair color." My own method, with Tradition and Moderate seals. The manual
- The free test: its hair, makeup and window steps. The test
This page cites no outside study, because I found none that follows color seasons over time or after a hair change. How the evidence seals work
Take the test again by a window, with the hair and skin you have this month.
