Here’s our guide to colour charts for hairdressing. Hair tint products always have a code and description. It gives us an idea of how dark it is and what tones are in the finished colour. While many brands use an in-house system, there is also a global numbering system called the International Colour Chart. It is this system we look at in this post.
The International Colour Chart
The International Colour Chart (ICC) is a numerical system used worldwide to classify hair colour. It means that each hair colour has a definition recognised around the globe.
Consequently, the number can be printed on hair colour charts and tubes or boxes of hair dyes. It creates a level playing field for hairdressers worldwide and should make colour selection easier. However, not all brands choose to use it!
How Colour Charts for Hairdressing Work
Each hair colour is given a number, which tells us two things:
- The depth of the colour – also known as the level or base.
- If there are any tones in the colour and what they are.
The depth number is usually separated from the tone number by a dividing symbol like a decimal point, a slash or a hyphen. For example, 4.6, 4/6, 4-6 all say the same thing as far as the ICC goes. A 4.6 translates into plain English as “a medium brown base with a warm red tone”.
However, not all hair colour brands use the ICC and just use an in-house numbering system. For instance, letters may represent different tones, like R for red, or M for mahogany and V for violet.
Even if a brand does use the ICC system, the finished colour can vary from product to product. It means that one brand’s number 4.15 could look slightly different on the hair to another brand’s 4.15.
It’s not a perfect system, but the ICC goes a long way to trying to standard how we define hair colouring products.
How Depth is Numbered
- Depth is given a whole number from 1 to 10, where 1 is the darkest hair colour (black), and 10 is the lightest (lightest blonde).
- Some brands also use 11 and 12 on their colouring products to account for the blondest of the blonde. As you can see in the picture below, numbers 1-5 are browns, and 6-10 are blondes.
- The depth is also known as level or base colour.
- Depth is classed as a neutral colour.
How Tone is Numbered
- The tone number comes after the decimal point.
- Each tone is given a number from .1 to .9.
- Products can have up to three tones, though products containing one or two tones are most commonly seen. The number of tones in a product is indicated by how many numbers follow the decimal point. For example, a 4.15 has two tones in it – and a 5.016 has three tones in it.
Primary & Secondary Tones
- The primary tone is the first number after the decimal point.
- The secondary tone is the second number (after the decimal point).
- The primary tone is more dominant and has more influence over the final colour than a secondary tone. Likewise, any third tone used will be less influential over the final colour than the other two tones used.
The ICC Numbers for Tones
Not all hair brands follow the ICC numbering system for tones. Therefore, it is important to know how that particular brand labels its tones.
The chart below shows the ICC numbering system for tones.
