Why your screen is misleading you, how to read color codes, and how to tell whether you are warm or cool.

Color is the most common reason for disappointment with extensions, and it almost never has to do with the product itself. It comes down to the fact that the choice was made on a screen. Here is how to determine your shade before you order, and what you can do if it still turned out wrong.

Why a screen cannot show color

Every display reproduces colors differently. A phone in night mode shifts everything toward warm, and another one shows blonde tones cooler than they really are. Then there is the lighting in your room: under incandescent light, ash blonde looks golden, and under neon light, golden brown looks grey. And even the best product photo was taken in a studio, not in your bathroom.

That is why one rule outweighs all others: you compare color in daylight, on real hair, next to your own head. Anything else is guessing with a good feeling.

That is exactly what the Echthaar color ring is for. It consists of real hair strands to hold up against your hair, not printed patterns. If you compare once beforehand, you save yourself the whole discussion afterwards. And because the color ring is stock merchandise and not a custom product, the standard right of withdrawal applies to it.

Warm or cool: three tests in two minutes

Before you choose between shades, you need to know your direction. Almost every wrong order happens because someone hits the lightness correctly but misses the undertone.

The vein test. Look at the inside of your wrist in daylight. If the veins appear more blue or violet, you are cool. If they appear greenish, you are warm. If you see both, you are neutral and have the greatest range of choice.

The jewelry test. Hold silver and gold up to your face, one after the other. Whichever makes you look fresher reveals your direction. Silver suits cool types, gold suits warm types.

The sun test. Go to a window with a hand mirror and look at your ends. If they flash reddish or golden, you have warm undertones in your hair, even if the base color looks cool.

Reading color codes: the number before the point and the one after it

Codes such as #6 or #6.1 look like a continuation of the same color. They are not. The first number is the lightness, everything after the decimal point is the undertone, and the undertone changes the result more than one level lighter or darker.

Part of the code	What it tells you	Example
First number	Lightness, from 1 black to 10 and higher very light	6 is dark blonde
Digit after the point	Undertone, for example ash, gold or red	6.1 is ashy, 6.2 is different from 6.1
Letter	Additional palette designation, such as A, B, C or Q	60C, 18C, 4Q

Two pitfalls that regularly lead to queries from our customers:

#6.2 is not #6. If you have seen #6 on the color ring and then order #6.2, you will receive a different color. Both exist, both are correct, they are just not the same.

The name counts, not the number. Several colors share the same number. Under #8, for example, we offer beige ash blonde, dark blonde and caramel bronde. So never order by number alone, always order by the full name.

Your hair does not have one color, but three

Hardly anyone has the same shade from the roots to the ends. The roots are usually darker, the lengths have faded, and the ends are lighter. If you order a single color and match it to your roots, the extensions will look too dark in the lengths. If you match it to the ends, a light streak will show at the top.

That is why there are three ways to map this:

Ombré, often also written without the accent as Ombre. You specify the root color, the length of the gradient, the lengths and the ends. The transition is deliberately visible.

Two-tone and three-tone blends. Two or three colors are mixed to exact percentages, for example seventy to thirty. This imitates highlighted hair without a hard gradient.

One color plus highlight. A base color, plus a specific proportion of a lighter shade.

⚠️ One point that honestly belongs here: as soon as several colors are combined in one set, the hair comes from several sources. Different hair structures settle into each other more strongly, and small knots are to be expected and are not a defect. If you want maximum smoothness, a single color works best. More on this in our guide to Echthaar quality.

Ombré is not balayage

This is the most common reason for color complaints of all, and it is a misunderstanding, not a mistake. With ombré, the transition is deliberately more pronounced: one color passes into the other over a defined length. With balayage, the strands are placed more finely and softly, without a clear edge.

If you have a balayage in mind and order an ombré, you receive exactly what you ordered and are still dissatisfied. If you are unsure, it is better to send us a photo of the look you mean beforehand. To see in advance how a color looks on your own hair, use the AI color simulation.

If no color fits: custom color

Our palette has over seventy colors, each with a photo. Even so, there are hair shades that fall in between. For these there is the custom color service: you send photos of your own hair, and we mix individually.

This is how to make the photos useful: in daylight by a window, without flash, without filters, no night mode. Once the lengths, once the ends, once the roots. If you lay a strand over a white sheet of paper, you will see the undertone most clearly.

If you want to see in advance how a color looks on you, try the AI color simulation. It does not replace a color ring, but it quickly filters out what is not an option at all.

The color does not match: what applies now

Here is the honest information, so that no one is caught by surprise.

Individually manufactured extensions are a custom-made item. Based on your specifications for length, quantity, structure and color, a one-of-a-kind piece is produced, and for this there is no right of withdrawal. This is set out in law and is the same at every provider that makes to measure.

For stock merchandise, the color ring and the care treatment, the right of withdrawal applies in the normal way. This is the distinction that many people are not aware of.

A real colour deviation is something different from a wrong choice. If you received what you ordered but simply don’t like it, that is not a defect. If the colour delivered differs from the colour ordered, it is one, and then we take care of it. For this, photograph the strand in daylight, ideally next to the colour ring or next to your own hair, and include your order number.

You can see light and dark shades with real photos on our pages blonde real hair extensions and brown real hair extensions.

Frequently asked questions