#bright winter

instead, try mini balayage - white or grey tips to create a slight gradient. just going bright white all over won't have the desired effect and will fry your hair completely. such an extreme makeover is only for sharp yang types that can gel it down afterwards. that's why lucky blue smith (not endorsing his recent trad shtick, just using him as a prominent example) got famous back in the day for going full cool toned platinum - he is a Dramatic type.

keep in mind that bleaching it first will leave a warm tone unsuitable for winter. purple shampoo helps to create cool tips. hair crayons or liquid hair chalks (temporary, nice color pops = very bright winter-themed!) could also be used creatively here once the bleached tips are in place, even though the result is not professional, more DIY. since bleaching is always damage, i would go for well-made clip in extensions to try what works first. curly or wavy of course, romantics weren't put on this earth to do pin straight hair.

you have to be certain pure (!) R is your type for this, bnw balayage will look outdated on any other type except winter soft naturals, and it has to be subtle: not 50% black 50% white, that would be dramatic, think cruella de vil. see how dramatics use colors in fully seperate compartments, not slow gradients? glenn close!

also, going too far up in seperate strands will be gamine-adjacent, and looks like racoon hair on romantics (TR taemin is the best example here, balayage > stripes): pure R is the type that needs the most delicate styling of them all, since pure D as their kibbe-opposite benefits from the most drastic styles. still, even if this is hard to achieve, i think bright winter romantics can easily do this style if they wear it shorter (the picture below is SD length, romantics go above the collar bone tbh):

I have ELLA RAY STYLE's and Christine Scaman's YouTube videos to thank for eloquently explaining the differences. Highly recommend their channels: Ella breaks down color analysis based on the science of color, and Christine analyzes hair color and skin tone based on her expertise (and has a video on Gillian, as a matter of fact.) Ella is more updated than Christine, in my opinion; but I’m listing both, just the same~. 

THE DIFFERENCES

I’ve already discussed the difference between Chroma and Value (and Hue) here; but I’ll include a quick summary for this dissection’s sake. 

Hue is the color of one’s skin tone: is it primarily warm or cool-- yellow or blue in undertone? Or neutral; and what kind?  

Value is the lightness or darkness of one’s Hue. (Any skin color can have a light or dark value to it, post here.) Higher Values usually have lighter or more "translucent" hair, allowing light to pass through it, as well as finer or sparser brows. (High Value tones look great in lighter colors such as cool pure white, warm ivory white, and other lighter colors. Deep colors near the face tend to drag down and dominant the "presence" of the outfit, making it appear as if the clothes were wearing the person rather than the other way around.) Lower Values usually have darker or more "opaque" hair when in direct lighting, as well as darker or bushier brows. (Low Value tones look great in darker colors such as navy blue, pure black and deep brown. Light colors near the face give them an exaggerated pale, tired appearance.) Medium Values are underserved in both very High Value (light) and very Low Value (dark) outfits; and look best in "medium" colors such as grays, lighter browns, and camel colors.

Since Medium Value is neither strongly High nor strongly Low Value, it will naturally place itself in third position in the primary/secondary hierarchy that determines one’s Seasonal Color Analysis (no matter what the Hue or Chroma ratios are.)

Chroma is the measure of how bright and clear or muted and soft a color is. High Chromas have a brighter, clearer appearance-- with very little brown or gray pigmentation in their skin tone-- and a "dewy" or bright skin texture. Their darker brows usually have a deeper coloration; and their irises are usually "richer" and clearer with defined "edges" next to the whites of the eyes. (Supposedly, this gives Higher Chromas an "alert and eye-catching expression.”) Low Chromas have a desaturated or muted appearance-- with a prominent gray or "ashy" pigmentation-- and a "matte" or softer skin texture. Their finer brows usually have a "sparser" appearance; and their irises have a softer, blurred "edge" next to the whites of the eyes. (Supposedly, this gives Lower Chromas a "softer gaze" and more "delicate charm.") Medium Chroma is midway between the two: not too “rich” or striking, but not too blurred or softened. 

Since Medium Chroma is neither strongly High nor strongly Low Chroma, it will naturally place itself in third position in the primary/secondary hierarchy that determines one’s Seasonal Color Analysis (no matter what the Hue or Value ratios are.) 

Now, what does this have to do with one Gillian Anderson? 

MY MISTAKE

I mistook Gillian’s High Value for High Chroma. 

In my original post, I covered that Gillian had a High Value and Cool Hue-- meaning, she does best with lighter, less dark cool tones. But I mistakenly bled her High Value (the “light” quality of her skin) with that of High Chroma (the bright or “clear” quality of her skin), skewing her results in the Winter, not Summer, direction.  To be fair to myself, I was unaware that Medium Chroma existed; but, now that I do, here we are. 

Black and white photos are an incredible hack for testing the skin's Values. Photos that have sharply defined contrasts between the white and black spaces are more likely to be Low Value; photos with very little differentiation between the different shades are more likely to be High Value; and photos with some black, some gray, some white spaces are more likely to be Medium Value. In the example above, GA's eyebrows aren't washed out, her iris aren't popping out in extremis compared to the whites of her eyes, her hair isn't too light or starkly black compared to her skin, and her skin isn't stark compared to the shadows surrounding it. Hence, she's Medium Value (just like David Duchovny.)

TESTING AGAINST MY ORIGINAL HYPOTHESIS

Bright/Clear Winter has primarily High Chroma, secondarily Cool Hue; while Light Summer has primarily Light/High Value, secondarily Cool Hue-- meaning, I faultily assumed the “lightness” in Gillian’s skin was due to a very clear, very bright chroma rather than a lack of darkened mixture in Value.

How do we test the difference?

Broadly, Summer and Winter are Cool seasons differentiated by their saturation: Summer takes Winter's palettes and mixes it with gray, appearing more muted or "desaturated" compared to its twin.

So: does a "grayed down" palette suit Gillian?

To illustrate, I edited a photo of her (in as close to natural lighting as possible) with her skin tone hues swatched next to her left.  

As you can see, there is a lightness and coolness to each hue; but they lack a sharpness and a dynamic punch. In effect, they've been muted. Softened. "Grayed" from an original, "pure" intensity.

(The above photo, by the way, is also a perfect example of a Light Value outfit: harmonious in light tones-- nothing darker or brighter or lighter or differently accented than any another element.) 

When overlaying this same photo with Bright Winter swatches (left), it’s easy to see how overpowering that Season’s brightness and clarity is-- especially in comparison to Light Summer’s swatches (right.) 

And, again: 

Gillian is overpowered by Bright Winter. While its strong, sharp clarity gives this palette the ability to play around with darkness-- allowing Bright Winter the leeway to be able to pull off deep, cool black and navy-- its depth is too deep for GA to follow without “shadowing” her undereyes and prominent facial features. 

Light Summer, by contrast, perfectly complements the lightness (and lack of depth) in GA’s skin tone, removing the dark shadows under her eyes and giving her cheeks a luminous flush. 

CONCLUSION

I’m going to go back to all the old fashion posts and update the information there (with pictures); so, expect the timeline to be flooded with reposts as I announce the edited versions. 

Thanks for reading~