10 Ways to Find Your Best Hair Color at 50

5. Keep the contrast. Your hair color should be at least two shades deeper, richer or brighter than your skin in order to avoid washing you out. This is why women who go blond or blonder at 50 often find themselves struggling with makeup. If your hair color matches your skin tone, you lose feature definition and become one blah shade. Keeping a darker base shade under brighter/lighter color, mixing in highlights and possibly lowlights, letting a little dark root show or choosing an ombré look with darker hair melting into lighter ends are all useful ways of getting around this when your chosen color is too monochromatic.

Bo Derek, Jamie Lee Curtis, Glenn Close, Helen Mirren

Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage, Rachel Luna/FilmMagic, Taylor Hill/FilmMagic, Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

6. Let gray be part of the plan if you're blond. It's not necessarily all or nothing when it comes to coloring your hair. Some women choose a low-contrast blond shade (that's low contrast between your gray and blond hair, not your skin and hair!) to allow grays to blend with colored strands in a flattering way. It allows you to go longer between color appointments, and the shade has a modern multitonal look. Gray or white hair benefits from cool and warm highlights, too, since not all gray comes in looking silvery gorgeous.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston

Francois G. Durand/WireImage, Amy Sussman/Getty Images, V E Anderson/WireImage, Steve Granitz/WireImage

7. A mix of brown and blond is the new normal. You don't even have to settle for a specific color category anymore. Multitonal hair in subtle or obvious variations looks contemporary and doesn't depend on a rigid schedule of touch-ups. Highlights are not just gold or a generic blond. They can be caramel, amber, honey, ash brown, butterscotch or cinnamon, auburn or mocha. The trick is that by mixing warm and cool shades like caramel and ash, it makes the blond-brown blend modern. Streaks of different widths and tones that start at random points away from the hairline and roots make a no grow-out line possible.

Wanda Sykes, Susan Sarandon, Gayle King, Molly Ringwald

Gary Gershoff/Getty Images, Frazer Harrison/Getty Images, Ron Adar / M10s/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images, Bruce Glikas/WireImage

8. Reddish hair is the blond alternative, but there's a catch. From bright copper and earthy auburn to rich cinnamon and redwood, red is a peppy solution for brown or naturally reddish hair that's dimmed with age. Red energizes mature skin like a dose of rosy cream blush as an all-over color or balayaged-in with highlights. It's surprisingly great on women with ruddy, reddish skin — even complexions with rosacea — though you'd probably think not. It makes pinky complexions look just-back-from-the-gym healthy. The too-good-too-be-true part is that red hair color fades quickly and requires masks, gloss treatments and sulfate-free shampoos to keep that vibrant look. But it is so worth it.

Holly Hunter, Lisa Kudrow, Lisa Rinna, Cindy Crawford

Dominik Bindl/Getty Images, Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic, Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic, Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Cantor Fitzgerald

9. Choose color you — and your hair — won't regret. It's not logical or even smart to select “fantasy hair” that'll eat up your budget and time. How much chemical baggage do you already have? If your hair is colored, chemically straightened or relaxed, thin, damaged or frequently heat-styled, choose a lower-maintenance color instead of a big-deal platinum or bright red. Is your hair healthy enough to duplicate the color you crave without frying, breaking or drying out? Is your hair long? You can't have it all. It's either extreme length or extreme color — you choose. Celebs who have double process and highlights tend to keep a consistent style that's short to medium for that reason. Those with long hair just upgrade their original color.

10. Go slow. Hair color is easy to do, hard to undo. So, the old hair color rules are out the window. No one cares anymore if you dye or not. Blond is cool, but so is gray. You don't have to worry about your hair color looking “born this way.” Perhaps it's time to let go of foil highlights, one-shade color and your roots hang-up, and get more dramatic with a fiery red or sunny blond. However, it's easy to get seduced by a major color change when we go through another life change — when we gain or lose weight, get divorced or start dating again, begin a new job or move to a new place, celebrate a major birthday or achievement. Go slow: You can always amp up the color more later.

For more beauty and style tips for women age 50-plus, check out The Makeup Wakeup: Revitalizing Your Look at Any Age by Lois Joy Johnson and Sandy Linter.