COLOR CHARTS
COLOR RINGS
NORIKO GRADIENT COLORS
WHAT COLOR AM I LOOKING AT?
HOW CAN I CHOOSE THE RIGHT COLOR THE FIRST TIME?
When considering the purchase of a wig by mail order, the best way to get a reasonably accurate color match is to send us a sample of your hair, or of another wig you have. I would need a hair sample at least 2 inches long and a pencil’s width for an accurate color interpretation.
I have even received entire wigs from customers for color matching, but this is not necessary. I have color rings from each wig company I deal with, and I can determine your color as close as possible from your hair sample. If you are purchasing human hair or a human hair blend wig.
WHERE DO I SEND MY HAIR SAMPLE?
Onthetop.com
PO Box 178
Sutter, CA 95982
Don't forget to include your name and phone number or e-mail address so I can contact you.<
WHY DON'T YOU HAVE ALL THE COLOR CHARTS ON YOUR WEBSITE?
Probably the hardest thing to do on the Internet is to show true colors. First of all, the pictures you see are not a true representation of the color. Modern technology does not yet allow monitors to give you a true representation of colors due to differences in design from one monitor to the another. The problems lie in the number of colors the screen can show, and the way it displays colors.
The best way to view colors is to set your monitor to 16.7 million (or more) colors. Then remember, colors are still not exact. Even a printed catalog will not avoid this problem since the printing process depends on the color mixtures available in different printing inks. On top of all that, the colors of the hair and fiber vary from manufacturer to manufacturer
CAN I GET A SAMPLE OF THE AVAILABLE COLORS?
We have color rings available for Jacquelyn, New Look, European Naturals, Revlon, Alan Thomas, Dermafix, Beverly Johnson, Look of Love, Adolfo, Estetica, Dolly Parton, Noriko, Rene of Paris Monofilament, and also the Rene of Paris original collection color ring. There is a deposit for each ring, which may be applied to your purchase (less shipping) when the ring is returned to us. Please contact us for details.
WHAT IS A COLOR RING?
Wig colors are determined from color sample rings provided by each individual manufacturer. A color ring is a group of hair swatches of the pre-determined colors which are used by each wig manufacturer to represent the different shades in which its hairgoods are available. Each swatch is attached to a small plastic disk with a number on it, and these disks are usually attached to some kind of ring to keep them together.
DO ALL MANUFACTURERS USE THE SAME COLORS?
The vast majority of wig manufacturers today use the J&L color standard for both human hair and synthetic hairgoods. There are certain universal colors with were determined long ago when the wig business was new. This is called the J&L color standard, and the colors are similar on swatch rings from companies who use this standard.
The colors are represented by number from 1 on up. Examples: 1 is jet black, 8 is light brown, 16 is honey blonde, 30 is light auburn, 44 is salt and pepper grey, 60 is white, 18/22 is ash blonde frost, etc. With most manufacturers, a / between the numbers means that the color is frosted with both colors in 50-50 ratio. If the color has a - such as 16-8, it usually means that the lighter color is lightly sprinkled through the darker color, either in the front or throughout the wig, creating a subtle highlight.
WHY DOESN’T THE COLOR NUMBER FROM ONE BRAND MATCH THE SAME NUMBER FROM ANOTHER ?
The factory which processes the human hair or makes the synthetic fiber produces flat, unblended colors like black, browns, reds, blondes, and even yellows, greens and blues in many different shades. Also different fibers can vary in color. The finished colors from which a company creates their color selection are a blend of different shades.
Example: #8 light brown on one color ring might be lighter or darker, warmer or more ash-toned, than the same number on another company’s ring. In other words, although a company may use the J&L standard, each company has its own blend of shades it uses in order to personalize its own product. In addition, companies may have special blends or colors which are unique to them, such as various highlighted and rooted color combinations. So that unless one uses the color ring to determine a company’s particular selection, it would be difficult to get an exact color match for yourself.
CAN I ORDER A COLOR RING FROM THE MANUFACTURER?
Unless you have a wig business, most companies don’t offer their rings to the public. They are only for professionals who are retailing their products. However, if you wish, we can to send you a color ring for whichever collection you are interested in. There is a deposit on each ring, plus shipping, but we will deduct the deposit from your purchase. Color rings are available for all brands except Motown Tress.
NORIKO GRADIENT COLORS
These are the Gradient Colors (GC) for the Noriko styles that are made in these colors. These pictures were created with a color-corrected monitor. Your monitor may not display them the same way, so this is only meant to be a general guideline for these colors. For a more accurate representation of the color, color rings are available for sale or rent.
CHAMPAGNE: DARK BROWN ROOTS WITH CHAMPAGNE BLONDE TIPS.
(The roots look black in the picture, but on the wig they are actually dark brown.)
MOCHA CREAM: DARK BROWN ROOTS WITH DARK ASH BLONDE TIPS.
MOCHA-H: MOCHA CREAM AND CHAMPAGNE
SANDALWOOD: DARK BROWN ROOTS WITH GOLDEN BLONDE TIPS.
NUTMEG: DARK BROWN ROOTS WITH CARAMEL BLONDE TIPS.
NUTMEG-F: NUTMEG AND CHAMPAGNE
NUTMEG-H: NUTMEG AND SANDALWOOD
RAISIN GLAZE: DARK BROWN ROOTS WITH WARM MEDIUM AUBURN BROWN TIPS.
RAISIN GLAZE-H
TERRACOTTA: DARK BROWN ROOTS WITH BRIGHT RUSTY RED TIPS.
TERRA COTTA-H: TERRA COTTA AND RAISIN GLAZE
SANGRIA: DARK BROWN ROOTS WITH RICH DARK RED TIPS.WHAT COLOR AM I LOOKING AT?
QUESTION: I'm looking at a wig on the website and love the color. I would like to know what color it is so I can order that same color. Why is it so hard to tell me what color it is?
ANSWER: Well, this has been a common question asked and the answer is simple but often wrong. The simple answer is the manufacturer took a photo of a certain color wig and provided it to us. Generally, we can find out what the original color was. There is a problem with simply telling you what the color of the wig is in the photo. We do our best to reproduce the colors of the photos as accurately as possible. The difficulty comes in having no reference as to how your system displays colors. We have many different computers here that we can view our website and photos with. They do not appear the same color on each computer. One computer may show a picture as a 1B (Off Black, the left photo below) yet another may show it as a 2 (Darkest Brown, the middle photo below) and a 3rd may show it as 33 (Dark Auburn, the right photo below). This difference in the way different computers show colors is where the problem comes in. Let's say the photo is of a 2 (Darkest Brown) and your system shows it too bright and with too much red. You may be seeing what looks like a 33 when it isn't that color. We tell you it is a color 2, you order the 2 and it doesn't look anything like what you saw in the photo.
Another problem is the number of colors your display will show at the same time. The only way to get true colors is to make sure your computer is set to provide 16 million colors. Knows as True Color or 24Bit or 32Bit color. To give you an idea of what a difference it makes, the photo on the left below is 256 colors and the right photo is 16.7 million colors. If you don't see a major difference between these then your monitor is not displaying colors accurately.
Here is a simple way to see if your system is displaying colors even close to being correct.
The color bars shown below are continously shaded from black to red, green, blue and brown. Take a look at the colors on the far right #10 location. The colors are pure for the red, green and blue. Whereas the brown is an actual wig color.
The next spot check is with something most people will have around the house, a Pepsi can. The main red color is actually about where #4 is and the main blue is about #4 also. So if you see the main red matches #3 and the main blue matches #2 then your system is not only too bright but it is too bright in the blue. You kinda get the idea here. Say you are looking at a color of a wig on our site, and you like the color shown in the picture. If you were to order the medium brown in the picture, you would receive a darker wig than you expected. Or you were expecting a burgundy color it would be more red because your system is showing too much blue.
Next, look at each color bar and notice which number on the number bar represents the highest number for what appears black. That number should be #2. If your system shows something higher or lower then you are not seeing the true color of the wig.
All that being said, there is still another thing to consider, room lighting. If you are in a room lit with standard florescent lights, wigs will appear a different color than under "Color corrected" florescent lights. Standard bulbs and candles will make a wig appear more red and outdoors in sunlight will be more blue on a fair day and more gray on a cloudy day.
Fortunately, there are a couple of ways of knowing for sure what color you are looking at.
1. Order a color ring for that collection. We do charge for the color rings, but if you return them we will refund the cost of the color ring back to you, or give you a credit to apply to your next purchase. We have found that many people will keep the color rings and not send them back to us. The rings can cost as much or more than some of the actual wigs. We simply can't provide them for free and continue to purchase replacements to keep on-hand. We ask for the deposit and then give the credit to make sure we get the ring back.
2. Color-correct your computer display. Most modern computers have the ability to color-correct the display. There is more to it than simple tweaking the knobs until it looks right. Also, simply matching the colors of your screen to the colors on your printer won't ensure that the colors you see match the original photo. There needs to be a standard to which to correct your monitor. How is that done? We wish there was a simple answer. There are basically only a few things that can be done. It can be corrected by eye, it can be corrected by software, and lastly (and the best choice) is to purchase a color correcting device that looks at your screen to see what it is showing. A good article from Microsoft explaining color-correcting can be found here. This article states it is for Windows XP but the suggestions work for other systems also.
The least expensive color correcting hardware "colorimeter" mentioned in the article is the Pantone Colorvision Spyder. The prices seem to be going around $125 at the present time.