You’ll be surprised at how many ways you can go about creating chestnut brown hair color. While it might seem nondescript at first, this color actually has many different guises. Blonde might be the most popular hair color, but actually, it’s brown that should be crowned the king of hair shades.
If you are still at a loss about how a chestnut brown color can diversify your image, we would recommend taking a close look at the collection of chestnut brown photos to get fresh inspiration. So if you are contemplating the chestnut brown shade, these options will make you feel that you’ve made the right choice.
Inspiring Chestnut Brown Hair Color Ideas
Whether you’ve got chestnut brown hair color naturally or are planning to get it, these options will give you some ideas of how to go about further dyeing.
The main advantage of this color is that it can suit absolutely any skin tone. There are plenty of hue variations that are created to be absolutely multi-purpose. There is no need to worry that this color will look dull or unattractive. Just the opposite. Once the dyeing is over, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the result.
Here are 70 light and dark chestnut brown hair colors you can try.
1. Medium Chestnut Brown Hair
For a hairstyle just a little longer than shoulders, color it chestnut brown and add blunt piecey bangs that stop above eyebrows.
2. Side-Swept Chestnut Curls
A basic brown is a good choice for long curly hair. Light brown highlights add light, especially if you concentrate the color around the face.
3. Dark Brown High Bun
In dark brown with soft light chestnut brown highlights, a high bun is gorgeous. Leave out a few wisps of hair to keep the look soft and delicate.
4. Copper-Brown Braids to the Side
Braid your light chestnut brown hair into a low side ponytail for a formal hairstyle. Start two braids at the center part of your head to make hair look thicker.
5. Dark Chestnut Brown Ponytail with Bangs
For dark chestnut brown like Dakota Johnson’s, gather hair into a loose medium or high ponytail. Keep bangs straight and slightly wispy at the sides.
6. Chestnut Brown Braid Crown
A crown braid in chestnut brown hair color is just the hairstyle for a formal occasion, like a wedding or date. Use shiny pins or flowered barrettes to secure it to the top.
7. Inverted Chestnut Brown Bob
Short layers up top and long pieces of hair up front around the face are just the style to make chestnut brown hair look gorgeous.
8. Dark Chestnut Brown Half-Updo
Long straight dark brown hair always looks classy in a half updo. Pull back and secure just the two front side sections, or all of the top half, for great style when topped with a patterned scrunchie.
9. Medium Brown Chignon
Another great hairstyle for fancy occasions? Medium chestnut brown hair in a chignon. Nix frizz for the perfect sleek hairdo.
10. Long Ringlets with Light Brown Highlights
Hair this gorgeous is thanks to light chestnut brown highlights over a dark brown base. Load up the highlights around your face to also brighten skin tone, or concentrate them at just the bottom half of your hair for a different look.
11. Bob with Chestnut Brown and Red Highlights
Keep the spice in your life by combining red with your chestnut brown highlights. The colors work wonderfully together on a wavy inverted bob.
12. Chestnut Layers with Flipped Ends
An ombre or balayage of chestnut brown with an ashy tone is perfect for long wavy hair. Add the chestnut brown to the top and end with dark brown.
13. Chocolate and Chestnut Brown
One thing every lady’s hairstyle needs is a rich hair color. If you love chestnut brown, complement it with chocolate brown. Both colors look great on light skin tones. Teased wavy texture is the final touch to your “I woke up like this” look.
14. Light Chestnut Brown Bob
Sleek, smooth locks covered in light chestnut brown make this older women’s short haircut very elegant. If you want more texture, ask for lots of short layers.
15. Golden Chestnut Waves
The large waves at the ends of this long hairstyle are sort of vintage glam. Get the complete package with a golden chestnut brown. Wear hair down or gather the top half in a low ponytail.
16. Chestnut Waves with a Red Face Frame
If you love hairstyles with vibrant pops of color, look no further! This bright red wavy hairstyle comes with rich chestnut brown color. The result is a beautiful chestnut covered strawberry!
17. Golden Chestnut Feathered Layers
Lots of thin golden chestnut brown highlights will certainly brighten up any thin hairstyle. Cut it shoulder-length with curtain bangs for an adorable girl-next-door look.
18. Chestnut Brown with Curled Ends
This long women’s hairstyle features soft, loose curls at the ends. Get ready for fall with this shade of chestnut brown which has more brown than red.
19. Warm Brunette Undercut
No one will be calling you old when you’re rocking an edgy reddish brown undercut. Maintain this color or weave in a few blonde highlights.
20. Chestnut Layers with Caramel Face-Framing Strands
Chestnut brown hues can go from striking to soft. If you are not ready for a too bright of an image, you can go for soft hues. You can make them even more appealing by adding highlights.
21. Auburn-Brown Lob with Side Bangs
Chestnut brown hair color looks great when mixed with auburn brown shades. If you want to get a redhead image, you will need to lean toward auburn more but keep some chestnut shade as well.
22. Sleek Chestnut Brown with Blunt Ends
Chestnut is a shade of brown that looks good without anything extra. So you can leave the idea of an ombre or highlights behind and enjoy the richness of the full uniform color.
23. Angled Bob with Copper-Brown Ribbons
If you are into a-line bobs, you will love the way chestnut highlights look on your hair. Chestnut and auburn shades are amazing together. If your hair is wavy, you can enjoy them even more.
24. Honey-Blonde Ribbons on Chestnut Curls
If mixed with golden brown and honey blonde, chestnut brown creates a rich and creamy color that reminds you of milk chocolate. Do the color mixing right and you will love the results.
25. Carrot top
Mixed with auburn brown, the chestnut hair color can give a slightly red shade. If you are planning to become a redhead, you might want to ask your hairstylist for this subtle approach.
26. Deep Auburn Waves
If you want to brighten up your auburn or cherry brown locks, light chestnut brown hair color can do the trick. Try the partial highlights first. If it’s not enough, go further to highlight all your locks.
27. Chestnut-to-Blonde Wavy Lob
Chestnut brown looks especially alluring when mixed with different shades of blonde. Don’t be afraid to experiment with blonde highlights on your chestnut brown hair. You’ll love the way it looks!
28. Caramel Highlights through Long Brown Waves
Highlighting just the lower part of your ombre will make your hair look fantastic. So if you are looking for a good color to brighten up your chestnut brown, go for golden brown or blonde.
29. Dark Chestnut with Copper-Tipped Layers
If you are a fan of color experiments, you’ll appreciate this amazing mix of all brown shades. Take a dark shade like cherry as a base and go further to add brown and chestnut highlights.
30. Brown Curls with Copper Highlights
Chestnut brown is a good color for any occasion. You can use it to brighten up dark hair or to subdue very light colors. It looks great as highlights and makes an impression as a sole shade.
31. Chestnut Layers with Crown Volume
If chestnut brown is your natural hair color and you are looking for a change, you can emphasize the brightness by adding some light highlights. Go for honey or golden brown or dark blonde.
32. The helper
Throwing some chestnut brown hair color in the mix when you are making highlights will allow you to forget about maintenance for a while. Let your dark roots grow, they will blend in.
33. Light Chestnut with Long Face-Framing Layers
If you have chestnut brown locks, make them look as if the sun did some work on them by brightening the color with the use of some well-chosen highlights. Ask your stylist for advice.
34. Don’t stop
Don’t stop at just one or two colors. Mixing and matching brown and blond shades will help you create a unique hair color. When you are ready to do highlights, make sure you choose at least 3 hues.
35. Straight Brown-to-Honey Ombre
Chestnut brown looks great as part of an ombre especially when it’s used only on the very top. Allow the rest of your locks to be much brighter by turning to auburn or light brown.
36. Chestnut Curls with Copper Ends
This is a fun and youthful style where you have your hair curled naturally into small compact rings. To color such hair, go for a softer shade of chestnut brown as it suits the texture more and brings out the natural details more precisely.
37. Burgundy-Brown Waves with Copper Ribbons
You can have highlights of different shades of chestnut brown hair color on a brown base. This way you can go for more than one shade that you love and look pretty while doing so.
38. Chestnut Lob with Full Bangs
This hairstyle keeps things simple and nice with the dyed hair cut to a medium length. The front is cropped short to bring about an air of innocence.
39. Light Chestnut with Golden-Tipped Curls
Who said that the softer tones of chestnut brown are meant to be straight or all curly? It can be a mixture of both with loose curls at the ends of straight hair.
40. Side-Parted Chestnut Face-Framing Layers
You can have this unique way of rocking both a short and long hairstyle with the front cut in short bangs and the back with long chestnut brown hair.
41. Chestnut-to-Golden Ombre Waves
A chestnut-brown base blends with golden highlights through the lower waves.
42. Side-Parted Dark Chestnut Waves
This is a great way of rocking your hair if you have a dark chestnut brown hair color. This way you can look more stylish in your natural hair zone.
43. Dark Brown S-Waves with Chestnut Ribbons
A rich dark brown base sets off lighter chestnut highlights. The ribbons follow the soft waves through the lengths.
44. Tousled Ash-Brown Curls with Side Bangs
This is an unconventional style when it comes to chestnut brown hair, but the end result is so attractive and appealing that we can’t really complain. You can have a go at it too if you feel like trying a new and unique combination.
45. Golden-Streaked Brown Lob with Wispy Bangs
The dark brown chestnut hair base is all you need to experiment with different shades highlighting it. You can have any other shade of brown to complement it too, but a caramel highlighting with golden touches can be really nice and attractive, so you should consider trying it too.
46. Long Chestnut Layers with Blunt Bangs
Long brown bangs look as lovely and adorable as the short ones, if not more. You can have the front cut short to give it a carefree and naïve feel while growing the sides long. This is a great style for teenage girls and young women as they look more youthful and innocent with this one.
47. Golden-Brown Waves with Swept Bangs
This is one of the prettiest combinations of brown and golden as both the colors have an individual identity as well as a nice combined form in it. You can opt for it especially if you have medium length or slightly long hair as they get to have a greater area to display this impressive style. You should try this one if you want to go for an entirely new look and surprise your friends.
48. Asymmetrical Chestnut Bob with Long Bangs
Going for a stylish balayage is a nice way to embrace chestnut brown color for your hair as it subtly makes many transitions and highlights of different shades of brown. The side swept sleek and modern bang is the cherry on the top for this exquisite and impressive style. Just do not forget to put some edgy layers to it and see how well you pull off your short chestnut brown hair.
49. Sweet honey waves
This is a look especially for young adult women who love a soft and lovely look. The hair is given a honey hue to enhance the youthful charisma of the wearer in a way that no other color can. This is one of the hottest looks out there, so go ahead and try it before others do!
50. Dark-Rooted Chestnut Waves with Wispy Bangs
This is a natural and lively combination as both the base and the lowlights merge and complement each other so well that there is no need of any further styling. Just a little brushing and you are good to go out and meet the challenges hands-on.
What Does Chestnut Brown Hair Look Like?
Chestnut brown hair is a popular choice and women around the globe are going for different shades of this color. Before going into detail of what kind of styles and fashion updates are in trend, let’s first see what color chestnut brown hair is.
Chestnut brown color is basically the lovely color of the nut of the chestnut tree. It is a brownish-red color with a rich chocolate appearance. It is a lovely color for your hair as it looks natural, elegant and impressive with its rich shade and texture.
Which Shade of Chestnut Brown Color Will Suit You?
Chestnut brown color has a lot of shades all of which are attractive and beautiful. However, not all of them are for every skin tone. This means that you have to take some things into consideration when you want to go for chestnut brown hair.
To determine a shade of chestnut brown color for you, you have to identify the kind of undertones that your skin has.
Vein appearance is only an imperfect cue to undertone, rather than a definitive test. A mixture of green and blue color does not establish that your undertone must be neutral. Discuss the contrast you want, your undertone and upkeep when choosing a chestnut shade.
You can determine your undertones by the color of your eyes too. If your eyes are green or blue then your undertones are likely cool while the presence of golden specks in them usually means that you have warm undertones. Once you have determined the kind of undertones that you have, you can proceed to find the shade of chestnut brown hair color which will suit the most.
Now comes the cool part. Just remember that for warm undertones you have to choose warm shades of chestnut brown hair color while for cool undertones the cooler shades of chestnut brown are perfect. Neutral undertones go equally well with both the warm and cool shades so you can go for any shade that you like.
How to Get Chestnut Brown Hair?
Chestnut brown sits close to most natural bases, so it rarely needs any lightening, and a single-process salon color gets you there in one visit. A colorist can tune the exact chestnut, golden to ashy, to your undertone and cover any grays evenly in the same appointment.
If you are still deciding on a shade, save your favorites from the gallery below and compare them with our roundup of hair color ideas before you book.
Maintenance
Getting the perfect chestnut brown hair color is the easy part, the hard part is maintaining it. To retain the lovely color and texture of your chestnut brown hair, follow these tips.
Use specific products for dyed hair
You should stop using the regular shampoo and conditioner that you have been using in past. Replace them with products formulated for dyed hair to preserve color and softness.
Turn down the dial while showering
Hot water robs your hair of its natural moisture, leaving it looking dull and dry. Turning down your dial can help retain shine and softness. Use lukewarm water instead.
Use a heat protectant on your hair
Want to style your chestnut brown hair in lovely curls or smooth straight bangs? Go for it, but make sure that you use a heat protectant on your hair before blow-drying, curling or straightening it. This way the color will stay for a longer time and your hair will stay safer from the damage caused by the heat.
Rock the natural texture of your hair
It is good to curl your hair, but you should do it on special occasions only. For regular days just flaunt your natural hair texture as it will get damaged on constant exposure to heating and curlers.
