How to Choose the Right Cheerleading Ponytail Colour

Choosing the right cheerleading ponytail colour is one of the most important decisions you'll make for your competition look. Get it right and it blends so naturally nobody can tell where your hair ends and the ponytail begins. Get it wrong and it stands out for all the wrong reasons. Here's how to choose your shade with confidence.

Start with your undertone, not just your colour

Hair colour has two components: the overall shade (light, medium, dark) and the undertone (warm, cool, or neutral). Warm hair has golden, red, or copper tones running through it. Cool hair has ash, platinum, or grey undertones. Neutral hair sits somewhere in between. Matching both the shade and the undertone is what creates a truly seamless blend.

A common mistake is choosing a colour that looks right in the photo but has the wrong undertone. For example, if your natural hair is a warm honey blonde, choosing an ash blonde ponytail will look disconnected even if the overall lightness matches.

Take your photo in natural light

Before browsing shades, take a photo of your hair in natural daylight outside or near a window. Indoor lighting, phone filters, and flash all distort colour significantly. Your natural daylight photo is the most accurate version of your true hair colour and is what you should use when comparing shades.

Match to your ends, not your roots

Your ponytail will sit from the base of your high pony downward. This means it will blend at the point where your natural hair ends, which is your mid-lengths and ends, not your roots. If you have balayage, ombre, or any kind of colour graduation, match to the colour at your ends rather than at your scalp.

Go slightly lighter, not darker

When in doubt between two shades, go slightly lighter rather than darker. A slightly lighter ponytail tends to blend more naturally in competition lighting, which is often very bright and can make darker tones look heavier. The exception is if you have very dark hair, where a close match is more important than going lighter.

Use the shade finder

Our online shade finder at lotteandbelleco.com lets you upload a photo of your hair and match it to our 14 signature shades in seconds. It uses pixel colour sampling to identify which shade from our collection is closest to your natural hair. It's not perfect (no digital tool is) but it's a great starting point before you make your final decision.

Consider a Custom Colour Match

If your hair colour is unusual, heavily coloured, or you have a very specific tone that doesn't fit neatly into a standard shade, our Custom Colour Match service creates a ponytail precision-matched to your exact natural hair. Send us a photo in natural light, our team identifies your closest match, and we craft your ponytail specifically for you.

Our 14 shades at a glance

Very Blonde: 22 Platinum Blonde, 24 Champagne Blonde, 27 Vanilla Blonde
Mid Blonde: 14 Honey Blonde, 10 Latte Blonde, 8 Toffee Blonde, 6 Caramel Blonde
Auburn and Copper: 30 Apricot, 33 Copper, Red 4 Cinnamon Brown
Dark: 4 Cocoa Brown, 2 Espresso, 1C Midnight Brown, 1B Raven Black

Browse all 14 shades at lotteandbelleco.com/pages/shades and click any shade to see the full description and buy direct.