Random Hair Color Generator

The Random Hair Color Generator picks one shade at random from a list of 79 named hair colors and paints it onto a hair silhouette so you can see it at a glance. Each result shows the color's name (say, "Champagne blonde" or "Mahogany red"), its hex code, and a copy button that puts the hex on your clipboard. The list runs from the natural blacks, browns, blondes and reds a salon would mix, through to fashion colors like lilac, rose gold, denim blue and mint green.

How to use it

The only setting is which silhouette to display: Men, Women or Both. It changes the preview, not the color. Whatever you choose, the tool picks from the same 79 shades. Press Generate Hair Color and you get one color; press again for another. There is no batch mode and no "natural only" filter, so if you're after a natural shade, keep clicking until you land on a black, brown, blonde or red. Around two thirds of the list is natural, so it rarely takes more than a couple of tries.

What's in the 79 shades

• Blacks (7): jet black, blue-black, soft black, midnight black, true black, brown-black, natural black.
• Browns (25): chocolate, espresso, dark and light chestnut, dark, medium and light ash brown, caramel, honey, golden, mahogany, auburn, reddish, burgundy, mocha, cinnamon, coffee, copper, taupe and more.
• Blondes (17): dirty blonde, bronde, golden, honey, ash, sun-kissed, buttery, caramel, platinum, icy, champagne, pearl, strawberry, copper, butter and beige blonde.
• Reds (12): ginger, copper, auburn, mahogany, cherry, fire engine, ruby, burgundy, wine, maroon, rusty and cinnamon red.
• Fashion colors (18): pastel pink, hot pink, rose gold, lilac, lavender, violet, plum, grape, navy, royal, pastel and denim blue, emerald, forest, mint and teal green, plus ash, silver, charcoal and smoky gray.

Each shade is paired with a hex code, which is what the silhouette is filled with and what the copy button copies. Hair color names are marketing terms rather than precise pigments, so treat the swatch as a rough idea of the tone and use the name when you talk to a stylist. We recently removed duplicate entries from the list so the same name can't come up under two different swatches.

What people use it for

• Character design. Writers, tabletop players and artists roll for a hair color instead of defaulting to brown again. The hex code drops straight into a drawing app. Pair it with the Random Eye Color Generator and Random Skin Color Generator for a complete look, or the Random Height Generator for the rest of the sheet.
• Deciding on a dye job. If you've narrowed it down to "something different" and can't choose, let the randomizer make a suggestion and see how you react to it.
• Cosplay, avatar and game character builders. A quick way to break out of the same three colors.
• Hair color challenge videos. Streamers use random picks as the rule for a dye challenge or a drawing prompt.

For the cut rather than the color, the Random Hairstyle Generator shows a photo of a random men's style. More attribute pickers are under all people and character generators.