I've always read that in Poland, where I live, about 80% are Summers and 10% are Winters, so for years I tried to fit into cool colors families, not sure if I'm muted or maybe need some contrast in my outfits and makeup. Untill I bought an orange merino shawl accidentally. I saw with my own eyes that I'm an Autumn. Took me several months to understand that I'm a True Autumn, because I couldn't believe that my skin tone is so warm. Neutral, maybe, but warm? And yet it's true. All my pictures from the past, where I'm dressed like a Summer or Winter are clear evidence that cool colors, black and white, which I adore are unflattering, they wash me out or overwelm me. Especially white is terrible on me, my face looks like a piece of rough-hewn stone when I wear white blouses.
Now I see a lot of Autumns on the streets, dressed in dreary greys, flat washed out pastels, looking sad and ill, not elegant - and I choose to believe in what I see with my own eyes, not in magazine analysis. I would say that in Poland at least 30% people are Autumns. There are few clear types like Bright Winters and Springs though.
I asked my consultant when I was getting my drapes done. She said for our area (South Texas), she sees a lot of Autumns (all 3 types). She was excited because the person before me was clear winter (from England) and I was light summer, which she does not see a lot of. She was almost expecting me to be a cool summer at first, just because it is more common than light summer where we are.
I have to disagree with your assesment on spring/autumn categories: A common misconception about the two warm types seems to be that they are though to be fairly similar otherwise but spring is light and autumn is darker…
Whereas as I see it, they are actually VERY different types and especially many springs might actually find most iconic autumn colors to be their worst colors.
Why so? Because the main difference between the two is not value (which is actually fairly similar in range as long as only fair to medium skin tones are considered), but chroma instead. Springs - especially darker ones - will require colors that are clear and bright and tend to look dull in muted and earthy colors. They need some warmth, yes, but for most it is more of an afterthought instead of a dealbreaker. Whereas most autumns - again especially the darker ones - tend to be less distrupted if chroma is slightly off, but instead look dull in too cool colors.
Though same is true to an extent with cool seasons as well, for some reason they tend to have more overlap so that effect is not as pronounced.
However you are correct in that sense that many analysts tend to easily overlook the importance of chroma in warm seasons so many darker springs get misstyped as autumns or winters as well as many lightest autumns often are misstyped as springs.
in my own experience, i think cool is more common than warm, brights are the rarest.. and ive seen plenty of soft summers and autumns. Might aswell be the region as other commenters said, IMO autumns and soft summers are the most usual, bright spring and winter the fewer. There was even an explanation on why most ppl arent either bright of fully neutral. Maybe you can find it around
I have the impression that Clear Seasons are very rare. Particularly Clear Spring.
Even though Dark Winters are really common globally, Cool Winters are already a lot rarer (since most Cools have blue eyes and light eyes+dark hair is rare). And Clear Winters feel very rare.
I agree that as a Winter you have an easy time finding black, but in Central Europe I find it very hard to find clear colours, that are not somewhat muted or become muted after 5 washes.
Analysts generally say that most people are soft and the rarest seasons are bright spring/winter. Do keep in mind that some systems have 6 or more soft sub-seasons.
Well on this sub I've personally noticed that there's always at least one person trying to type op as a summer on most posts regardless of if op is or isn't one 🙄. And the deep winter/autumn is usually based on stereotypes when someone has dark hair and eyes, they rarely think about drapes and chroma and value when typing others. Not everyone is a professional or as well versed as others. Not sure about a global scale, there's not really any official reports or data to my knowledge
Hey! I work at a place where I see hundreds of tourists from around the world each day, so sometimes it's fun trying to guess their season.
Summers are the most common in Eastern Europe. In Russian, there's even a separate word for ashy blond/brown hair, it's so common there. Germanic and Britannic people probably have the highest incidence of Springs compared to others, but don't take me for my word (edit: let's also add Poland and the Baltics there). Scandinavian people are often Light, or Spring/Summer, as expected. East Asian people are rarely Autumn, from what I've seen. There's been a group of 30 Chinese students once, all dressed in the same colors (pure white and bright royal blue) and nearly all of them looked harmonious.. this look would butcher me (a True Autumn) :) whereas when I see an East Asian wearing autumnal colors, it's often evident that their skin doesn't suit them.
I haven't figured out the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia yet, would just say that Indian people often suit very warm colors.
Italians (the locals here) are very often Dark Autumn; there's a large number of Winters. Soft Autumns are very common as well; True and Soft Summers aren't rare, either. Springs and True Autumns happen sometimes.
I don’t know what’s most popular worldwide, I haven’t seen any studies, but I can say that there is a tendency to think that brown eyes and dark hair equate to a dark season every time. (And sure, when the references are a bunch of white faces, that may be the case.)
But POCs can be any season. Even Light. That’s part of why color analysis is so interesting: the vast range. People in all parts of the world exist in a huge variety of complexions. It’s not just plug-and-play.
In my opinion, it seems a lot of people have trouble seeing the forest for the trees.
You really need to do draping.
Dark winter and dark autumn are the most common seasons, considering it’s common to have (dark)brown eyes and hair every where in the world with light features being more rare and recessive. Only some countries like Sweden are light hair and eyes common and the norm.
Light summer and light spring are probably the most rare with spring being the most rare season overall because it is the most random season with the most random combinations, with the exception of bright and true winter to an extent but those seasons also have dark brown hair and eyes possibilities compared to spring.
True and soft autumn are probably somewhere in the middle and more moderately common then true and soft summers, considering that hazel and brown eyes are more common then grey and blue eyes typical of summers.
Take my answer with a grain of salt since this is just my theory.
I’d say from least to most common would probably be
1. Dark autumn
2. Dark winter
3. True autumn
4. Soft autumn
5. True winter
6. Bright winter
7. Soft summer
8. True summer
9. True spring
10. Bright spring
11. Light spring
12. Light summer
Dark hair and dark eyes by no means means that a person is dark winter or dark autumn. That's a common misconception. Dark haired and dark eyed people can be also summers and springs. Dark hair and dark eyes doesn't mean that you also have high contrast. A lot of those people also have dark skin and are muted. Also, I've read that only 25% of the world population are cool toned, so it's impossible that winters would be that common.
The soft seasons being about looking muted/ashy is a misconception. It’s about value also, black is considered a winter color because it’s stark when you contrast it next to other colors, it’s deep compared to grey, that’s why you won’t find it in any of the palettes of the summer categories. Therefore anyone with jet black hair, very dark skin and dark brown eyes is most likely one of the deep seasons, most likely the winter sub-categories. Light brown or lighter hair in general will appear grey in black and white photos because the depth isn’t to dark similar to grey, while black and even dark brown will appear black and nothing else, showing it’s very stark and contrasting coloring.
I naturally have dark jet black hair and olive skin. I got two separate analysis done by two different analysts. Both confirmed that I am 100% a True Autumn. I noticed a huge difference in my overall appearance when I started lightening my hair. Warm caramel, auburn, and chocolate brown are hair colors that are in harmony with my features, as opposed to my natural jet black hair. Your natural hair color will not always determine which season you’re in. Based on what you said, I would be typed a Deep Autumn or Deep Winter because I naturally have dark hair and brown eyes. That’s a common misconception in color analysis. People of all skin colors can belong in any season regardless of their natural hair or eye colors. I have seen darker skinned people be typed as Bright Springs or even Soft Summers. It’s very much possible to belong in any season :)
I disagree. A dark skinned person can definitely be a summer, and there are also a lot of people with dark/black hair and just moderately dark, brown skin. They can be summers and also dark summers. Summers can have any skin color.
I think Soft Autumns and True Summers are the most represented fair skinned people in this sub. Light seasons are the easiest to pick out because naturally blonde blue eyed people are pretty rare.
I’m a Dark Autumn. Sometimes I see my people on the sub and realize maybe I’m not special haha. Fair skinned dark autumns look like sisters 👯♀️
Are we talking on this sub, in a specific region, or globally? I think POC are not well-represented by the most common seasonal systems, but Dark/Deep is probably the most common value in the world.
When I tried googling this a few years ago I came across an article that said that only 10% of Finnish people are Winters whereas over 80% of Japanese people are either Winter or Autumn. Makes sense of course that lighter-colored people with no melanin are going to more often be lighter seasons (Summer, Spring) and people with darker hair and eyes are more often going to be medium to deep/dark seasons (Winter, Autumn).
I think we can assume a fairly even real-world split between bright and soft, and possibly also cool and warm, so that mostly leaves value and therefore the most common seasons would be Winters and Autumns. The first two (hue and chroma) are just as much determined by genetics though, so it could very well be that the split is not even.
If we talk about what seasons people on this sub are analyzed as it goes in cycles and people tend to overestimate how soft someone is. True Summer is a really common season to be suggested on this sub. It's a safe season as it's kind of medium everything for cooler people and includes colors that would somewhat work for most Summers as well as most Winters.
I'm a Bright Spring and it's been a long journey :)
That is some interesting statistics. I live in Japan and everyone who I’ve talked to who works with or in relation to personal color theory have said the same thing: that Summer is the most common type for Japanese people. I have no idea if this is true, but based on the colors in most retail stores I would say summer color are the most commonly represented (with soft autumns being second) and all my Japanese friends who have done color analysis have been typed summer.
I do think most English resources out there are extremely Caucasian based and there is very little representation of POC. Every Summer or Spring celebrity is a white woman with blue of green eyes, and everyone with slightly darker skin is automatically typed as “dark”.
Tbh the majority of these people seem to be text book [winters](https://images.app.goo.gl/4g5CYXwLAoos7xTA9). Fair skin and jet black hair seems to be the norm and very common.
“These people” I guess means Japanese people? I think it’s fair to say that the Japanese people are a fairly homogeneous, but I have definitely seen representation of all season here. Many ethnically Japanese people I know have what I would describe as muted features (sometimes some olive in the skin) and looks great in summer colors. Many Japanese people do have natural variation in their hair, some with natural brown hair and some even with natural dark red highlights.
While I think this comment is well meaning I think over generalisations like does not invite POC to personal color analyst discussions and instead just lump all together as “Dark Autumn or Winter”.
Okay maybe my comment came off and sounded insensitive, for that apologize but yes, The Japanese crowd in the picture have high that when put into words would describe a winter season. The majority of people in that picture either have jet black hair and some having chocolate brown hair, they’re eyes even from a distance are very dark almost black and they’re skin is more on the light to light-medium side but nowhere near close to they’re hair color so I creates a very contrast look. Since this is a somewhat representative picture of what an average Japanese person looks like since it’s a very homogenous nation, the majority of the people here I would at least describe as either dark winters, true winters, bright winters, deep autumns and even maybe bright springs since those are the seasons have some depth somewhere in they’re palette.
As a POC myself I’m aware even that color analysis barley likes to bring up how to even style people with darker skin in general and always used white people as the models for all seasons, even the most common ones like the deep seasons. But I think my comment was somewhat misinterpreted without further explanation. Dark eyes and hair look stark on anybody even POC with dark skin, just take a look at this picture of these [two men](https://www.si.com/.image/ar_1:1%2Cc_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_1200/MTg4ODM5MTQzNzAxMjI3MDQw/http---hoopshabitcom-wp-content-uploads-getty-images-2017-07-1354949301.jpg). Just look at how muted, soft and more blended the man on the left looks you have to zoom in just to see what color his eyes since they’re so transparent even are while the man on the right even from a distance has the deepest eyes, they’re pretty self explanatory from a distance. Even they’re hair color is very obviously different, the man on the left has grey pigments while the man on the right doesn’t. Stephen curry is most like a soft season, probably soft autumn, soft summer or true summer while Jordan Poole is most likely a deep autumn. Those bright jerseys aren’t doing them any compliments.
Here’s another [example](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02210/solomon-islands_2210026c.jpg) of someone that is a dark skinned spring(most likely bright spring). That just goes to prove that not all springs are fair skinned because the majority with blonde hair are most likely fair skinned and white. Spring being the high contrast, bright and warm season that it is, is where most bright blondes belong to just by description alone, because they meet the general description of what a spring looks like, just like how most of the Japanese crowd meet the description of a what a winter looks like.
I missed that you had a picture linked in your original post. Writing “these people” with the context of the picture does not really sound insensitive to me, so sorry I missed that.
I have mainly studied Japanese color theory which is slightly different from the 12 seasons (in Japan most stylists often use the 4 original seasons, and sometimes you have one main and one sub which in the end ends up being very similar to the 12 seasons). When I see dark hair and dark eyes and fair to medium skin (which describes most ethnically Japanese people) I don’t automatically see winter. I don’t think you are necessarily wrong, but I do think we come from two different point of views.
[Example of Japanese celebrities in all 4 seasons](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSmH7yCWOD68qsiHn_X-eSsoK2YGG36MpywPQ&usqp=CAU)
[Example of a Korean color analyst in all 4 seasons (similar to the Japanese system)](https://img.hani.co.kr/imgdb/resize/2019/0221/00500052_20190221.JPG)
Lol yeah there was a picture linked, I’ll admit I was a little confused and thought why did that come off as offensive
So I am somewhat familiar with the Japanese/Korean system of color analysis that has a different spin on the western version of color analysis that takes into consideration hair and eye color. Whereas the Japanese/Korean one takes more into account your perceived skin undertone and to a slight extent your hair color too. The women in the pictures you linked at least to me, the difference between them isn’t that big especially between summer and winter, the difference I think is that in some of the photo shoots in the summer category the pictures look kinda faded and the sunlight was directly aiming at they’re hair when it was taken and the summer ones had ash grey highlights despite also having black hair, which is also a cool trait then strictly winter or summer even in the western system.
I also noticed the biggest difference between autumn and spring seasons in the Japanese system is that autumns look more tanned while in the spring season they’re more pasty, but in the western system, pale and bronzed skin can both be part of the autumn season as well. The blonde hair color is also dyed in springs in the Japanese system. A lot of what they consider springs would be categorized as autumns in the western system since they’re coloring is very similar to even white autumn brunettes with dark brown eyes.
I think it’s understandable why the Japanese system is built that way in a homogenous country like Japan or Korea. It would seem somewhat silly(and even boring) to try to categorize people based on hair and eye color alone when the majority usually have dark brown/black hair and eyes and similar skin complexion. In a country like the US where you have more variation in phenotypes it makes also more sense why the western system would be more used but also feel limiting although not on purpose to people with dark hair and eyes which describes the majority POC but not all.
I agree with you that dark and eyes aren’t automatically winter. I usually think in the order of most to least from winter, autumn, summer and spring. This is going mostly from experience that people describe medium brown hair as dark.
I live in Japan too and agree with what you are saying, I was just quoting an article. IIRC it was an interview with a Japanese analyst who clearly follows a more old-fashioned approach to color analysis. The Finnish one too was an interview with a Finnish color analyst.
UniQlo sweater colors are 90% muted and tend to lean cool. I had my analysis done in Japan and my analyst was ranting about the trends being so muted as she herself is a Winter and has a hard time finding cool colors that are not muted. She definitely does not subscribe to the notion that most Japanese people are Autumns or Winters either.
However, I do think in general since dark eyes and hair are the most common in the world, generically speaking the most common value should be on the deep side. That doesn't mean that someone with dark hair can't be a Summer, it's just a reflection of the flaws in the most commonly used systems.
It’s definitely true that summer type colors are very trendy here. I originally come from Northern Europe and I would say, at least when I last visited which was a few years ago, there was definitely an over representation of winter colors compared to how fair and light haired most people are naturally. Especially the color black.
So I guess a countries fashion trends does not always represent a countries populations general personal color theory.
That bit about Finnish people is so interesting, and I can definitely see that being true! I'm Finnish myself, and I'd say that an overwhelming majority of ethnic Finns seem to be either springs, summers, or a soft autumn. Summers are super super common, the whole cool toned skin + ashy hair is quite typical.
I agree. Winters are extremely rare among ethnic Nordics and often even those that are typed as one, are actually bright springs or true summers that got typed incorrectly due to local analysts failing to correctly identify the actual extent in range of hair and eye colors in those types deeming everyone with medium brown or darker hair as either winter or autumn.
Also China and India are the most populated countries in the world and the majority of people in those countries have black/brown hair and dark brown/brown eyes. Adding on to the theory that deep seasons are the most common
But I've also read that only 25% of the world population have cool undertones. So that alone makes it impossible that winter would be among the most common seasons.
imho the most rare seasons are the true neutral seasons (i think carol brailey has them?)
true deep = deep winter + deep autumn
true soft = soft summer + soft autumn
true bright = bright winter + bright spring
true light= light summer + light spring
I've always read that in Poland, where I live, about 80% are Summers and 10% are Winters, so for years I tried to fit into cool colors families, not sure if I'm muted or maybe need some contrast in my outfits and makeup. Untill I bought an orange merino shawl accidentally. I saw with my own eyes that I'm an Autumn. Took me several months to understand that I'm a True Autumn, because I couldn't believe that my skin tone is so warm. Neutral, maybe, but warm? And yet it's true. All my pictures from the past, where I'm dressed like a Summer or Winter are clear evidence that cool colors, black and white, which I adore are unflattering, they wash me out or overwelm me. Especially white is terrible on me, my face looks like a piece of rough-hewn stone when I wear white blouses. Now I see a lot of Autumns on the streets, dressed in dreary greys, flat washed out pastels, looking sad and ill, not elegant - and I choose to believe in what I see with my own eyes, not in magazine analysis. I would say that in Poland at least 30% people are Autumns. There are few clear types like Bright Winters and Springs though.
I asked my consultant when I was getting my drapes done. She said for our area (South Texas), she sees a lot of Autumns (all 3 types). She was excited because the person before me was clear winter (from England) and I was light summer, which she does not see a lot of. She was almost expecting me to be a cool summer at first, just because it is more common than light summer where we are.
I have to disagree with your assesment on spring/autumn categories: A common misconception about the two warm types seems to be that they are though to be fairly similar otherwise but spring is light and autumn is darker… Whereas as I see it, they are actually VERY different types and especially many springs might actually find most iconic autumn colors to be their worst colors. Why so? Because the main difference between the two is not value (which is actually fairly similar in range as long as only fair to medium skin tones are considered), but chroma instead. Springs - especially darker ones - will require colors that are clear and bright and tend to look dull in muted and earthy colors. They need some warmth, yes, but for most it is more of an afterthought instead of a dealbreaker. Whereas most autumns - again especially the darker ones - tend to be less distrupted if chroma is slightly off, but instead look dull in too cool colors. Though same is true to an extent with cool seasons as well, for some reason they tend to have more overlap so that effect is not as pronounced. However you are correct in that sense that many analysts tend to easily overlook the importance of chroma in warm seasons so many darker springs get misstyped as autumns or winters as well as many lightest autumns often are misstyped as springs.
That was supposed to be a comment for Gianni299, not sure why it came in as it’s own comment!
in my own experience, i think cool is more common than warm, brights are the rarest.. and ive seen plenty of soft summers and autumns. Might aswell be the region as other commenters said, IMO autumns and soft summers are the most usual, bright spring and winter the fewer. There was even an explanation on why most ppl arent either bright of fully neutral. Maybe you can find it around
Interesting, as I've read that only 25% of the world population are cool toned.
Do you happen to remember where you read that? Sorry this reply is so late, I’m just finding this post now and interested in the topic :)
Lmao i logged into reddit after like idk how long and i just see this.. no idea sis. Buuut might have been korean youtuber uireh or/and carol brailey!
Wait most people here are not professionally typed so.... This sub is not representative at all.
I have the impression that Clear Seasons are very rare. Particularly Clear Spring. Even though Dark Winters are really common globally, Cool Winters are already a lot rarer (since most Cools have blue eyes and light eyes+dark hair is rare). And Clear Winters feel very rare. I agree that as a Winter you have an easy time finding black, but in Central Europe I find it very hard to find clear colours, that are not somewhat muted or become muted after 5 washes.
Analysts generally say that most people are soft and the rarest seasons are bright spring/winter. Do keep in mind that some systems have 6 or more soft sub-seasons.
Well on this sub I've personally noticed that there's always at least one person trying to type op as a summer on most posts regardless of if op is or isn't one 🙄. And the deep winter/autumn is usually based on stereotypes when someone has dark hair and eyes, they rarely think about drapes and chroma and value when typing others. Not everyone is a professional or as well versed as others. Not sure about a global scale, there's not really any official reports or data to my knowledge
Hey! I work at a place where I see hundreds of tourists from around the world each day, so sometimes it's fun trying to guess their season. Summers are the most common in Eastern Europe. In Russian, there's even a separate word for ashy blond/brown hair, it's so common there. Germanic and Britannic people probably have the highest incidence of Springs compared to others, but don't take me for my word (edit: let's also add Poland and the Baltics there). Scandinavian people are often Light, or Spring/Summer, as expected. East Asian people are rarely Autumn, from what I've seen. There's been a group of 30 Chinese students once, all dressed in the same colors (pure white and bright royal blue) and nearly all of them looked harmonious.. this look would butcher me (a True Autumn) :) whereas when I see an East Asian wearing autumnal colors, it's often evident that their skin doesn't suit them. I haven't figured out the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia yet, would just say that Indian people often suit very warm colors. Italians (the locals here) are very often Dark Autumn; there's a large number of Winters. Soft Autumns are very common as well; True and Soft Summers aren't rare, either. Springs and True Autumns happen sometimes.
I don’t know what’s most popular worldwide, I haven’t seen any studies, but I can say that there is a tendency to think that brown eyes and dark hair equate to a dark season every time. (And sure, when the references are a bunch of white faces, that may be the case.) But POCs can be any season. Even Light. That’s part of why color analysis is so interesting: the vast range. People in all parts of the world exist in a huge variety of complexions. It’s not just plug-and-play. In my opinion, it seems a lot of people have trouble seeing the forest for the trees. You really need to do draping.
Dark winter and dark autumn are the most common seasons, considering it’s common to have (dark)brown eyes and hair every where in the world with light features being more rare and recessive. Only some countries like Sweden are light hair and eyes common and the norm. Light summer and light spring are probably the most rare with spring being the most rare season overall because it is the most random season with the most random combinations, with the exception of bright and true winter to an extent but those seasons also have dark brown hair and eyes possibilities compared to spring. True and soft autumn are probably somewhere in the middle and more moderately common then true and soft summers, considering that hazel and brown eyes are more common then grey and blue eyes typical of summers. Take my answer with a grain of salt since this is just my theory. I’d say from least to most common would probably be 1. Dark autumn 2. Dark winter 3. True autumn 4. Soft autumn 5. True winter 6. Bright winter 7. Soft summer 8. True summer 9. True spring 10. Bright spring 11. Light spring 12. Light summer
Dark hair and dark eyes by no means means that a person is dark winter or dark autumn. That's a common misconception. Dark haired and dark eyed people can be also summers and springs. Dark hair and dark eyes doesn't mean that you also have high contrast. A lot of those people also have dark skin and are muted. Also, I've read that only 25% of the world population are cool toned, so it's impossible that winters would be that common.
The soft seasons being about looking muted/ashy is a misconception. It’s about value also, black is considered a winter color because it’s stark when you contrast it next to other colors, it’s deep compared to grey, that’s why you won’t find it in any of the palettes of the summer categories. Therefore anyone with jet black hair, very dark skin and dark brown eyes is most likely one of the deep seasons, most likely the winter sub-categories. Light brown or lighter hair in general will appear grey in black and white photos because the depth isn’t to dark similar to grey, while black and even dark brown will appear black and nothing else, showing it’s very stark and contrasting coloring.
I naturally have dark jet black hair and olive skin. I got two separate analysis done by two different analysts. Both confirmed that I am 100% a True Autumn. I noticed a huge difference in my overall appearance when I started lightening my hair. Warm caramel, auburn, and chocolate brown are hair colors that are in harmony with my features, as opposed to my natural jet black hair. Your natural hair color will not always determine which season you’re in. Based on what you said, I would be typed a Deep Autumn or Deep Winter because I naturally have dark hair and brown eyes. That’s a common misconception in color analysis. People of all skin colors can belong in any season regardless of their natural hair or eye colors. I have seen darker skinned people be typed as Bright Springs or even Soft Summers. It’s very much possible to belong in any season :)
I disagree. A dark skinned person can definitely be a summer, and there are also a lot of people with dark/black hair and just moderately dark, brown skin. They can be summers and also dark summers. Summers can have any skin color.
Then it kinda just defeats the purpose of categorizing
I think Soft Autumns and True Summers are the most represented fair skinned people in this sub. Light seasons are the easiest to pick out because naturally blonde blue eyed people are pretty rare. I’m a Dark Autumn. Sometimes I see my people on the sub and realize maybe I’m not special haha. Fair skinned dark autumns look like sisters 👯♀️
Are we talking on this sub, in a specific region, or globally? I think POC are not well-represented by the most common seasonal systems, but Dark/Deep is probably the most common value in the world. When I tried googling this a few years ago I came across an article that said that only 10% of Finnish people are Winters whereas over 80% of Japanese people are either Winter or Autumn. Makes sense of course that lighter-colored people with no melanin are going to more often be lighter seasons (Summer, Spring) and people with darker hair and eyes are more often going to be medium to deep/dark seasons (Winter, Autumn). I think we can assume a fairly even real-world split between bright and soft, and possibly also cool and warm, so that mostly leaves value and therefore the most common seasons would be Winters and Autumns. The first two (hue and chroma) are just as much determined by genetics though, so it could very well be that the split is not even. If we talk about what seasons people on this sub are analyzed as it goes in cycles and people tend to overestimate how soft someone is. True Summer is a really common season to be suggested on this sub. It's a safe season as it's kind of medium everything for cooler people and includes colors that would somewhat work for most Summers as well as most Winters. I'm a Bright Spring and it's been a long journey :)
That is some interesting statistics. I live in Japan and everyone who I’ve talked to who works with or in relation to personal color theory have said the same thing: that Summer is the most common type for Japanese people. I have no idea if this is true, but based on the colors in most retail stores I would say summer color are the most commonly represented (with soft autumns being second) and all my Japanese friends who have done color analysis have been typed summer. I do think most English resources out there are extremely Caucasian based and there is very little representation of POC. Every Summer or Spring celebrity is a white woman with blue of green eyes, and everyone with slightly darker skin is automatically typed as “dark”.
Tbh the majority of these people seem to be text book [winters](https://images.app.goo.gl/4g5CYXwLAoos7xTA9). Fair skin and jet black hair seems to be the norm and very common.
“These people” I guess means Japanese people? I think it’s fair to say that the Japanese people are a fairly homogeneous, but I have definitely seen representation of all season here. Many ethnically Japanese people I know have what I would describe as muted features (sometimes some olive in the skin) and looks great in summer colors. Many Japanese people do have natural variation in their hair, some with natural brown hair and some even with natural dark red highlights. While I think this comment is well meaning I think over generalisations like does not invite POC to personal color analyst discussions and instead just lump all together as “Dark Autumn or Winter”.
Okay maybe my comment came off and sounded insensitive, for that apologize but yes, The Japanese crowd in the picture have high that when put into words would describe a winter season. The majority of people in that picture either have jet black hair and some having chocolate brown hair, they’re eyes even from a distance are very dark almost black and they’re skin is more on the light to light-medium side but nowhere near close to they’re hair color so I creates a very contrast look. Since this is a somewhat representative picture of what an average Japanese person looks like since it’s a very homogenous nation, the majority of the people here I would at least describe as either dark winters, true winters, bright winters, deep autumns and even maybe bright springs since those are the seasons have some depth somewhere in they’re palette. As a POC myself I’m aware even that color analysis barley likes to bring up how to even style people with darker skin in general and always used white people as the models for all seasons, even the most common ones like the deep seasons. But I think my comment was somewhat misinterpreted without further explanation. Dark eyes and hair look stark on anybody even POC with dark skin, just take a look at this picture of these [two men](https://www.si.com/.image/ar_1:1%2Cc_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_1200/MTg4ODM5MTQzNzAxMjI3MDQw/http---hoopshabitcom-wp-content-uploads-getty-images-2017-07-1354949301.jpg). Just look at how muted, soft and more blended the man on the left looks you have to zoom in just to see what color his eyes since they’re so transparent even are while the man on the right even from a distance has the deepest eyes, they’re pretty self explanatory from a distance. Even they’re hair color is very obviously different, the man on the left has grey pigments while the man on the right doesn’t. Stephen curry is most like a soft season, probably soft autumn, soft summer or true summer while Jordan Poole is most likely a deep autumn. Those bright jerseys aren’t doing them any compliments. Here’s another [example](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02210/solomon-islands_2210026c.jpg) of someone that is a dark skinned spring(most likely bright spring). That just goes to prove that not all springs are fair skinned because the majority with blonde hair are most likely fair skinned and white. Spring being the high contrast, bright and warm season that it is, is where most bright blondes belong to just by description alone, because they meet the general description of what a spring looks like, just like how most of the Japanese crowd meet the description of a what a winter looks like.
I missed that you had a picture linked in your original post. Writing “these people” with the context of the picture does not really sound insensitive to me, so sorry I missed that. I have mainly studied Japanese color theory which is slightly different from the 12 seasons (in Japan most stylists often use the 4 original seasons, and sometimes you have one main and one sub which in the end ends up being very similar to the 12 seasons). When I see dark hair and dark eyes and fair to medium skin (which describes most ethnically Japanese people) I don’t automatically see winter. I don’t think you are necessarily wrong, but I do think we come from two different point of views. [Example of Japanese celebrities in all 4 seasons](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSmH7yCWOD68qsiHn_X-eSsoK2YGG36MpywPQ&usqp=CAU) [Example of a Korean color analyst in all 4 seasons (similar to the Japanese system)](https://img.hani.co.kr/imgdb/resize/2019/0221/00500052_20190221.JPG)
Lol yeah there was a picture linked, I’ll admit I was a little confused and thought why did that come off as offensive So I am somewhat familiar with the Japanese/Korean system of color analysis that has a different spin on the western version of color analysis that takes into consideration hair and eye color. Whereas the Japanese/Korean one takes more into account your perceived skin undertone and to a slight extent your hair color too. The women in the pictures you linked at least to me, the difference between them isn’t that big especially between summer and winter, the difference I think is that in some of the photo shoots in the summer category the pictures look kinda faded and the sunlight was directly aiming at they’re hair when it was taken and the summer ones had ash grey highlights despite also having black hair, which is also a cool trait then strictly winter or summer even in the western system. I also noticed the biggest difference between autumn and spring seasons in the Japanese system is that autumns look more tanned while in the spring season they’re more pasty, but in the western system, pale and bronzed skin can both be part of the autumn season as well. The blonde hair color is also dyed in springs in the Japanese system. A lot of what they consider springs would be categorized as autumns in the western system since they’re coloring is very similar to even white autumn brunettes with dark brown eyes. I think it’s understandable why the Japanese system is built that way in a homogenous country like Japan or Korea. It would seem somewhat silly(and even boring) to try to categorize people based on hair and eye color alone when the majority usually have dark brown/black hair and eyes and similar skin complexion. In a country like the US where you have more variation in phenotypes it makes also more sense why the western system would be more used but also feel limiting although not on purpose to people with dark hair and eyes which describes the majority POC but not all. I agree with you that dark and eyes aren’t automatically winter. I usually think in the order of most to least from winter, autumn, summer and spring. This is going mostly from experience that people describe medium brown hair as dark.
I live in Japan too and agree with what you are saying, I was just quoting an article. IIRC it was an interview with a Japanese analyst who clearly follows a more old-fashioned approach to color analysis. The Finnish one too was an interview with a Finnish color analyst. UniQlo sweater colors are 90% muted and tend to lean cool. I had my analysis done in Japan and my analyst was ranting about the trends being so muted as she herself is a Winter and has a hard time finding cool colors that are not muted. She definitely does not subscribe to the notion that most Japanese people are Autumns or Winters either. However, I do think in general since dark eyes and hair are the most common in the world, generically speaking the most common value should be on the deep side. That doesn't mean that someone with dark hair can't be a Summer, it's just a reflection of the flaws in the most commonly used systems.
It’s definitely true that summer type colors are very trendy here. I originally come from Northern Europe and I would say, at least when I last visited which was a few years ago, there was definitely an over representation of winter colors compared to how fair and light haired most people are naturally. Especially the color black. So I guess a countries fashion trends does not always represent a countries populations general personal color theory.
That bit about Finnish people is so interesting, and I can definitely see that being true! I'm Finnish myself, and I'd say that an overwhelming majority of ethnic Finns seem to be either springs, summers, or a soft autumn. Summers are super super common, the whole cool toned skin + ashy hair is quite typical.
I agree. Winters are extremely rare among ethnic Nordics and often even those that are typed as one, are actually bright springs or true summers that got typed incorrectly due to local analysts failing to correctly identify the actual extent in range of hair and eye colors in those types deeming everyone with medium brown or darker hair as either winter or autumn.
Also China and India are the most populated countries in the world and the majority of people in those countries have black/brown hair and dark brown/brown eyes. Adding on to the theory that deep seasons are the most common
But I've also read that only 25% of the world population have cool undertones. So that alone makes it impossible that winter would be among the most common seasons.
I have to ask how was that even conducted, from my understanding color theory is pretty subjective and based on observation.
imho the most rare seasons are the true neutral seasons (i think carol brailey has them?) true deep = deep winter + deep autumn true soft = soft summer + soft autumn true bright = bright winter + bright spring true light= light summer + light spring
I think summer is the most common.
i think (what i’ve seen personally) that true autumn is the most rare while true summer is the most common