The actual vocabulary you need when talking about hair color
Most people think they can just look at a Pantone chip and ask for "light ash brown" at the salon. It never works out that way. The translation layer between Portuguese color names and the professional English equivalents used by colorists is messy. There is no direct one-to-one mapping. Words like "loiro" or "castanho" carry entire families of undertones that get collapsed into two or three English terms. cores de cabelo em inglês is essentially a list of compromises you make to get the result you actually want.
I spent years fixing color formulas in Lisbon and London. The first thing I learned was that asking for "platinum" usually gets you something pale yellow. Asking for "chocolate brown" might land you on warm mahogany. The system uses descriptive flavor names that mean different things depending on who says them. A colorist in New York might call it "mocha," a technician in Milan calls the same level "chocolate," and the manufacturer's chart calls it "natural dark brown."
Common categories and what they actually mean
When you pull up an English-language guide, you will see terms grouped by base tone. This is the practical way to sort them.
Fair and platinum range. Words you will see: "Platinum blonde," "Ice blonde," "Ash blonde," "Pearl blonde." These are all Level 10 and above. Platinum is the highest lift, usually requiring pre-lightening to a pale canvas. Ash and pearl indicate cool, gray-based toners. Ice is a marketing term that usually just means very light ash. The trap here is that ash tones vanish quickly on virgin hair if the underlying pigment is still warm yellow. You need a violet-based toner to neutralize it, or the color shifts back to banana yellow within days.
Medium blonde range. Terms like "Golden blonde," "Honey blonde," "Strawberry blonde," "Beige blonde." Level 7 to 9. Golden and honey sit on the warm side and reflect light differently, which is why they look brighter on camera but can look brassy in daylight. Beige is the industry shorthand for a neutral-warm blend, but the exact ratio changes by brand. Strawberry is a red-violet mix that requires a lot of caution because red pigment deposits aggressively and lifts poorly.
Brown and dark brown range. Words here: "Light brown," "Medium brown," "Dark brown," "Cool brown," "Warm brown," "Chocolate," "Espresso," "Mocha." Level 3 to 6. This is where the biggest confusion happens. "Chocolate" is rarely a single formula. It is a vibe. Some brands use it for Level 4 cool brown, others for Level 5 warm brown. "Espresso" usually means a Level 2 or 3 with a blue-black undertone, not pure black. If you order an espresso toner without checking the depth number, you might end up with a flat, navy-tinted mess on orange-prone hair.
Red and vibrant range. "Auburn," "Copper," "Rust," "Cherry red," "Burgundy," "Mahogany." Level 4 to 7 for natural reds. Auburn sits between red and brown, copper is pure orange-red, and mahogany adds purple/violet depth. The problem with reds is their molecular size. They wash out faster than any other tone because the color molecules are larger and do not penetrate the cortex as deeply. You need a semi-permanent gloss every two weeks, or the color fades to a rusty orange within a month.
Black and blue-black range. "Jet black," "Blue black," "Soft black," "Raven." Level 1. Jet black is a neutral black. Blue black has a violet-blue shift that looks black under fluorescent light but shows up as deep blue in sunlight. Soft black is often a Level 2 disguised as Level 1, which is useful if you want to avoid the plastic-helmet shine.
I ran into a specific issue last year with a client who wanted "dark ash brown" but her hair had previous box dye residue from a warm burgundy. The English term "ash" implies green-violet neutrality, but on top of red deposit, ash creates mud. Green cancels red, but too much green turns the hair murky olive. The workaround was to strip the hair with a sulfate-based clarifier for three washes, then apply a Level 4 violet-based neutralizer before the ash toner. It took two extra hours and cost the salon forty euros in product, but it prevented a full color correction. The lesson is that English color names do not account for your hair's history. They only describe the target state.
How to translate what you want into a workable formula
You cannot rely on word matching. You need to match depth, tone, and intensity separately. Most professional color charts are organized in a grid where the first number is the level and the decimal indicates the tone. The English system uses this consistently.
Level 1 is black. Level 10 is lightest blonde. Within each level, the tone suffix tells you the undertone. D or .N is natural. A or .1 is ash. G or .3 is gold. R or .4 is red. V or .5 is violet. B or .6 is blue. W or .7 is beige. If you see "6.1," that is a Level 6 ash brown. If you see "7.3," that is a Level 7 golden blonde. The numbers are universal across almost all major brands, even if the flavor names change.
When you pull a swatch book, ignore the words printed next to the color chips. Look at the code. Then ask yourself three questions. What is my starting level? What is my target level? What is my natural undertone? The gap between your starting level and target level determines how much lift you need. If you are going from a Level 5 to a Level 8, you need bleach or a high-lift dye with peroxide. If you are going from Level 8 to Level 5, you only need deposit, and a standard cream color with low-volume developer will work.
I always tell people to bring a photo of the exact swatch, not the influencer's hair. Influencer hair is rarely virgin. It is usually pre-lightened and toned, which means the base is different. If you copy the tone but not the base, the result will drift because your underlying pigment is warmer or cooler than the reference. The English terms on the box assume a clean, virgin canvas. Your hair is not clean. It is a layered record of previous decisions.
Practical pitfalls that break translations
Box dye labels in English often lie about tone because they are made for the broadest possible audience. "Natural brown" on one brand might be "cool beige" on another. "Dark blonde" can range from Level 6 to Level 8 depending on the manufacturer. The only reliable way to read the label is the numeric code. If the box does not list a numeric code, treat it as a flavor description and expect variation.
Another common failure point is porosity. Lightened hair absorbs color faster than untouched hair. If you apply the same formula to regrowth and lengths, the lengths will take the color deeper and darker, sometimes several levels below the target. I fix this by applying the lightest volume developer first to the most porous sections, waiting ten minutes, then applying the main formula. It is a simple workaround, but it requires reading your hair's texture, not just following the instructions on the back of the box.
Peroxide volume matters more than people realize. 20 volume is standard for deposit and one-level lift. 30 volume adds one to two levels of lift and stronger tone deposition. 40 volume is for maximum lift but also maximum damage. If you are using an English-formulated color and you want ash tones, you should generally pair them with 20 or 30 volume. High-volume peroxide opens the cuticle wide, which lets ash pigments fade faster because the violet molecules are smaller and escape the cortex more easily. That is why ash colors are notorious for washing out.
Where to find reliable reference material
There is no single perfect website for English hair color terms because the industry splits between professional lines and consumer brands. However, most major manufacturers publish detailed shade guides with numeric codes. You can find these by searching for the brand name plus "shade chart PDF." Professional distributors in the US and UK often host archived versions of these charts. If you are in Portugal and want to check English equivalents, brands like Wella, Schwarzkopf, and L'Oreal Professionnel have online portals where you can enter a local shade name and see the international numeric code.
For home users, the safest approach is to buy a kit that includes the numeric code on the box and cross-reference it with a YouTube tutorial that shows the exact code on a real person's hair. Written descriptions are unreliable. Video proof of the same shade on similar hair type is the closest thing to a reliable translation you will find.
When to skip translation and just show a picture
If your goal is a dramatic change, like going from black to platinum, do not waste time translating terms. The vocabulary breaks down completely at high lift levels because there are too many intermediate stages. You need a professional colorist who understands the chemistry of lift and tone. No English phrase can replace the calculation of developer strength, timing, and filler pigments required to reach that result without damaging the hair beyond repair.
The same applies if you have metallic salts in your hair from old henna or progressive dyes. English color names assume a clean canvas. If your hair has hidden metals, the color will react unpredictably, and no translation guide will prevent a chemical incident. In that case, the only safe move is a strand test under UV light to detect metallic deposits before any box dye touches your head.
