Hmong skin tone: Fitzpatrick type and undertone in 19 observed portraits

Hmong: fitzpatrick skin type Range III-IV in 68% of 19; skin undertone Warm (yellow / golden) in 59% of 17; pigmentation pattern Uniform in 89% of 19; freckling density None in 100% of 21.

  • Hmong catalog portrait, AI-generated, skin tone in view

Catalog portraits for Hmong are AI-generated adult subjects; the measurements on this page come from documented photographs of real people, not from these images.

Fitzpatrick skin type

n = 19 assessable · 3 not assessable

Six-class ordinal classification of constitutive skin pigmentation, originally developed for sun-reactivity assessment but now the de-facto skin-tone vocabulary in dermatology and computer-vision fairness research.

ValueSharen
Type III — mediumSometimes burns, gradually tans. Light olive to medium skin tone. Common in Mediterranean European, Middle Eastern, and East Asian populations.5%1
Type IV — olive / light brownBurns minimally, tans easily and well. Olive to light brown skin. Common in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Latin American, Southeast Asian populations.21%4
Range II-IIIBridging type used when assessment indicates the subject sits between Types II and III. Acceptable per the original Fitzpatrick description.5%1
Range III-IVBridging type used when assessment indicates the subject sits between Types III and IV.68%13

Vocabulary: Fitzpatrick skin type (fitzpatrick_1988)

Skin undertone

n = 17 assessable · 5 not assessable

Hue character of the skin independent of overall depth (Fitzpatrick). Reflects relative balance of hemoglobin (red), melanin (brown), and carotenoid (yellow) contributions to perceived color.

ValueSharen
Warm (yellow / golden)Yellow, peach, or golden cast. Veins on inner wrist appear greenish.59%10
NeutralBalanced; neither warm nor cool dominant.29%5
OliveGreenish-yellow cast; common in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and some South / Southeast Asian populations. Often grouped with warm in cosmetic shorthand but anatomically distinct.12%2

Vocabulary: Skin undertone (undertone_qualitative)

Pigmentation pattern

n = 19 assessable · 3 not assessable

Distribution pattern of skin pigmentation independent of overall Fitzpatrick depth.

ValueSharen
UniformEven pigmentation across visible skin; no obvious lighter or darker patches.89%17
MottledIrregular patches of varying pigmentation without a single named pattern.11%2

Vocabulary: Pigmentation pattern (pigmentation_pattern_qualitative)

Freckling density

n = 21 assessable

Density of visible freckles (ephelides) on the face. A separate dimension from pigmentation_pattern because freckling density varies continuously and is meaningful even within the freckled category.

ValueSharen
NoneNo discernible freckles.100%21

Vocabulary: Freckling density (freckle_density_qualitative)

Where these numbers come from

24 publicly documented portraits of notable Hmong people were assessed by a vision model against the full 22-vocabulary schema, one value per dimension. Values are what the photographs show, read by a model, not population measurements. Each table counts only portraits where the value could be assessed; covered, obscured and unclear portraits are reported separately.

Notable-people corpora skew older, so hair color over-represents gray and white, and image quality varies. Treat shares as a description of this sample.

These rows are not yet in the published catalog dataset, which currently carries the earlier single-row analysis; see the methodology. A family page exists only when at least 10 portraits carry an assessable value.