Would you like a hair makeover without compromising on your length? A fresh hair colour is the answer! Between techniques, shades and styles, there’s a plethora of options to choose from. Remember, globally colouring your hair requires some degree of commitment (root touch-ups, colour refreshes — you get the gist!). If you’re not one to commit to frequent trips to the salon, hair highlights can be a great low-maintenance option.
Highlights are a chic way to add depth and dimension to your hair, and give the appearance of fuller, more voluminous hair. Since highlights only involve bleaching or pre-lightening smaller sections of your hair as opposed to all-over, they also require minimum maintenance or touching up.
There are plenty of different hair highlight styles you can choose, depending on your desired look. Below, find our top hair highlight ideas to show to your stylist (or recreate at home if you’re in the mood for it!)
1. Traditional highlights
These are the most common, simplest version of highlights, wherein your stylist will section your hair and colour only those sections from root to tip to achieve the highlighted look. They even cover the chosen sections with foil to hasten the lightening process. This also ensures even and uniform colour pay-off.
Traditionally, the highlight hair colour is at least 2 to 3 shades lighter than your natural or base hair colour, to really lend depth and movement to your hair. So, if your natural or base shade happens to be a dark brown, you can opt for a caramel or honey blonde shade to go on your highlights. However, you don’t really need to limit yourself to shades of blonde and can very well look into exploring shades like reds, berries or even blues.
2. Ombre highlights
The ombre style is similar to traditional highlights in all aspects but one — in this case, the shade of your highlights is not uniform from root to tip, but gradually lightens towards the tips. This means your colour appears darker around the roots, reducing the need for frequent touch-ups. Go for this look if you want a fresh ‘do with minimal maintenance.
3. Baby lights
Baby lights are used to lend a subtle, sun-kissed look to your hair. Much less stark than other highlighting techniques, this is a great option for anyone wanting a minimal yet elevated looking colour. To create this look, your stylist will lighten only very fine sections of your hair (as opposed to bigger sections in traditional highlights) to create a shimmery, sun-kissed effect. You may also choose to not go for a stark shade difference between the base colour and the highlight to keep the look subtler.
4. Chunky highlights
Consider this to the maximalist opposite to baby lights — this ‘00’s inspired technique highlights broader strips of your hair to create a ‘chunky’ effect from root to tip. As with traditional highlights, you don’t really need to commit to your regular browns and blondes for this technique, and can look at exploring other, more unique shades if you wish. Metallic shades like copper lend itself extremely well to this style, owing to their popularity in the y2k years.
5. Balayage
This French technique became extremely popular during the ‘10’s and continues to be a much-requested style at salons today, due to its universally flattering appeal. For this technique, your stylist may recommend a global colour (all over your hair) to serve as the base colour. This is typically a darker shade like dark brown, but you may choose to skip this step if you wish. Next, they will hand-paint the highlights all over your hair, in a shade which is 2-3 shades lighter than your base colour. Remember, a balayage is meant to look more natural and sun-kissed, so a little imperfection here and there helps!
6. Money Pieces
Another Y2K favourite, this trend is experiencing a major resurgence today especially with Gen Z. This trend also lends itself amazingly to fun shades like red, orange, green and even neons. It involves colouring only two face-framing strands and leaving the rest of your hair in a darker colour or it’s natural shade.
Cover Image: Instagram/@rosiehw
