Highlights and lowlights offer a subtle way to change up your hair color, with skilled colorists capable of crafting stunning looks to complement both eyes and skin tones.

Papanikolas suggests that natural-looking highlights are achieved when placed within four shades of your base color, and warns against too-light highlights, which may appear harsh.

Highlights

Highlights can create an airy and light look; strategically placing lighter streaks throughout your hair adds brightness and vibrancy, adding brightness. Choose from honey blonde, copper, or caramel colors for an appealing sun-kissed glow.

Lowlights are the opposite of highlights; darker pieces that add depth and dimension. Lowlights can be achieved using either foiling or freehand with balayage. Balayage is an artform which uses paint-like strokes of lightener instead of using foils; creating a more natural and “grown-in” appearance than with foils alone.

Base break or high lift blonde is an option if your natural blond color falls between levels 7 and 8, and you want to lighten without going through double process. This involves using bleach to gradually lighten the original hue before adding on one that matches (ash or violet, for instance).

If you’re concerned with having chunky stripes or having your lowlights turn brassy over time, ask your stylist to use an ash or neutral lowlight and not pull it all the way through to create more dimension and cooler blonde tones over time. This will help maintain a more dimensional and cooler blonde.

Lowlights

If you prefer more subtly highlighted hair than that achieved through balayage, lowlights could be just what’s needed to complete your color service. As their opposites in nature are light pieces of darker hair with dimension created, lowlights add depth and dimension while creating depth and dimension with depth-effect pieces of darker color that create depth and dimension – often done through foiling but can also be done freehand using balyage technique.

Full Highlights

A full highlight is an old-school style of foil highlighting that creates an evenly colored blonde from nape of neck to front, typically over several appointments as foiling needs to be applied sparingly.

Partial Highlights

Partial highlighting can be an excellent way to refresh your color in between full foil appointments, with less damage done to your hair and an enhanced “darker underneath” look as a result.