How to Pick a Hair Highlighting Technique

Highlighting your hair is a great way to spruce up your color. Highlights can also add dimension and emphasize the haircut you have chosen. But, choosing a highlighting technique depends on several factors, such as your hair length and how bold you want the highlights to be.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Highlighting brush or mascara wand
• Highlighting cap (optional)
• Foil, cut into small squares (optional)

1. Consider your hair length. Shorter hair works best when highlighted by pulling strands through a cap in the traditional method. For longer hair, techniques where all of the hair is exposed are more effective.

2. Choose the tools you will use to highlight your hair. A wider brush will provide thicker highlights, while a mascara wand will allow you to select and highlight thinner strands. This can help you maintain greater control as you highlight.

3. Determine what look you are going for. If you desire a bold and funky highlight, add color to a large number of pieces in various places throughout your hair. For a more symmetrical look, part your hair and highlight the same areas on both sides of the part. A sun-kissed look can be achieved by highlighting only the strands around your face and at the crown of your head.

4. Use two complementary shades. This technique, known as highlighting and lowlighting, adds more dimension and contrast and can make the highlights appear more natural.

Tips & Warnings

• When highlighting longer hair, small foil squares can be used to wrap and separate hair with colorant applied from dry hair. This also helps the color develop more evenly.