How to Highlight Your Hair With a Cap

If you want highlights in your hair you could consider doing it yourself or with the help of a friend. You can purchase a highlighting kit with a cap at a beauty supply store or almost anywhere that sells beauty and hair supplies. The cap makes it easy for you to place highlights exactly where you want and you will save money by not going to the salon, where a simple highlighting procedure will cost you much more than the price of the highlighting kit.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Salon cape
• Bleaching kit with cap
• Deep conditioning treatment

1. Wait to highlight your hair a day or two after you last washed it. The natural oils will help protect your scalp from the chemical bleach. Work in an area that is well-ventilated because bleach has strong fumes.

2. Read the instructions that are included with your highlighting kit for how to mix the chemicals and the wait times. Put on the gloves that come with the kit. If the kit does not include gloves, you will need a pair of rubber gloves so the bleach won't irritate your skin. Place newspaper in your work area so you won't get bleach on the floor.

3. Put on a salon cape or an old towel and do a strand test on a small piece of your hair on the very bottom layer in the back. Wait to see how long it will take to give you the desired shade for your highlights.

4. Brush your hair out to get rid of any tangles that will make it difficult to pull the hair through the small holes in the cap. You can brush a little bit of shine spray through your hair to make it easier to pull through the cap. Put the cap on your head, pull it tight and tie it under your chin.

5. Pull your hair through the holes in the cap with the tool that comes with your kit. It looks like a slender stick with a small hook at the end. You should carefully poke through the holes at an angle. Don't dig too deep--just poke through directly under the hole and only pull out as much hair as the width of the hole. Repeat the process as many times as you need for the amount of highlights you want.

6. Scoop some of the mixture using the spatula tool that comes with your kit and begin applying it to the hair you pulled through the cap. As you apply the bleach, gather the hair on the top of your head so it doesn't get on your skin or in your eyes. Set a timer for the predetermined time, based on your strand test.

7. Rinse the bleach out of your hair thoroughly with warm water when the time is up. Apply a deep conditioning treatment to your hair immediately, as bleach is damaging to the hair.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you don't make a hole bigger as this will lead to a big spot of blond in your hair.

References

• How To Highlight Your Hair Safely
• Highlighting with Bleach using a cap - Part I
• Highlighting with Bleach using a cap - Part II