HIGHLIGHT INSPIRATION FOR BLONDES, BRUNETTES AND REDHEADS

What are highlights?

Hair highlighting is a technique where your stylist lightens strategic strands of hair to create brightness and dimension.

Highlights can work on any hair colour, so they’re perfect if you’re looking to brighten your current colour, or transform your look without the commitment of a completely new all-over colour. A few strategically-placed highlights can even make fine hair look thicker.

How long do highlights take?

It depends on the colour of your natural hair, its texture and how light you want your highlights to be.

For example, do you want chunky, sculptural strands or a subtle sun-kissed look? All in all, you’re looking at spending around two to three hours at the salon - and the time could be even longer if you’re having a deep conditioning treatment, or a haircut as well.

How does hair highlighting work?

Stylists highlight hair by applying a lightening agent, usually containing bleach or colour, to specific sections of hair to create contrast and dimension.

They tend to start by selecting small sections of hair, which are then covered in the bleach or dye mix, then either wrapped in foil or separated using a special cap or balayage technique. Foiling helps to isolate each section, allowing the lightener to develop without affecting surrounding hair, while balayage involves hand-painting the highlights for a more natural look.

The lightening agent breaks down the natural pigments in your hair, lifting the final colour to a lighter or contrasting shade. Throughout the process, your stylist will carefully monitor your changing hair colour to make sure you’re getting the result you want.

After rinsing, a hair toner can be applied to neutralise any unwanted brassiness and to refine the highlight colour.

Highlights for blonde hair

It’s rare to see all-over solidly-coloured blonde hair, and that’s because highlighted blonde hair is just too pretty to miss out on.

Not only do blonde highlights look stunning, root regrowth is less of a problem as the highlighted strands will help blend darker roots.

Blonde hair with ash highlights

Ashy, beige blonde highlights are a chic, timeless choice that helps bring together a natural, lived-in look. The cool, smoky tones in ash highlights add depth and contrast to blonde hair, giving it a multi-dimensional effect without overpowering the underlying tones of blonde.

Ash highlights also help to balance warmth, reducing any unwanted brassy or orange tones.

Blonde hair with honey highlights

Sunny, warm honey highlights offer a golden-toned, sun-kissed look that suits warm and neutral skin tones. These natural-looking blonde tones add richness and dimension, adding depth without overpowering your base colour.

If you’re already a lighter blonde, your regrowth will blend almost-seamlessly - perfect if you’re after a low-maintenance look.

Blonde hair with caramel highlights

If you have darker blonde hair and want a lighter look, ask your colourist for caramel highlights. This warm shade of blonde will give you a lighter look that looks great styled in voluminous waves, which helps to show off all those blonde tones.

Our Go Blonder Intensive Repair Mask is the perfect post-stylist treat to keep your tresses in top condition - it brightens, hydrates and leaves your hair silky-soft.

Blonde hair with golden highlights

If you want a sun-kissed look without spending hours outside, go for golden blonde highlights. By adding this warm shade to your strands, you’ll brighten your hair and your complexion as well.

Keep those golden tones looking fresh and cared for with our Blonde+ Repair System - a pre-shampoo treatment, shampoo and conditioner to restore and repair blonde hair.

Balayage on blonde hair

Balayage is an ideal way to lighten and update blonde hair - especially if it’s darkened with age.

After a show-stopping look? Platinum blonde balayage adds depth and drama - especially when you leave a little bit of root shadow on show. If your natural colour’s a little darker, dark blonde balayage will create a sophisticated look brimming with dimension.

Honey blonde balayage is a warm, summery alternative with subtle ribbons of rich colour - perfect when paired with loose wavy hair.

Money pieces for blonde hair

Money piece highlights will brighten and soften your style, as well as highlighting your best features by cleverly framing your face. This technique suits every shade of blonde - however, they can look overdone if you don’t have any other highlights or choose an ultra-light colour on darker blonde hair.

Chunky blonde money piece highlights work beautifully with already-balayaged hair - if you want a money piece on unhighlighted hair, warm blonde money piece highlights add movement and depth.

Highlights for brown hair

Darker locks can be transformed with a few well-placed highlights. Whether you’re after a sun-kissed look or a more reddish hue, here are three ways to spice up your brunette style.

Brown hair with blonde highlights

Subtle blonde highlights placed throughout darker hair can instantly transform and brighten your style, and flatter any complexion. They also enhance textured or layered waves for the ultimate beach babe look.

Brown hair with caramel highlights

The classic combination of dark hair with caramel tones looks great with an ombré or balayage technique. Warm caramel and rich darker hues melt into each other to illuminate your ends for a dimensional and luxurious-looking colour.

Brown hair with red highlights

Red highlights are a fun way to add an eye-catching swatch of colour to darker locks without the commitment of an all-over colour.

Red hair colours tend to fade quickly, so maintain your colour with our PRO Colour Revive Range - it’s an expertly-formulated set of products which strengthen and protect coloured hair, and protect against colour fade.

Balayage on brown hair

Balayage on brown hair helps you achieve a natural-looking, multi-tonal style - it’s surprisingly low-maintenance, and lets you keep your natural hair shade while giving your style a boost. If you’re after a subtle change, warm and golden vanilla blonde streaks will give your hair a fresh, updated look.

If you’re trying a bolder approach, well-placed pops of caramel or mahogany offer eye-catching contrasts to lift mid-to-dark browns.

Money pieces for brown hair

It’s always worth exploring face-framing highlights if you’ve got brown hair - they add brightness around the face while accentuating both your hair colour and best facial features.

Soft balayage money piece highlights add warmth to your complexion and refresh brown strands. If you’ve got a naturally darker base colour, honey blonde face-framing highlights will give you a gorgeous, dimensional look - pair with bouncy curls for year-round glamour.

Highlights for red hair

Redheads can totally rock highlights too - the trick is to keep your base colour vibrant to let the highlights shine through.

Red hair with blonde highlights

If you have a light ginger coloured base, a few well-placed blonde accents can really help brighten your hair colour and your complexion.

The subtle tonal changes are easy to maintain too, as they blend seamlessly into your base colour.

Red hair with copper highlights

Copper highlights are a great way to warm up a block red base colour. They work on most shades of red and look great all year round to add some luminosity to your style.

Keep your hair looking healthy after your stylist appointment by keeping it hydrated - especially during the winter months. Our PRO Colour Revive Restoring Mask is a rich, hydrating deep conditioner that effortlessly locks in colour between salon visits and reduces breakage in one use.

Red hair with caramel highlights

Caramel highlights look perfect on a rich berry base to create a multi-tonal look which looks especially lovely in autumn and winter.

Check out our round-up of 10 different shades of red hair to determine which base colour you have, and then decide on the right shade of highlights for your red hair.

Balayage on red hair

Balayage is also suitable for red hair - lots of stylists recommend a look based on cold blondes like platinum or beige, which give red hair a flattering extra dimension and enhance your features.

However, if you’re a natural redhead, you can add varying shades of strawberry blonde to your locks to create contrast and colour.

Money pieces for red hair

Redheads can easily rock face-framing highlights - and if you’re after an updated 90s vibe, this could be the perfect look for you.

Light caramel blonde money pieces add subtle contrast with summery undertones - you can even go bold with platinum blonde. If you don’t want to bleach your hair, you could try doing a reverse money piece and going darker in front to make a statement.