Perhaps you are new to the world of hair color and are not yet ready to make a radical change. Or maybe you haven’t got all the hair care products needed if you completely change your hair color. Highlighting is a great option that is relatively low maintenance, especially if you can do it in the privacy of your home.
Let’s learn how to highlight your hair at home, and how to care for your highlighted hair.
How To Highlight Hair
So let’s do this! Follow these four steps as they are all you need to know for highlighting your hair at home.
1: Decide Whether To Highlight Your Hair At Home
Once upon a time home highlighting was squeezing lemon juice onto our hair and sitting in the sun for hours before dealing with the sticky matted and tangled mess under the shower later.
Luckily, if you’re determined to DIY your highlights, you have many options as far as at-home highlighting kits go. Certain highlighting techniques, such as balayage, need a special level of skill to be able to achieve. For these, the more prudent idea would be to book an appointment at the salon.
If you have really dark hair and want to do super-light highlights, you should ideally also leave that to a pro colorist. When you make such a dramatic color change, it’s better to play it safe by entrusting your hair to the hands of a professional. They have the training to know if your new color will clash with your skin tones
Remember that the process of lightening your hair requires bleaching, and it will likely take multiple sessions to reach your desired shade of color. Therefore, if you are determined to give your dark hair highlights on your own, you will plan for doing so in multiple sessions. Make sure to wait at least 14 days in between each lighting session to avoid damaging your hair.
2: Pick Your Highlight Hue
Irrespective of how you go about achieving your highlighted hair, whether it is solo or at a salon, you’ll need to take some time to select how you want your desired highlights to look. Nearly all of us when we first think “highlights,” our mind goes to a brilliant blonde shade.
However, highlights don’t always have to be just one specific color. Highlights are just dimensional strands that are lighter than your base hair color. They can be shades of brown, red, and, of course, blonde for your new hue. If you’re feeling more adventurous with your highlights, you can even opt for pastel lavender or a pretty rose gold hue.
Once you have selected your color, you’ll also want to consider key questions such as whether you want a full or half head of highlights, as well as if you’d like to opt for thinner or chunkier lightened locks. Take a little time and look for inspirational images of how you’d like your hair to look, then choose your coloring kit accordingly. There are also other details you can try, like giving yourself a money piece. This involves lightening face-framing strands of hair so that you can fully show off your lightened locks.
3: DIY Your Highlights
The obvious question is how to go about highlighting your hair. There is no singular right way to go about do-it-yourself highlights. This will depend on the products you purchase for achieving your new look as different kits have unique highlighting methods.
The best option is to choose the highlighting kit that suits your needs and carefully follow the included instructions. Here are a few excellent highlight kits to choose from:
L’Oréal Paris Colorista Bleach in Highlights (available on Amazon): This DIY hair color bleach is inspired by professionals. You can easily use this kit to customize your look and get the gorgeous head of highlights you’re envisioning and closely matches the methods used in many salons.
L’Oréal Paris Superior Preference Glam Lights (available on Amazon): This brush-on hair highlighting kit is quick and easy. This is by far the easiest kit for a beginner to use. Simply use the Expert Brush to give yourself blended, luminous at-home highlights.
L’Oréal Paris Frost & Design (available on Amazon): This highlighting kit includes a pull-through cap that allows you to easily select the strands you want to lighten without accidentally coloring any unwanted pieces of hair. There are two different styling hooks that will allow you to create subtle or bold highlights. You’ll be left with a mane full of creamy highlights for a sun-kissed glow. Be aware that with some cheaper versions of this method the styling hooks don’t fit through the holes of the pull-through cap which can be very frustrating.
L’Oréal Paris Colorista Hair Makeup 1-Day Color (available on Amazon): Are you the kind of girl that loves playing with color, then this is the product for you. After you have lightened your strands, you can follow up with this wash-out hair color to add a fun twist to your day-to-day hairstyle. This is a temporary hair color that washes out in just one shampoo. This means you can go from blue to red to pink in an instant. You can switch back to your blonde highlights whenever you like with no commitment or damage to your hair.
4: Take Care Of Your Highlighted Hair
After you’ve highlighted your hair at home, you will need to make a few changes to your normal hair care routine. Color-treated hair requires special attention to protect the chemically treated strands. This means you’ll probably need to switch out a few of your normal daily hair care products and create a new color-safe routine.
1: Use A System Of Products Formulated For Color-Treated Hair
I use the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Repair & Defend Shampoo (available on Amazon), L’Oréal Paris EverPure Repair and Defend Conditioner (available on Amazon), and L’Oréal Paris EverPure Repair Remedy Balm (available on Amazon). Once or twice each week I’ll swap out the conditioner for the hair mask to give my hair a little extra TLC.
2: Prepare Your Hair With Heat Protectant Before Using Styling Tools
Always use a heat protectant on your hair before picking up your styling tools. Lightly mist your hair with the L’Oréal Paris Advanced Hairstyle SLEEK IT Iron Straight HeatSpray (available on Amazon) before straightening your strands. I use the L’Oréal Paris Advanced Hairstyle BLOW DRY IT Quick Dry Primer Spray (available on Amazon) before blow-drying my hair.
3: Make Time For Highlighter Touch-Ups
There is one major bonus of doing your own highlights is that you don’t have to hastily book an appointment at the salon every time your roots start to show.
However, visible roots can surprise you out of seemingly nowhere. Don’t do what I have done too often and wait until the last possible minute before going to the store to get a second box of highlighting kit. More than once waiting until the last minute has meant the store was out of stock too.
Pick up the second box of your favorite at-home highlighting kit in good time and keep it on hand. That way, you can tackle your root issue without a last-minute rushed trip to the store.
If you want a low-maintenance highlights style, you can give yourself a rooted look with highlights that don’t go all the way to the roots of your hair. Doing this will give you a little extra time in between touch-ups as the exposed-roots look was what you had all along.
4: Grab A Blonde Shampoo For Your Highlights
We both know that shampoo for color-treated hair is totally necessary. However, if you have blonde highlights, you can also use a shampoo that’s specifically formulated for blonde hair to keep your blonde strands looking their best. An excellent option is the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Blonde Shampoo (available on Amazon), accompanied by the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Blonde Conditioner (available on Amazon), and the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Blonde Shade Reviving Treatment (available on Amazon). This combination will help neutralize any brassiness while intensely nourishing your hair.
5: Keep Your Highlights From Turning Brassy
While on the topic of neutralizing brassiness, there may very likely come a point where your highlights start getting an orange tint. That is certainly not what we want.
When you notice your hair getting brassy, use the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Color Vibrancy Purple Shampoo for Color Treated Hair (available on Amazon) and the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Color Vibrancy Purple Conditioner, Color Treated Hair (available on Amazon) once a week. Together, this duo neutralizes unwanted orange and yellow tones in your highlighted hair.
For a sulfate-free option, give the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Brass Toning Purple Sulfate-Free Shampoo (available on Amazon) and the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Brass Toning Purple Sulfate-Free Conditioner (available on Amazon) a try.
6: Deep Condition Your Hair Regularly
This tip holds true whenever you color your hair, irrespective of whether you’re dyeing your entire head of hair or giving yourself a few highlights. It is always a good idea to give your newly colored hair some extra pampering. Personally, I’m a fan of deep conditioning my hair.
Depending on which one is in stock I choose from the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Extraordinary Oil Rapid Reviver Deep Conditioner (available on Amazon), the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Color Vibrancy Rapid Reviver Deep Conditioner (available on Amazon), or the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Total Repair 5 Rapid Reviver Deep Conditioner (available on Amazon) to do exactly that.
I will soon be adding the article, How to Deep Condition Your Hair, as a step-by-step tutorial. You will be able to find it in the section of the blog about hair care once it is published. The link to that section is in the last paragraph of this article.
7: Skip Using Heat Styling On Highlighted Hair
Depending on the occasion, we are all suckers for either voluminous curls or super sleek, straight hair. Sometimes it’s a better idea to give your hair a break from heat styling. Instead of reaching for your hot tools every day when you have highlighted hair, try a heat-free hair styling product from time to time instead. You can choose from one of these options and style away!
L’Oréal Paris Studio Line Thickening Medium Hold Cream Paste (available on Amazon): This thickening cream is formulated with beeswax and gives hair natural-looking texture, thickness, and medium hold. The paste also has a matte finish to keep your hair from looking shiny throughout the day. To apply, start with a dime-sized amount of cream and rub it between your palms. Then, work the paste throughout your hair for a messy, textured look.
L’Oréal Paris Advanced Hairstyle BOOST IT High Lift Creation Spray (available on Amazon): This option is if you want to focus on your roots. This spray will give your hair instant lift and fullness for a volumized look, without any heat required. Simply spray it onto dry hair for a high root lift.
Why not expand your knowledge even further by reading another hair care article here on Pink Femme. You can find them either via the menu at the top of the page or by clicking this link that will take you to the list of all the hair care articles.
