Adding highlights hair colors to your hair is one of the simplest things you can do to really change up your look. Whether your base color hair is brown, red, black, or blonde, you’ll find a gorgeous look for you using different highlighting techniques such as foil highlights, partial and full highlights!
Before your next hair coloring appointment, check out our inspiring photos of this year’s most popular highlights hair color ideas for your hair.
#1: Trendsetting Ash Blonde Highlights
One of the many versatile looks a blonde can have is ash gray ombre highlights on lengthy waves! The gorgeous subtle highlights also create a dynamic look to your hair.
#2: Honey Blonde Accents on Chocolate Brown Hair
A sweet blend of honey and chocolate done on any hair type and length looks perfect on warm complexions. Place your light honey highlights at the mid-length to the bottom of your hair and add in some pretty huge waves to give depth and volume to your brown hair.
#3: Blonde Hair with Orange Highlights
Try switching up your blonde hair by adding in orange highlights. The combination of the colors is one of the best looks for a client with a spunky attitude. To really make the orange pop, ask your stylist for chunkier pieces versus blended pieces. To showcase this nontraditional color, wear your hair with lots of texture to give it a very grunge, undone look.
#4: Turquoise Green Partial Highlights
Blue-green highlights clearly show through the black curtain hair. Hair ideas like partial highlights like these make a nice upgrade to your current look.
#5: Blonde Highlights in Red Hair for Women Over 50
If you’re a woman over 50, blonde highlights added to your red hair are great if you want to add dimension to your warm-toned tresses. To get this hair color, ask your colorist for a deep red with soft golden babylights.
#6: Chunky Highlights for Older Women
Chunky highlights for older women are the perfect hair color service to blend out your grays, especially around your face. While normal highlights are also a great option to blend, adding more chunkiness around the face helps to blend the area while still maintaining a fresh highlight look. Also, chunky highlights are a great way to show off two specific hair hues.
#7: Streaks of Dark Royal Blue on Dark Hair
Streaks of rich blue added to your black hair are an interesting combination. The added curls really round up the whole look, too.
#8: Gorgeous Pastel Pink Highlights
Your medium to long hair looks amazing already, but why not make it more enchanting with a great amount of pastel pink highlights? These light pink soft waves are easier to upkeep if your roots are your natural hair color.
#9: Subtle Ashy Blonde Hue for Dark Brown Hair
This high-maintenance ultra-cool girl look is achievable by opting for dark brown hair with highlights. Choose the subtle ashy blonde accents if you want to be edgy and classy at the same time. Brown hair with blonde highlights looks best if you have a fair skin tone and blue, gray, or green eyes!
#10: Creative Peek-a-Boo Highlights
If you’re an adventurous lady and want to add a little creativity to your look, try blonde hair with rainbow peek-a-boo highlights! This combination matches perfectly with a sassy long-length cut.
#11: Multi-Dimensional Light Brown Highlights
Opt for a multi-dimensional highlighted lob. Keep your natural hair color while adding dimension to your straight hair with an ash brown highlight technique.
#12: Yellow Dip Dye Highlights
One of the biggest trends of this decade is the dip dye highlights, which amazingly add fun and edge to women who try it! Reveal your playful side with a subtle yellow dye while looking modern with grey hair.
#13: Stunning Highlighted Burgundy Red Hair
Highlights don’t always mean bright light colors. For this one, colorist Elisabeth made sure to showcase the deep wine streaks on black hair by using the full highlights technique.
#14: Yummy Strawberry Blonde Highlights
Try these awesome beach waves with a blunt end cut, colored with highlights of this sweet shade of strawberry blonde. Full-head highlights with such a chic hair hue works best if you’re a girl with a tan skin tone.
#15: Mature Grey Ombre Highlights
It’s a challenge to create an ombre with straight hair, but these melting highlights of a grey shade prove how it can be easily and beautifully done. A plus when your natural color is black as it blends in without effort when it grows out.
#16: Smooth Golden Blonde Highlights
These smooth golden blonde highlights are ideal if you have warm-colored hair. The added tone provides dimension and texture to your wavy long hair, especially when the light hits it.
#17: Sassy Sun-Kissed Blonde Ombre
These trendy and sassy highlights can absolutely do a lot for your hair. When done in a subtle warm blonde ombre, they can add the dimension and texture that you’re wanting.
#18: Dusty Rose Gold Highlighted Hair
Undeniably one of the most sought-after looks this season is this hair idea with dusty rose-colored highlights. This highlighted hair works perfectly on fair tones and a light brown eye color. Wear your brown hair color with jaw-length beach waves and end up feeling light and flirty and ready to turn heads wherever you go!
#19: Beautifully Blended Honey Blonde
A blend of honey blonde and chocolate works best on ladies with warm complexions. The added waves boost the color’s dimension while giving the hair depth and volume. Ask your stylist to add blonde highlights with a balayage. Balayage highlights give off the dimension of light against dark. It’s also a great option if you want something lower maintenance as it allows for a softer grow-out.
#20: Dimensional Hair with Highlights and Lowlights
Dimensional hair with highlights and lowlights offers a bright tone without the high upkeep. Such hair color ideas will suit many women, but it’s important to invest in your home care. Look after the condition of your hair and give your blonde the best look and feel. I suggest maintaining it with regular trims to keep your hair looking its best.
#21: Feminine Platinum Blonde Highlights
Go for a hair color that is a platinum blonde hue, as it’s not too white and still has a tint of beige. The maintenance is about 8 weeks alternating between partial and full. Products that should be used are Redken bonder protein mask for at least 4 weeks, then alternate to hydrating shampoo and mask. I recommend a hydrating leave-in that also has thermal protection and SPF Redken one United 25 benefits.
#22: Modern Dark to Ash Grey Ombre with Highlights
This silver/grey balayage ombré has a seamless blend from a dark root to a smokey silvery grey. You may need multiple sessions involved before you get this color. Be patient and aware that highlighting your hair may lift differently than others. Your hair has to lift to a pale yellow (the inside of a banana) in order to achieve this color.
Grey is a fashion color, so be sure to use color-safe shampoos and conditioners. Toning every so often may be needed to add grey tones back in once it fades over time. However, the Celeb Luxury Viral grey shampoo would be very useful for a color like this to keep its longevity without having to get it re-toned every time at the salon.
#23: Bold and Vibrant Purple Highlights
To get these purple teasy lights, your hair needs to already be in a pretty healthy state. I recommend a color shampoo at home such as Celeb Luxury’s Viral shampoo to keep your purple highlights vibrant. Also, use a color-protecting shampoo that’s moisturizing. It would be good to use a heat protectant when using heat and to get a strengthening/moisture treatment once every month or every two months.
#24: Sophisticated Platinum Highlights
Try full-head platinum highlights on a textured pixie with a longer side bang! It’s easy to style using a texture paste or spray wax or whatever you have at the time. Ask your stylist to smudge your root and pull down matching baby lowlights into your heavy highlighted summer bleach blonde hair. If you’re a very active woman and need easy-to-style hair that could go from day to night in just a few minutes, here’s a great option!
Related: See more pixie cuts with highlights.
#25: Subtle Ash Brown Hair Highlights
Seeing silver? Seeing black? Well, this ash brown color with highlights has both! A versatile color if you want to try something new but want to stay in your comfort zone.
#26: Caramel Streaks on Dark Brown Roots
Spice up your long wavy layers with some luscious honey and caramel highlights, so you can look sexy and flirty by just simply letting your lovely hair down! Balayage is really for the girl who doesn’t want the maintenance of standard highlights. It’s perfect for brunettes wanting to dip into the fabulous world of blonde, while still feeling like a brunette. Understand that every shade of brown is different and every skin tone is different. Bring some pics of looks that inspire you to your color appointment, but trust your colorist’s eye, and be flexible in your vision.
#27: Perfect Auburn Red Highlights
Give texture to your deep red lob by adding hair highlights and waves to it for a voluminous effect. This shade of auburn is ideal if you have a medium warm skin tone. It’s a vibrant, multi-dimensional red with violet undertones. I love to have multiple colors in a style. It makes your hair look thicker and reflects more light.
These red highlights follow the trend of vivid hair colors but are not out of the natural reds, just kicked up a little. To keep your current color, remember that not everyone can have pink hair. So the bold color will definitely help you stand out but in a gorgeous way.
#28: Effortless Cherry Red on Dark Brown Hair
This delicious blend of rose red and rich dark brown is ideal for any cut or style – wavy or straight, long or short. If you have a medium cool skin undertone, this will absolutely look perfect on you! This look can allow for up to four to six months grow out time, and you’ll never see the line of demarcation (where your roots grow in) like you will with highlights. If you like to have your roots done, you can still continue to do so with root touch-ups while your balayage continues to grow out!
#29: Chic Silver Strands
Silver highlights, without a doubt, create the new blonde color everyone wants these days. Don’t be afraid to blend it with your natural brown roots by adding some highlights for a smooth transition. Silver tones can be achieved on all women. It just requires patience and possibly several visits to the salon. The darker your hair, the longer it will take to get there. And it definitely requires maintenance. If you can’t get your hair touched up every 6-8 weeks, but you’re wanting to keep the silver tone, maybe this isn’t the look for you.
#30: Glossy Bronze Copper Highlights
Talking about seasonal highlighted hairstyles, here’s a combination of bronze and copper tones that are in right now! Luckily, having this glossy ginger hair happens to be a trendsetter.
Readers Also Ask
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A hair highlight that is best would be a shade that is a few levels lighter than your natural hair. It will give you more of a natural look. The grow-out will be less harsh than if you were much lighter than your natural color.
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Streaks are meant for a bolder look and highlights are for more of a natural look. If you’re looking for more of a contrast or dimension you may want to as your stylist for streaks. If you want to blend your color and want more of a natural look then highlights is the way to go!
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Highlights such as babylights, traditional highlights, face-framing highlights, and foilayage highlights are a few techniques that are in style. The technique would depend on the results you’re trying to achieve. Whether you want something subtle or more dramatic, consult with your stylist to see what would be best.
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Choose highlights that would compliment your skin tone. A warmer skin tone would suit warmer color tones and cooler skin tones would suit cooler color tones. There are only guidelines so choose what tone you love.
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Highlights can cause damage to your hair so it’s important to have your highlights done by a professional hairstylist. Being realistic about your lightening service and slowly lightening your hair can save your hair some damage. Taking care of your hair between services with treatments and professional products can help treat your hair as well.
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You shouldn’t highlight your hair for less than 8-10 weeks between your chemical services. Highlighting your hair too often can cause dryness and damage to your hair. Talk to your stylist about your goals and how to safely get your hair to when you want to be.
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There are several ways to highlight your hair at home naturally. One method of naturally lightening your hair is to mix two parts lemon juice and one part water in a spray bottle. Spray onto your hair and stay out in the sun to allow your hair to lighten. Wash and condition afterward.
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Not all highlights use bleach. If your hair is a level seven base color or lighter, you can use a hi-lift color to lighten your hair. For darker base colors it is harder to lift without bleach. Consult with your stylist about your hair goals to determine what is the best method.
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The difference between babylights and highlights is the weaving technique used when fouling. Highlights are used to create dimension in your hair. Babylights are thinner sections and have a finer weave pattern for more of a soft and subtle look.